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Aleksandar Atanasijevic about to serve during VNL 2021

Igor Kolakovic, the new head coach of the Serbian men’s national team, announced a roster of 37 players he will rely on during the upcoming season, which includes participation in the 2022 FIVB Volleyball Nations League and the 2022 FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Championship.

Serbia finished sixth in last year’s VNL, but they did not play at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. In their most recent official competition, the Serbs reached the semifinals of the CEV European Championship.

Despite the change of head coaches, there seems to be a good continuity between their selections. 15 of the 16 players for VNL 2021 and 12 of the 14 athletes for EuroVolley 2021 on Slobodan Kovac’s rosters are now present in Igor Kolakovic’s new list. All core members of the stellar Serbian squad, including setter Nikola Jovovic, opposites Aleksandar Atanasijevic and Drazen Luburic, outside hitters Uros Kovacevic, Marko Ivovic and Nemanja Petric, and middle blockers Marko Podrascanin and Srecko Lisinac, were called to national team duty by Kolakovic.

During the first week of the VNL, from June 7 through 12, Serbia will play in the Canadian capital Ottawa. Two weeks later, from June 21 through 26, they will participate in the tournament held in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. In week three, from July 5 through 10, Kolakovic’s team will compete in the Gdansk pool in Poland.

Serbia men’s national team full roster:

Setters: Aleksa Batak, Andrej Polomac, Andrija Vilimanovic, Andrija Vulikic, Maksim Buculjevic, Nikola Jovovic, Vuk Todorovic

Opposites: Aleksandar Atanasijevic, Bozidar Vucicevic, Drazen Luburic, Dusan Nikolic, Milan Zecevic, Nikola Meljanac

Outside hitters: Davide Kovac, Lazar Najandic, Lazar Marinovic, Luka Tadic, Marko Ivovic, Milan Katic, Miran Kujundzic, Nemanja Petric, Pavle Peric, Stefan Skakic, Uros Kovacevic

Middle blockers: Aleksandar Bosnjak, Aleksandar Nedeljkovic, Andrej Rudic, Marko Podrascanin, Nemanja Masulovic, Petar Krsmanovic, Srecko Lisinac, Stevan Simic, Uros Nikolic

Liberos: Lazar Koprivica, Miljan Milovic, Nikola Pekovic, Stefan Negic