Slobodan Soro

Soro playing for Brazil at the 2016 Olympics
Personal information
Born	23 December 1978 (1978-12-23) (age 45) Novi Sad, SR Serbia, Yugoslavia
Height	1.98 m (6 ft 6 in)[1]
Weight	100 kg (220 lb)
Sport
Sport	Water polo
Club	Natació Sabadell (2006–08) VK Partizan (2008–15) Botafogo[2]
Coached by	Ângelo Coelho[2]
Medal record Representing  Serbia Olympic Games 2008 Beijing Team 2012 London Team World Championship 2009 Rome Team 2011 Shanghai Team European Championship 2006 Belgrade Team 2012 Eindhoven Team 2008 Málaga Team 2010 Zagreb Team FINA World League 2006 Athens Team 2007 Berlin Team 2008 Genova Team 2010 Niš Team 2011 Firenze Team 2009 Podgorica Team World Cup 2010 Oradea Team Mediterranean Games 2009 Pescara Team Representing  Brazil Pan American Games 2019 Lima Team

Slobodan Soro (Serbian Cyrillic: Слободан Соро; born 23 December 1978) is a Serbian-born Brazilian water polo goalkeeper.

As a member of the Serbia men's national water polo team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics, he won the bronze medal in both of those Olympics.^[1] With Serbia he won the 2012 Men's European Water Polo Championship. It was his second gold medal in the competition. In 2011 he won the National Championship and National Cup of Serbia, LEN Euroleague, LEN Supercup and Eurointer League with Partizan Raiffeisen.

In 2015 he became a Brazilian naturalized citizen and was a member of the Brazil national team that competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics.^[3][4] He was the top goalkeeper at the 2016 Olympics, with 81 saves.^[5]

Club career

Slobodan Soro played for numerus clubs, including VK Vojvodina, VK Beograd, VK Bečej, VK Dinamo, PVK Jadran, VK Partizan, Rari Nantes Savona, CN Sabadell, CR Flamengo, Shturm 2002, Botafogo and now S.S. Lazio.

VK Partizan

In July 2010, the goalkeeper of VK Partizan and Serbian national team, signed a new two-year contract with Serbian champions. Partizan had financial problems, so that at one time Soro's stay at the club was questioned, but in the end it was all denied by him signing a new contract.

National career

2012 Samartzidis Cup

From 9 to 11 January 2012. Soro competed with his national team on the Greek island of Chios in the Samaridis Cup which was more a like preparation tournament for the upcoming 2012 European Championship held in Eindhoven. He and his team-mates finished second behind the Montenegrins on goal difference. However, Soro was named as the best goalkeeper of the tournament.^[6]

2012 Eindhoven

On 16 January, at the European Championship Soro had a brilliant game making 14 saves in the first game in an 8–5 win against Spain. On 29 January, Soro won the European Championship with his national team beating in the final Montenegro by 9–8.^[7] Unlike in the semifinal game against Italy were Soro was substituted by Branislav Mitrović because of the poor play, he absolutely dominated on the goal of Serbia in the final match. This was his second gold and overall fourth European medal.

Honours

Club

VK Bečej

• National Championship of Yugoslavia (1): 1999–2000
• National Cup of Yugoslavia (1): 1999–2000
• LEN Euroleague (1): 1999–2000

VK Partizan

• National Championship of Serbia (3): 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11
• National Cup of Serbia (4): 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12
• LEN Euroleague (1): 2010–11
• LEN Supercup (1): 2011
• LEN Cup (1): 1997–98
• Eurointer League (2): 2010, 2011

Botafogo

• National Championship of Brazil (1): 2015
• Rio de Janeiro State Championship (1): 2016
• South America Championship (1): 2017

Individual

• FINA World Cup Best Goalkeeper (1): 2010 Oreada
• FINA World League Best Goalkeeper (1): 2011 Firenze
• Samaridis Cup Best Goalkeeper (1): 2012 Chios
• Serbia's sport association "May Award" : 2012

See also

• Serbia men's Olympic water polo team records and statistics
• Brazil men's Olympic water polo team records and statistics
• List of Olympic medalists in water polo (men)
• List of men's Olympic water polo tournament goalkeepers
• List of world champions in men's water polo
• List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in water polo

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Slobodan Soro.

• Slobodan Soro at World Aquatics
• Slobodan Soro at Olympics.com
• Slobodan Soro at Olympedia
• Slobodan Soro at the Brazilian Olympic Committee (in Portuguese)
• Slobodan Soro at the Olympic Committee of Serbia (in Serbian)