Serbia’s Dragan Mihailovic has been named as the new head coach of the Indian Men’s Volleyball team on Friday by the Volleyball Federation of India. Pryemyslaw Gaszyoski and Valadimir Radosevic have been appointed as the physio trainer and physiotherapist respectively, with the trio also being in charge of the U-23 team and other junior teams representing India.
“It gives me great pleasure to be associated with the Indian national team. There is immense talent here and I am excited to work with them. I am also excited to be working with Pryemyslaw and Vladimir and will look to deliver results and take Indian volleyball to greater heights during our time here,” said the Serbian who was also the assistant coach of his country in the 2018 World Championships.
The contract states that Mihailovic and his backroom staff will only be in charge of the team for five months. However, the Volleyball Federation of India is trying their best to ensure he stays till 2020 so that India can qualify for the 2024 and 2028 Olympics.
Mihailovic’s first task in hand would be to guide India to a respectable finish in the forthcoming Asian Men’s Volleyball Championships which will commence in Tehran from September 13. The top eight teams will advance for the qualification meet for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
India didn’t qualify for the 2017 edition of the Asian Championships and finished 11th in the competition held two years prior to that.
