Aleksandar Šapić
| Aleksandar Šapić | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
1 June 1978 Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia |
| Nationality | Serbian |
| Occupation | Politician, Athlete |
| Height | 1.9 m (6 ft 3 in) |
| Office | President of New Belgrade municipality |
| Political party |
Democratic Party (2006–2014) Independent (2014–2018) Serbian Patriotic Alliance (2018–present) |
| Spouse(s) | Milica |
| Children | Maksim, Fedor |
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Aleksandar Šapić (Serbian Cyrillic: Александар Шапић; born 1 June 1978) is a Serbian politician and former professional water polo player. Since 2012, he has served as the president of the New Belgrade municipality.
During his professional water polo career, he played for two Olympic bronze medal squads, one for FR Yugoslavia at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, the other for Serbia at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and one Olympic silver medal squad for Serbia and Montenegro at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Education
He graduated from the Megatrend University Faculty for Management in 2003, received his master's degree in 2009 and defended his PhD dissertation in 2012, in the field if industrial management.[1]
Political career
He was assistant of the Mayor from 2009 to 2012. He was elected the president of New Belgrade municipality in 2012 and he was reelected in 2016. He is still the president of the biggest municipality in Belgrade.[2] He ran in the Belgrade Assembly elections in 2018, as a mayoral candidate. He stated his list will run without collaboration with political parties, and that he will participate in city government only as a mayor.[3] His list took a third place with 9,09% (12 seats in the assembly).
Water polo career
He started playing water polo in 1984, in WC Crvena Zvezda where he played for all young categories teams. He transferred to WC Partizan in 1991, not yet fourteen he made his senior debut in 1992. He returned to WC Crvena Zvezda in 1993 and he continued his career in WC Bečej starting 1994]]. In 2001 he left to Italy, WC Camogli, where he spent three seasons and after that he transferred to WC Rari Nantes Savona. He left Italy in 2006 when he went to Russian waterpolo club Shturm 2002 where he signed contract that made him the best paid player in water polo history.[4]
During his brilliant club career he won 21 trophies of which 9 National Championship (6 he won in SRY, 2 in Russia and 1 in Italy). He also won National Cups 9 times (7 National Cups of SRY and 2 National Cups of Russia). He once won LEN Euroleague and twice LEN CUP.[5]
In the period 1996–2009 he was the leagues's top scorer fourteen times in a row, 6 times in SRY, 5 times in Italy and 3 times in Russia. During his club career he scored 1.694 goals, most of the number 924 he scored for clubs in SRY, in Italian league he scored 494 times and in Russia 276 times.[6]
He finished his professional water polo career in 2009.
Club titles (21)
- 9 National Championships – 6 SRY, 2 Russia, 1 Italy
- 9 National Cups- 7 SRY, 2 Russia
- 2 LEN Cups
- 1 LEN Euroleague
14 consecutive top-scorer titles 1996–2009
- 6 times in SRY league
- 5 times in Italian league
- 3 times in Russian league
Number of scored goals
- SRY (Crvena zvezda, Becej) – 924
- Italy (Camogli, Rari Nantes Savona) – 494
- Russia (Shturm 2002) – 276
National team career
Šapić made his debut for the national team of Yugoslavia in December 1995 when he was only seventeen, and played for them until 2008. At the very start of his national team career, Yugoslavia won two European U19 championships – 1995 in Esslingen and 1996 in Istanbul – and Šapić was best player and top scorer in both.
He took part in his first major competition at the age of eighteen, the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. He would play for the national team in the Olympic Games four times and he went on to win three Olympic medals, bronze when representing Yugoslavia at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, silver for Serbia and Montenegro at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, and another bronze medal when playing for Serbia at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.[7]
With the national team of Yugoslavia, later Serbia and Montenegro, and finally Serbia, he played in 22 sports tournaments overall, winning a total of 20 medals, five of which were from the European Championships, four from the World Championships and three from the Olympic Games. He won two medals in the World Cup, five in World League tournaments, and he won a gold medal in the 1997 Mediterranean Games in Bari.
Šapić scored 981 goals in 385 games that he played for the national team. He was twice top scorer in the Olympic Games, and four times top scorer of both the World Championship and the European Championship. He was also four times top scorer of the World League tournaments and he won the title of top scorer twice in the World Cup.
