Water Polo Canada Announces Final Roster for the 2025 World Aquatics Championships

The competition will be held July 11-August 3 in Singapore

Ottawa, June 27, 2025 - Water Polo Canada is proud to present the Men’s Team that will represent the country at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships, July 11-August 3, in Singapore.

The Canadian Men’s Team will be comprised of 14 athletes and will include nine players who helped Canada qualify for the 2025 World Aquatics Championships at the 2024 Pan American Water Polo Championship. Also, eight of those 14 athletes took part in the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games, the last major multisport event to involve the Canadian Water Polo Men’s National Team.

The team will thus start their road toward the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, where, with the United States as the host nation, it’s expected that two Teams from the Americas will have the opportunity to participate.

“I’m incredibly excited to see how this talented group of athletes will represent Water Polo Canada at the upcoming World Aquatic Championships,” said Water Polo Canada’s Senior Men’s National Team Head Coach Pat Oaten. “As this marks the first year of the Olympic quadrennial, the competition offers a valuable opportunity to assess our standing on the international stage and identify the areas we need to focus on as we work toward our ultimate goal: representing Canada at the 2028 Olympic Games.”

“These athletes have made tremendous sacrifices to compete at this level, and I’m eager to see how they rise to the occasion on the world stage. On behalf of the entire team, I would also like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the members of our community whose unwavering support has made it possible for us to participate in the 2025 World Championships.”

“I’m really excited to be going to Singapore with this group of guys", added Team Captain Bogdan Djerkovic. "It’s still a relatively new group so this will be our first opportunity to build our chemistry and gain experience to hopefully achieve our goal of qualifying for the 2028 Olympic Games. This has been the most competitive selection camp we’ve had in a very long time, which is great. I look forward to leading and competing with this great group of guys.”

First game: Friday, July 11 against USA
The Men’s Canadian Team will play the round robin phase of the competition in Group C, where it will face the USA, the host nation of Singapore, and Brazil.

Canada’s first game will be against the USA on Friday, July 11, at 10:35pm (Ottawa time). The full schedule is available at https://www.worldaquatics.com/competitions/4725/world-aquatics-championships-singapore-2025/schedule?phase=All&disciplines=.

Evan Andrews will also attend the 2025 World Aquatics Championships as a referee.

Water Polo Canada wishes to sincerely thank the generous donors who, along with support from the government of Canada, make it possible to send our Teams to such critical international competitions, and support our athletes in their steadfast pursuit of excellence. Water Polo Canada continue to accept donations through our website at https://waterpolocanada.crowdchange.co/14154.

Canadian Team at the 2025 World Aquatic Championships
CÔTÉ, Jérémie (Pointe-Claire, QC) - DDO
DJERKOVIC, Bogdan (Ottawa, ON) - Ottawa Titans
D’SOUZA, Reuel D'Souza (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) - Pacific Storm
GARDIJAN, Aleksa (Gatineau, QC) - Club de water-polo de Gatineau
GAVRIC, Andrej (Ottawa, ON) - Ottawa Titans
GERAKOUDIS, Nikolas (Montréal, QC) - WPC
HACHEM, Leo (Montréal, QC) - CAMO
LAPINS, David (Gatineau, QC) - Ottawa Titans
McKNIGHT, Brody (Regina, SK) - Team Sask
O’DONNELL, Jason (Beaconsfield, QC) - Tiburon Waterpolo
POZARIC, Roko (Zagreb, CRO) - WPC
RADENOVIC, Milan (Montréal, QC.) - Mavericks
SOLEIMANIPAK, Aria (Dollard-des-Ormeaux, QC) - Laval
TANASIJEVIC, Bor (Toronto, ON) - CAMO
*OUSSADOU, Ali (Montréal, QC) - CAMO (traveling alternate, taking part in preparatory training camp in China)

Coaches
Pat Oaten (Pointe-Claire, QC) - Head Coach
Gyula Toth (Calgary, AB) - Assistant Coach

Support Staff
Mitch Kaufman (Kitchener, ON) - Team Leader
Serena Finlayson (Ottawa, ON) - Athletic Therapist