Serbia start new era with Cretu and without veterans

Serbia men’s national team officially started a new era with the first callup made by head coach Gheorghe Cretu, who selected 28 players to form the roster for the upcoming 2025 international season.

Set to appear at both the Volleyball Nations League and the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship in 2025, the Serbians are currently in tenth place in the FIVB World Rankings.

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As expected, Cretu’s list didn’t include opposite Aleksandar Atanasijević, outside hitter Uroš Kovačević and middle blocker Marko Podraščanin, who were pillars of the team in the last decade and announced the end of their international careersfollowing last year’s Paris Olympics. Besides them, middle blocker Petar Krsmanović and libero Milorad Kapur also don’t appear in the selection, which features eight returning players from last year’s Games.

With that, Cretu should rely on the core formed by setter Nikola Jovović, opposite Dražen Luburić and outside hitters Marko Ivović and Pavle Perić at the start of his work with the Serbians - training will begin on May 5.

As part of the squad’s revamp, Cretu also brought in some intriguing new faces in Serbian volleyball, most notably 19-year-old setter Danilo Veselić and 18-year-old outside hitters Nikola Brborić and Vuk Kulpinac.

First week of the VNL in China

The Serbians will make the trip to China to compete in the first week of the VNL, from June 11-15 – they will face Türkiye, the home team, Japan and Poland in the city of Xi’an.

From September 12-18, the Europeans will compete at the World Championship, in the Philippines, where they will have Brazil, Czechia and China as their opponents in Pool H.

Serbia men’s national team roster (subject to eligibility check to be conducted by the FIVB):

Setters: Aleksa Batak, Danilo Veselić, Matija Milanović, Nikola Jovović, Vuk Todorović
Opposites: Dražen Luburić, Dušan Nikolić, Luka Stanković
Outside hitters: Aleksa Mandić, Ignjat Dopuđ, Marko Ivović, Miran Kujundžić, Nikola Brborić, Pavle Perić, Veljko Mašulović, Vuk Kulpinac
Middle blockers: Aleksandar Nedeljković, Aleksandar Stefanović, Andrej Rudić, Dušan Petrović, Nemanja Mašulović, Nemanja Antunović, Stefan Kokeza, Vladimir Gajović
Liberos: Lazar Jeremić, Stefan Negić, Uroš Mišković, Vukašin Ristić

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2025 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship
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