Felipe Perrone Scores Gold Medal Winning Goal For Spain In His 14th & Final World Champs

2025 World Championships – Water Polo

• July 11-24, 2025
• OSBC Aquatic Centre, Singapore Sports Hub, Singapore
• Tournament Central
• 2024 Olympic Champions: Spain (women), Serbia (men)
• 2024 World Champions: United States (women), Croatia (men)
• 2025 World Cup Champions: Greece (women), Spain (men)

Spanish water polo icon Felipe Perrone capped off his career in a photo finish, scoring the winning goal against Hungary in the gold medal match.

Perrone, who has played in 14 World Championships, announced that Singapore would be his last hoorah. At 39 years old, he was the oldest player in the entire tournament. With 18 seconds to go, he was passed the ball and scored Spain’s final goal in a 15-13 match, securing Spain their 4th ever World Championship title. The Iberian country previously topped the tournament in 1998, 2001, and 2022. 2025 also marks the 5th consecutive time the Spaniards reached the medal podium at a World Championships.

Perrone’s winning goal was hardly the only exciting part of the game. The two teams opened up in a 5-5 draw after the first quarter. Bernat Sanahuja scored each of Spain’s first three goals. In the second quarter, Spain pulled ahead, but Hungary wiped that lead away and established one of their own in the 3rd quarter, 10-8. Spain came back in the last quarter with a series of impressive shots, including the final shot from Perrone which left him in tears and the arena in applause.

“It was really like a movie,” Perrone told World Aquatics. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Silver medalists Hungary capped off a spectacular tournament in their own right, bringing home its 13th men’s water polo World Championship medal. Hungary earned silver this year on both the men’s and the women’s side.

Bernat Sanahuja won player of the match and Granados won most valuable player of the tournament, giving Spain two of the four tournament awards. Greece’s Panagiotis Tzortzatos earned Best Goalkeeper, while Reul D’Souza got the Highest Goal-Scorer Award for Canada.

Bronze Medal Match

Greece carried the momentum of their women’s team picking up gold by delivering a dominant win against Serbia in the bronze medal match. When the dust settled, Greece won in an impressive 16-7. The game was Greece’s by the second quarter, when they scored five points against their fellow Balkan rival’s zero. The lead only built as the game went on. Efstathios Kalogeropoulos and Evangelos Pouros emerged as Greece’s top scorers with three each. Vasilijie Martinovic netted four for Serbia, the reigning Olympic Champions.

Final Rankings

1. Spain
2. Hungary
3. Greece
4. Serbia
5. Croatia
6. Montenegro
7. Italy
8. United States of America
9. Japan
10. Romania
11. Canada
12. Brazil
13. Australia
14. China
15. Singapore
16. South Africa