We also remember Manchester and Malaga, thank you for the first sporting joy

Those were the days after the restoration of independence, full of uncertainty, a journey into the unknown... And, as the first selector - from the unknown - he led the water polo team of Montenegro to the throne, to the top of Europe, to a story that will remain for all time. .

The legendary coach Petar Porobić died today at the age of 67, but his legacy in Montenegrin water polo and sports remains huge, something that the next generations should grow up with...

The gentleman from Kotor already had a lot of experience when he set out to create a European champion after 2006 - he was in the professional staff of the great Yugoslav coaches Ratko Rudić and Nenad Manojlović, and he independently led the former country to the world gold in 2005.

And then he swam into the unknown with Montenegro... As a new country, Montenegro had to start practically from scratch.

"At that moment, we didn't even know if we would have the opportunity to enter the qualification process for the European Championship in Malaga and the Olympic Games in Beijing. We were in complete uncertainty for three months," said Porobić in the years after Malaga.

However, news soon arrived that Montenegro was starting its story - the truth from the bottom, from the qualifications for the European Championship in Division B, with selections of much more modest quality.

This was followed by the EP of the lower division in Manchester, which in a way - although far from the quality of the A championship - will remain equally memorable, because it was in the English city of football that the history of Montenegrin water polo began to be written.

"I would say that this whole trip was decisive in Malaga, it homogenized the team," said Porobić.

Porobić knew that he had created a powerful selection already after the first round of the European Championship in Andalusia, when his boys defeated the host Spain. Until the end, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia (by whom they were defeated in the group) fell before the "sharks" and finally, on July 13, 2008, in the grand final, Serbia.

"We showed that we are part of water polo history - we surprised even ourselves. We appeared and in just one year became the best in Europe," Porobić said after an unforgettable night in the south of Spain.

After Malaga, Porobić led Montenegro until 2011, and then as an adviser to the then young Vladimir Gojković, he returned to the coaching staff before the European Championship in Belgrade in 2016. The former player and coach from 2008 almost conquered the continent once again in the capital of Serbia - in the final in front of a packed Belgrade Arena, the "Sharks" were defeated by the hosts.

After that, he worked outside Montenegro, and he planned to return to his native Kotor, Montenegro and Primorac this fall.

Unfortunately, it will not come to that, but his story should be something that will guide everyone who works in Montenegrin water polo in the future...

Montenegro will remember both Manchester and Malaga and the first sporting joy when it was still strange to only see "Montenegro" in sports broadcasts.

They will remember everything that the great Petar Porobić brought to his country, his memory will last forever.