2025 Men’s Water Polo World Cup
- January 7-12
- Bucharest, Romania
- Results
The 2025 Men’s Water Polo World Cup Division 1 tournament concluded with six teams earning a spot for the final in April.
Top 6 Teams
- Spain
- Hungary
- Greece
- Montenegro
- Croatia
- Japan
Though no medals were handed out at this event, defending European champions Spain secured bragging rights and the top qualifier spot for the finals. The Spaniards defeated the Hungarians in the tournament’s final match 15-9 after losing to them earlier in the tournament. Spain won it by firing off an 8-2 lead by halftime and never looking back. Barcelona native Alvaro Granados left no doubt as to who the match’s MVP would be, scoring eight goals in total.
The young Hungarian team, which won the U-20 World Championships in this pool last year, held their own in the second half by equaling Spain’s points scored during the time frame. However, it was not enough to overcome their six-point deficit from the first half.
Balkan Peninsula countries Greece and Montenegro duked out for 3rd place. Greece came out on top 17-12, racking up an impressive seven points in the second quarter and overtaking Montenegro’s early lead.
The final two countries to notch a spot were Croatia, the Paris 2024 silver medalists, and Japan.
Reigning Olympic gold and bronze medalists, Serbia and the United States, both missed out on a final berth. The U.S. came out on top of their group, beating Japan and Romania in the preliminary round. However, they lost 15-7 to Montenegro in the quarterfinal round and lost twice more to Croatia (15-6) and Georgia (17-12) in the classification round.
Host country Romania also failed to advance, as did France and Georgia.
The finals matches will take place in Kotor and Budva, Montenegro, from April 11-13. It will include these six teams as well as the top two finishers from Division 2, the Netherlands and Germany.
