Volleyball Empowerment support helps Montenegro dream big

Montenegro is the perfect example of how the FIVB Volleyball Empowerment programme can ignite grand aspirations even in smaller nations. A young southern European country with a population of just over half a million and having achieved independence only 17 years ago, Montenegro has little history in women’s volleyball on the international stage. However, thanks to the recent support from the FIVB Volleyball Empowerment programme, the country is now brimming with optimism for a promising future in the sport.

Currently, Montenegro’s National Federation is benefiting from CHF 72,000 worth of Volleyball Empowerment coach support for their women’s national team, which has allowed them to hire Serbian specialist Milorad Krunic at the helm of the team.

Competing at the next CEV EuroVolley, which will take place in 2026, would be a historic success for the national team, who are so far yet to make it past the qualifications stage. With this goal in mind, Krunic has put together a young selection of players who are training hard to achieve that target.

This season, Montenegro took part in the CEV European Silver League (pictured in the main photo). Guided by coach Krunic, the team won five of their six matches in Pool B and beat favourites Portugal to the first place in the final pool standings. Montenegro progressed to the semifinals, stopping just short of making it to the podium.

“In the short term, our points of success include the fact that the girls performed exceptionally over a longer period with the selection, playing high-quality matches, which enabled all of them to secure new contracts,” Pajkovic pointed out.

“Short-term goals include the individual progress of the players and qualifying for the CEV European Golden League, while the long-term goal is to be a consistent participant in the European Championships,” Krunic added.

Montenegro’s boys’ national team about to test the new Gerflor at the U17 European Championship (Photo credits: cev.eu)

In addition to providing coach support, Volleyball Empowerment has assisted Montenegro with equipment, most recently a Gerflor Performance 9mm floor worth over CHF 30,000, which was granted to their federation in the framework of a joint project with the CEV. The floor was used during the CEV U17 Men’s Volleyball European Championship 2023 Finals, which Montenegro hosted in July.

“The Volleyball Federation of Montenegro organises international tournaments every year and as we had the U17 European Championship this year in Podgorica with 16 teams and two competition halls, we are more than happy about the FIVB’s assistance with this floor as it helped us to organise this event in the best possible way,” said President Pajkovic. “We will also have the opportunity to use it for all our national teams’ preparation in the future, with focus on our women’s team.”