Aleksandar Šapić
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| Medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Aleksandar Šapić |
|||
| Men's Water Polo | |||
Competitor for  Yugoslavia /  Serbia and Montenegro |
|||
| Olympic Games | |||
| Bronze | 2000 Sydney | Team Competition | |
| Silver | 2004 Athens | Team Competition | |
| World Championship | |||
| Silver | 2001 Fukuoka | Team Competition | |
| Bronze | 2003 Barcelona | Team Competition | |
| Gold | 2005 Montreal | Team Competition | |
| FINA World Cup | |||
| Gold | 2006 Budapest | Team Competition | |
| Bronze | 2002 Belgrade | Team Competition | |
| FINA World League | |||
| Gold | 2007 Berlin | Team Competition | |
| European Championship | |||
| Gold | 2001 Budapest | Team Competition | |
| Gold | 2003 Kranj | Team Competition | |
| Gold | 2006 Belgrade | Team Competition | |
Aleksandar Šapić (born on June 1, 1978 in Belgrade) is a water polo player from Serbia. At 1.91m and 105kg, he's considered by many to be the best offensive player in the world.
As an instrumental part of Serbia-Montenegro national team Šapić won gold at the World Aquatic Championships in Montreal. At the last two Olympic Games, he collected a silver medal in Athens 2004, along with a bronze from Sydney 2000.
After going through all the age groups at Red Star Belgrade, Šapić transferred to FK Partizan in December 1991 after his previous club's pool in New Belgrade was closed down. In his first year at Partizan he made his senior debut at only 13 years of age.
After year and a half in black-and-white part of Belgrade, he went back to Crvena zvezda for the 1993/94 season as an established national team player.
Next seven seasons Sapic spent in VK Bečej where he won six Yugoslav league titles and six Yugoslav Cups. He also led the team to the 1999/00 European Champions League title, scoring 5 goals in the final versus Zagreb's VK Mladost. He was also that year's Champions League best scorer with 39 goals on the season.[1]
After Bečej got dissolved due to financial difficulties, Šapić moved to Italian league in late summer 2001 and spent three seasons with Camogli.
At the 2003 European Championships in Kranj, Slovenia, Sapic turned in another star performance, scoring Serbia-Montenegro's winning goal in the final versus Croatia. He also scored the most goals at the championships.
In the summer of 2004 Sapic swithced teams again, going this time to Savona.
In addition to his considerable playing abilities Šapić is a fiery character:
At the 2003 World Championships, he and Dejan Savić were both banned by FINA for incidents following the semifinal clash with Italy. Šapić received a nine-month ban and Savić six months. He was the top scorer in the European Champions League in 2000 and 2003, and was the leading goal scorer in the 2000 Olympic Games with 18 goals.
In late April 2005, during LEN Cup final second leg match between Šapić's current club Savona and one of is former teams, VK Partizan, he got into an altrecation with the visiting fans. He reacted to their taunts and verbal abuse as he exited the pool after the match.[2] He also led his club to the Italian league title that season.
In 2005/06 Šapić was already one of top five paid players in the sport when towards the end of the season Russian waterpolo club Sturm offered him $300,000 per season (huge sum of money in waterpolo terms), which would make him the single best paid player in the world.[3]
At the end of 2005/06 season, powerhouse Savona featuring Sapic, Tamas Kasas, Bogdan Rath, and Viktor Jelenić made it to LEN Champions League final four in Dubrovnik but lost 8-9 in a tense semi-final to host VK Jug.
On May 24, 2006, he signed a contract with Sturm. The terms were not disclosed but it is widely believed to be the highest in waterpolo history.[4]
As of the end of 2005/06, Šapić is the holder of another significant record. From 1995 on (11 straight seasons and counting), Šapić was always the league's top scorer in whichever team or league he was playing.
At the European Championships 2006 held in Belgrade, Serbia, Šapić won gold with Serbian national team.
[edit] Other endevours
- Šapić had a memorable role as local neighbourhood bully "Gangula" in the popular 2004 movie Kad porastem bicu kengur.
- In January 2006 he joined the Democratic Party (DS).
