At the European Championships in Split, goalkeeper Slaven Kandić (31), a Montenegrin who has played in the French league for three years and has applied for French sports citizenship, is expected to play for France for the first time. At the same time, Michael Bodegas (35), who has French citizenship and has already played for the country of his birth, but was a member of the Italian national team from 2015 to 2021 and won bronze with them at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, is expected to return to the French team. But now Bodegas is back under the French flag.
The same FINA rule applies to both. A period of 12 months must pass during which they did not play for the previous national team. Since both players last played for their previous national teams at the Tokyo Olympics on 7 August 2021 (in the Montenegro-Italy match), Kandić and Bodegas are players that French coach Florian Bruzzo can count on at the European Championships in Split.
At the same time, perhaps for the first time for Montenegro could play Belarusian Kanstantin Averka (25), who has received permission to play for this country. We would like to remind you that Russian Konstantin Kharkov (25) made his debut for Croatia in April.
