Slovenian men’s senior national team head coach Slobodan Kovač has whittled his roster down to 16. The team, which just finished a weekend friendly double-header against Iran, is gathered in Ljubjana and making final preparations for the European qualifying tournament for the 2018 World Championships. That event begins on May 24th.
Matija Jereb, Aleš Kök, Diko Purić and Matic Videčnik were the latest players dropped from the squad. 14 are currently in camp, and with the return of captain Tine Urnaut and Klemen Čebulj, they’re back to 16.
14 of the 16 players were on last year’s World League squad, which had many more players (21) under then-coach Andrea Giani. The country currently has 18 players listed on its 2017 World league roster, with Jereb and Videcnik back on that squad.
The two newcomers for this summer are Jan Kozamernik, who was on the team’s gold-medal winning squad in the 2015 European League; and a second libero Urban Toman.
Slovenia’s men’s team is currently ranked 30th in the world after having finished 25th in last year’s World League. Slovenia will play as the hosts in Pool C of the preliminary stages of the tournament, and will begin their tournament against Georgia. Also in the pool are Belgium, Portugal, Latvia, and Israel.
- Tine Urnaut (C)
- Tonček Štern
- Alen Pajenk
- Žiga Štern
- Jan Kozamernik
- Alen Šket
- Mitja Gasparini
- Matej Kök
- Dejan Vinčić
- Sašo Štalekar
- Danijel Koncilja
- Jan Klobučar
- Jani Kovačič (L)
- Urban Toman (L)
- Gregor Ropret
- Klemen Čebulj
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