During his national team career, the team were named "ideal team" eight times in the tournaments that he played in, three times in both the World and European Championships, and twice in the Olympic Games.
World Championship
- 1998 – bronze medal – top scorer – ideal team
- 2001 – silver medal – top scorer – ideal team
- 2003 – bronze medal – top scorer
- 2005 – gold medal – MVP and top scorer – ideal team
- 2007 – 4th place
European Championship
- 1997 – silver medal
- 2001 – gold medal – top scorer – ideal team
- 2003 – gold medal – MVP – ideal team
- 2006 – gold medal – top scorer – ideal team
- 2008 – silver medal – top scorer
Olympic Games
- 1996 – 8th place
- 2000 – bronze medal – top scorer – ideal team
- 2004 – silver medal – top scorer – ideal team
- 2008 – bronze medal
World League
- 2004 – silver medal – top scorer
- 2005 – gold medal – top scorer
- 2006 – gold medal
- 2007 – gold medal – top scorer
- 2008 – gold medal – top scorer
World Cup
- 2002 – bronze medal – top scorer
- 2006 – gold medal – top scorer
Mediterranean Games
- 1997 – gold medal
Number of scored goals
- National team (SRY, SMne, Serbia) – 981[8]
- Number of goals scored in career – 2675
Top scorer
- 2 times top scorer Olympic Games
- 4 times top scorer European Championship
- 4 times top scorer World League
- 2 times top scorer World Cup
Ideal team
- 8 times chosen in ideal team (OG, WC, EC)
Sports organizations
Besides his full of trophies water polo career, he gave his contribution to Serbian sport through engagement in sports organizations. He was the president of waterpolo club Crvena zvezda from 2003 to 2004.
After finishing his career as player in Italian club Rari Nantes Savona for the club he continued working as sports manager for European competitions in the period 2006–2014.
Personal life
He is married, father of two sons. He lives and works in Belgrade. He speaks Russian, Italian and English.
Charity work
He is founder of a humanitarian foundation –Be Humane that is founded on 9 April 2014. Be Humane raises funds in order to help children, adults, institutions and organizations from Serbia. Be Humane in a very short time became one of the most relevant and most trusted humanitarian foundations in the region and its aim is to help curing and ensuring needed therapy for children at first place.[9]
Since it was founded until today, with help of Be Humane more than 1 million of euros was raised. Thanks to that great number of users help was supplied with therapy and send to proper medical treatment. In February 2016 Aleksandar Šapić donated all the medals he won in his water polo career and they are being sold in auction, money raised in this humane action will be donated for curing and therapies of Be Humane users.[10]
He received numerous awards for community service and humanitarian work. With those awards many institutions in Serbia showed respect and gratitude to him for everything he did in the field of humanitarian work as active sportsman and he continued doing, even in more intense and responsible way, after he is retired from water polo.
Interesting facts
In the movie When I Grow Up, I'll Be a Kangaroo he had the role of Gangula, he is remembered for it even today. He was lucky to have a role in the movie that marked Serbian cinematography and even though it was filmed in 2004 it is still very popular.[11]
He took part in the humanitarian TV programme Ples sa zvezdama, a Serbian version of Dancing with the Stars.
References
- ↑ "Aleksandar Šapić". Istinomer. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
- ↑ "Predsednik opštine". Gradska opština Novi Beograd. Retrieved 2 June 2017. (in Serbian)
- ↑ "Šapić: Na izbore idem samostalno (in Serbian)".
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 15 April 2006. Retrieved 11 April 2006.
- ↑ http://arhiva.kurir-info.rs/Arhiva/2005/april/23-24/SP-01-23042005.shtml
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 4 September 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
- ↑ "Aleksandar Šapić". Sports reference. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
- ↑ Šapić kandidat za igrača decenije; B92, 25 January 2010.
- ↑ "Oficial cite". Humanitarian Foundation "Budi human – Aleksandar Šapić". Retrieved 2 June 2017.
- ↑ "Aleksandar Šapić igra da drugi pobijede". Aljazzera Balkans. Retrieved 2 June 2017. (in Serbian)
- ↑ "Aleksandar Sapic". IMDb. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aleksandar Šapić. |
- Serbian Olympic Committee (in Serbian) (in English)
- VATERPOLO: Šapić "osušio" kapicu, MTS Mondo, 12 May 2009.
- Aleksandar Šapić on Twitter
