Deni Sappe, the U16 World Championship MVP, joins the senior team after winning gold in Zagreb. In a conversation with his father Robert, he reveals what it was like training under his command and why, despite four gold medals, the season was 'awful'.
Croatian water polo experienced something truly special this summer. In just 37 days, it produced two generations of world champions. First, in early July, the U18 juniors won the world title in Portugal, and then their two-years-younger counterparts followed suit, clinching the gold medal on home turf in front of the Zagreb crowd.
Coach Sabioni's squad played a tournament to remember. Despite battling health issues before and during the competition, they showed character, quality, and unity when it mattered most. In the semifinals, they toppled Serbia with a dramatic last-gasp goal from Lokas, and the final was no less tense, entering the fourth quarter tied at 6:6.
Alongside the team gold, Croatia also took home two individual honors. Ante Domazet from Split's Jadran was named the final's MVP, while Deni Sappe of Zagreb's Mladost claimed the tournament's top player title.
After a sleepless night at the student dorm on the Sava River, where the celebrations were in full swing, we caught up with Deni in the car with his father Robert, a former water polo player and now coach, on their way to the family home in Stupnik. Robert, known in water polo circles as Campi, is one of the founders of VK AQUA and was Deni's coach for the first five years of his water polo journey.
The Sappe family has an unusual lineage. "Yes, we are true Zagreb locals, an old city family. But our roots trace back to the collapse of Napoleon's army. A Frenchman 'ran away,' didn't want to return to France, and fell in love with a girl from Šestine. He stayed here. The rest is history," Robert told Tportal.
Sport was a natural part of the Sappe household. Both Robert and his wife, Deni's mother, graduated from the Faculty of Kinesiology. She was a gymnast and national team member in her youth. However, unlike some other sports families, there was no pushing.
"We wanted to help the kids and guide them through basic sports. Not in the Vlašić or Kostelić way, mind you, but simply give them a solid athletic foundation," Robert explained.
Deni and his older brother Tin first tried gymnastics, then judo, before ending up in swimming due to Tin's allergy to indoor sports. "That was three years too early for Deni, but as the youngest, he, of course, followed his brother," Robert recalls. Deni ended up swimming for six seasons and started water polo in parallel after four. And there, fate awaited him-he landed in a generation coached by his own father.
What was it like training under your own father? We told Deni he could say whatever he wanted. "Well... it got on my nerves," he admits with a laugh. He explains that Robert is generally a strict coach, but he was even stricter with him and his brother. "I was constantly doing punishments. Five years, every day, at least 100 push-ups."
Dad immediately chimed in: "A hundred extra push-ups!" But Deni admits that discipline also toughened him up. "Yeah, definitely," he says. Robert, meanwhile, points out that Deni, as the youngest, always had to catch up to the older kids. "His competitiveness was born with him," the father concludes.
Despite grueling training, travel, and national team commitments, Deni doesn't neglect his education. "I finished the second year of the Hotel and Tourism School in Zagreb, sports program. I'm doing well, I passed with a B," he says, adding that he's also working on languages: "German is going well, English is going well, but I still need to improve my Spanish."
When we asked if that means we'll see him in Spain one day, he replied briefly: "I hope so."
Behind this 16-year-old is a season that would exhaust even more experienced players. "It's been really tough. I was in Portugal, got sick there, and before that, we had a month of preparations. Because of the U18 national team, I wasn't home for a month. I came back, had three days of training, then played in the junior cup, which we won. Then I immediately went to U16 preparations, which also lasted a month, and then we won this too," Deni recounts.
His father, somewhat paradoxically, calls that season "awful." The reason is the beginning. The medical team of the Croatian Water Polo Federation assessed that Deni needed surgery for a hernia, followed by about two months of recovery. "I kept saying his season was awful, and he won one silver and four golds," Robert says. Deni just laughed at that: "Oh, Dad..."
Robert is satisfied nonetheless. "Well, it started badly with the surgery, and it ended the best way possible," he concluded.
We asked Deni if all this means no summer vacation, going out, or having fun with peers. "Unfortunately," he replied briefly. But Robert reveals that his son doesn't even crave that. "He's a completely different kind of kid. I tell him: 'We have a few days off, want to go somewhere?' And he says: 'Dad, can we just stay home?'"
The family home in Stupnik has been turned into a place where you practically don't need to leave. "We have two dogs, a pool, a ping-pong table, a small gym on the terrace... We've adapted everything so we can really just stay home," Robert says. When asked about girls, Dad diplomatically hands the floor to his son: "I'll leave that to him."
The gold celebration was, predictably, wild. "We partied late into the night, all together, dancing and listening to music. We also went to the Mladost pool; everything was organized, and our parents were with us. Then we went to sleep and everyone woke up after ten," Deni describes.
We ended the conversation with a look at the new water polo rules and the shorter field. "I think the new rules are better. There are a lot more counterattacks, less swimming, you save more energy, and everything moves faster," Deni is clear. Robert agrees and adds: "A lot of people complained and there was plenty of grumbling about the changes, but I didn't see a problem. I was an attacker, and as a coach, I'm extremely attack-oriented. It turned out we gained in attractiveness. There are more sprints, more transitions, and it demands even more swimming-ready players. I think the quality bar has actually been raised."
And after all that, a few days of rest follow. With the pool, the dogs, and the family. And a plate of pasta. "I love carbonara or bolognese the most. I watch what I eat, but I really love pasta," Deni admits. Then it all starts over-preparations, Mladost's senior team, and new challenges.
