Zoran Bajić Takes Over Novi Beograd
The head coach of the Croatian national water polo team and two-time European champion with youth categories has signed a two-year contract with VK Novi Beograd, as confirmed by Kurir.rs.
The head coach of the Croatian national water polo team and two-time European champion with youth categories has signed a two-year contract with VK Novi Beograd, as confirmed by Kurir.rs.
Water polo club Novi Beograd has appointed Zoran Bajić as its new head coach, announced on Wednesday, August 19, 2026. Bajić, the current head coach of the Croatian national water polo team, will replace the previous solution on the bench after a turbulent last season in which two coaches came and went.
A key role in bringing him in was played by sports director Aleksandar Šoštar and club founder Aleksandar Šapić. Bajić described to Večernji list how the contact came about: "Aleksandar Šoštar, the sports director of Novi Beograd and once the best goalkeeper in the world, recognized me. He consulted with Aleksandar Šapić, the club's founder and formerly the best water polo player in the world. They invited me to be their guest, to get to know each other better and possibly find common ground."
The agreement was reached for two years, and Bajić emphasizes that these are the best conditions he has received in a career spanning three decades. "My wish is to leave a mark, both human and professional," he added.
Bajić was born in 1961 in Zagreb. He joined the coaching staff of Mladost in 2015 and took over as head coach in October 2017. In the following years, he brought the Zagreb club back to the top of regional and European water polo.
As the head coach of Croatian youth teams, he won gold with the U20 national team this year, and he did the same with the under-19 players two years ago. He also finished third with Croatia at the World Youth Championships.
Croatian media remind that VK Novi Beograd often changes coaches. Just last year, two coaches came and went, Petar Radanović and Miodrag Mirović, and for a short time, the team was also led by Šapić himself, who is also the mayor of Belgrade.
Bajić is not worried by such stories. "I am not afraid of challenges, and I am not interested in various stories, like the one that Šapić is a person who 'eats' coaches. As a child of Zagreb's streets, my only fears were related to raising my own family, whether I would be there for them in difficult times. I have no other fears," he said.
He spoke of Šapić in superlatives: "I haven't seen a person with so much energy in a long time. During the day, he did the job of mayor, and in the evening, he looked at training sessions as if he had no other obligations that day."
Bajić spent most of his playing career as a goalkeeper for Mladost from Zagreb. He spent 26 years in Switzerland, where he worked as a coach, before returning to Croatia in 2015. Since then, he has worked with youth categories and achieved success.
He does not talk about his origins to the media, but he gladly emphasizes his local identity, often describing himself as a born Zagreb native and "a child of Zagreb's asphalt."
