Head coach of the Serbian men's national team Gheorghe Crețu announced the extended list of 30 volleyball players for the team's participation in the Nations League 2026. It is against our western neighbors that Bulgaria will play its last match of the first VNL tournament in Brazil.
The match between Bulgaria and Serbia is scheduled for June 14 in Brasília, and will close the program for both teams from the first week of the competition.
The Serbs will begin their participation in Brazil with a match against Argentina on June 10, after which they will face Belgium and hosts Brazil, before the clash with the 'Lions'.
Gheorghe Crețu relies on experience and young names.
The extended squad includes the names of experienced Marko Ivović, Nikola Jovović, and Dražen Luburić, but the presence of a number of young players who will gradually be integrated into the representative team also makes an impression.
Among the setters are Nikola Jovović, Vuk Todorović, Aleksa Batak, Andrej Polomac, and Danilo Veselić.
For the opposite hitter position, Crețu has chosen Dražen Luburić, Dušan Nikolić, Veljko Mašulović, Aleksandar Šoša, and Petar Premović.
The liberos on the list are Vukašin Ristić, Stefan Negić, Lazar Jeremić, and Dušan Jovi.
For the middle blocker position, the coach relies on Aleksandar Nedeljković, Nemanja Mašulović, Aleksandar Stefanović, Stefan Kokeza, Andrej Rudić, Vladimir Gajović, Aleksa Polomac, and Dušan Petrović.
The outside hitters in the extended squad are Marko Ivović, Miran Kujundžić, Pavle Perić, Nikola Brborić, Vuk Kulpinac, Lazar Marinović, Žarko Ubriparip, and Danilo Ilić.
Serbia will play in Belgrade in the third week.
After the tournament in Brazil, the Serbs will continue their participation in VNL 2026 with the second week in Orléans (France), where they will face Japan, Cuba, France, and the USA.
The third tournament will be in the Belgrade Arena, where the hosts will play against Turkey, Ukraine, Germany, and Slovenia.
Interestingly, during the intercontinental phase, Serbia will not face Italy, Poland, Iran, Canada, and China.
The Finals will be in China.
The final tournament of the Nations League 2026 will take place from July 29 to August 2 in Ningbo (China). Besides host China, the top seven teams in the overall standings after the end of the intercontinental phase will also participate.
Photo: Nikolay Varadinov.
