Vujevic: World Championships will mark the end of an era
07/31/2006
Tokyo, July 26, 2006: First Yugoslavia, now Serbia and Montenegro...but what next for Goran Vujevic?
Born in Budva, Montenegro, the 33-year-old veteran has the choice of staying with Serbia or starting over with Montenegro when the two volleyball associations go their separate ways after the FIVB World Championships in Japan.
At the moment he's undecided about his future, but has indicated the 2006 Worlds will be his last appearance on the international stage.
"I will be 34 next year, and Montenegro must start from the beginning," he said in a recent interview with the World Championships official website.
"Montenegro now has to make their future from zero. It is a small country with not many people, but there is great talent in every sport. I am at the end of my career and have played in this team for 16 years. I cannot identify with anyone else but this team, so I will think about my own future after the World Championships.
"Maybe this is my last year with the national team."
Officially, Montenegro is now an independent country, and the FIFA World Cup in Germany marked the end of the alliance between the two former republics of the old Yugoslavia on the football front.
In volleyball, however, the FIVB has announced they will compete together (as SCG) in both the women's and men's World Championships, because that is how they qualified.
Looking ahead to the Japan showpiece, Vujevic is convinced SCG can go out on a high note.
"I think we have great possibilities to be in the first four teams," he says.
"Brazil, Italy, Russia and Serbia and Montenegro are the best teams, but there is always a surprise. Maybe Poland can be a surprise in the World Championships."
On a broader front, Vujevic feels the 2006 Worlds will mark the end of an era for several teams, not just his own.
"There are a lot of teams that have competed with the same players for several years," he adds.
"Brazil, our team and Italy have competed against each other for four or six years and this will be the last World Championships for them. After that they will change and make a younger team, so maybe this is the last tournament for each team to make the best result they can."
After starting his career in Montenegro, Vujevic spent six years in Belgrade before, as he puts it, "travelling the world", with nine years in Italy and one in Greece, plus a packed international schedule for Yugoslavia and, from 2003, for SCG.
Whatever the future holds in Serbia or Montenegro, for the time being Vujevic will be thinking only of the team as a united force in Japan, and hopefully a golden end to a golden era.
