It is certain that sports are in for big changes after the coronavirus, and one water polo club practically ceased to exist in the midst of the pandemic.
OSC, a club from Budapest, whose members are Montenegrin national team members Draško Brguljan and Aleksa Ukropina, was left without its main sponsor after the withdrawal of the bridge construction company - A-Hid Zrt. This also means that it has no possibility to survive...
It was a shock, because OSC as a stable team (Andrija Prlainović, Branislav Mitrović, Nemanja Ubović, Sava Ranđelović, Kristijan Manherc...) this season was a candidate for trophies domestically, but also in the Champions League. Now it is clear that nothing will come of it.
- There were no indications that something like this could happen. At the beginning of March, I left the club and joined the national team in preparation for the qualification tournament for the Olympic Games. At that time, it functioned normally, without any problems, that's why no one could guess what was going on - Ukropina told "Vijesti".
There is even speculation that the OSC is a political victim of the regime of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán...
- The players were not informed in detail about the termination of cooperation between the club and the sponsor, but according to the information received, the coronavirus was not the cause. At least not directly - points out Ukropina.
The Hungarian team was the leader in Group B in the Champions League with a score of seven wins, one draw and two losses. After the victory over Pro Reka in Italy at the end of February, it became one of the favorites for the trophy among the European elite.
- We are all sorry that this season cannot come to an end in the right way. We were playing well, winning, but force majeure disrupted us - first the break due to the coronavirus, now this. The news about the closure of the club caught us a few days ago, but since we are all more or less out of Hungary and without club obligations, this situation probably fell easier on us than if we were all together - says the former Jadran water polo player.
Competitions under the auspices of the leading European and world federations have been postponed, at the representative level it is known that there will be no Olympic Games in Tokyo this year, but it has not yet been announced when the qualifications for going to the OI will be played. And what will happen to the national championships?
- I believe that the season will continue in most leagues, probably in Hungary as well. Federations should now use the opportunity to organize the continuation of the competition as best as possible, because water polo as a summer sport can attract a lot of attention - says Ukropina, who seems to have finished the season:
- OSC as a club does not continue with further competitions. If he does that, certainly not in the team he was in until now, because the cooperation between the club and the player has been completely interrupted. We are free players, none of us have any obligations to the club - concluded the 21-year-old water polo player, who has been in OSC since the summer of 2018.
I will impose myself on the coach, but it won't be easy after the EP
Aleksa Ukropina made his debut for the Montenegrin national team at major competitions back in 2015, at the World Championship in Kazan. It was less than two months before he celebrated his 17th birthday.
Later, he became a regular participant in the biggest tournaments, and he missed the last one - the European Championship in Budapest - due to poor form.
- There were no problems with Ukropin. Maybe the fact that he doesn't play in the club left a mark. He is one of our players who plays in the best clubs and has potential, but at this moment he did not satisfy - said the coach Vladimir Gojković during the preparations.
The "Sharks" later won bronze at the EP.
- It will certainly be more difficult to break into the team after the success in Budapest, but I believe that I have the quality that, with great effort, can lead me to the national team. The next big competition is only in the summer of 2021 and a lot can happen in those 15, 16 months - said Ukropina.
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