Aleksandar Šapić

Aleksandar Šapić is a Serbian politician and former professional water polo player, born on 1 June 1978, who has been mayor of Belgrade since 2024 after an earlier term from 2022 to 2023. As a player he started at Crvena Zvezda in 1984, played for Partizan, Bečej, Camogli and Rari Nantes Savona, and in 2006 joined the Russian club Shturm 2002 on a contract that made him the best-paid player in the sport. He won 21 club trophies, finished as top scorer of his league fourteen times in a row between 1996 and 2009, and scored 1,694 goals in club play. With the national team he made his debut in December 1995 at seventeen, played at four Olympics and won three Olympic medals, bronze for Yugoslavia in 2000, silver for Serbia and Montenegro in 2004 and bronze for Serbia in 2008. He was World Championship most valuable player in 2005 and retired in 2009 before entering politics.