Serbia NT 2020

    Im truly surprised that Vargas got the Serbian citenzenship. Nothing bad at all with that, I even welcome these news because a player like her, deserves to be appreciated in the big stages. We know she is a good player, when her head is on, she is unstoppable and she has a lot of room for improvement. Nevertheless, I thought she would get the Turkish citenzenship. She has been playing in Turkey since 2018, but been there since 2017, paying taxes and all.

    So...how did she (apparently) get the Serbian citenzenship? Even in the "not enough serious" countries, you have to be resident at least for 2 years and give a history and language exam. Sure, the easiest and fastest ways are to be married with an already citenzen or being the parent of one.

    I know she is married, but I dont think her wife is Serbian citenzenship.

    Leon got Polish citizenship in 2015 and he had to wait 4 years to play for Poland. 2 years grace period will start after Cuban federation will send to Serbian all Vargas papers and will let her be Serbian player. Citizenship doesn’t change anything at all yet.

    Quote from Leonardo.D

    Even in the "not enough serious" countries, you have to be resident at least for 2 years and give a history and language exam. Sure, the easiest and fastest ways are to be married with an already citenzen or being the parent of one.

    I know she is married, but I dont think her wife is Serbian citenzenship.

    Then Serbia is less serious than "not enough serious" countries, I don't know how else to explain to those for whom this is not a sufficient argument obtained from a person who lives and was born in that country, ......, in Serbia everything is possible, even the one on what do you think that it can't be done anywhere in the civilized world, it can be done here, of course if someone has contacts and connections, apparently Terzić and the Volleyball Federation certainly have that. I think that this explanation is superfluous and inappropriate, perhaps to this forum, but since it was not enough before.


    After all, Vargas was obviously not and is not a resident of Serbia, that fact is easily accessible to everyone, I hope she has been to Serbia at least once (to be photographed for a passport perhaps).

    Quote from WZP

    Leon got Polish citizenship in 2015 and he had to wait 4 years to play for Poland. 2 years grace period will start after Cuban federation will send to Serbian all Vargas papers and will let her be Serbian player. Citizenship doesn’t change anything at all yet.

    Although there has not been a meeting of the FIVB Board on the topic of requests for changes in sports citizenship, it is expected that by the end of the year, despite the problems with the coronavirus, a positive response will arrive from Lausanne. In that case, Vargasova would have the opportunity to play for the Serbian national team by 2022 (with a previous break of two years).


    "We are all waiting for an answer from the FIVB. Melissa is here, with me, at Fenerbahce. Nothing has changed since she received a Serbian passport. It is important that the people from the Alliance have sent a request to the FIVB and we hope for a positive response. "


    part of the interview with Terzic aboout this topic.

    Amazing for Serbia NT, good for Vargas being able to play again in international level, but I don't like it... If Terzic and the Federation were worry that the team would lost their magic, they should've, I don't know, invest in youth... I don't call it desperation, I call it bullshit.. This is a statement for the Serbian players saying: "you're not good enough, don't even try".

    I hate this new trend of treating NTs like they were clubs. This girl has ZERO connection to Serbia. It makes a mockery of everything.


    Thanks god Cuban federation is getting their shit together with professionalism in the last 2/3 years and this won't happen anymore with future players.

    Quote from Bogdan123

    Then Serbia is less serious than "not enough serious" countries, I don't know how else to explain to those for whom this is not a sufficient argument obtained from a person who lives and was born in that country, ......, in Serbia everything is possible, even the one on what do you think that it can't be done anywhere in the civilized world, it can be done here, of course if someone has contacts and connections, apparently Terzić and the Volleyball Federation certainly have that. I think that this explanation is superfluous and inappropriate, perhaps to this forum, but since it was not enough before.


    After all, Vargas was obviously not and is not a resident of Serbia, that fact is easily accessible to everyone, I hope she has been to Serbia at least once (to be photographed for a passport perhaps).

    Thank you so much for the answer! Like I already said, I do welcome the news Vargas will play for a NT in the future. I was just really curious to know how someone could get so fast citizenship in Serbia. Im from Latin America, and trust me, here we also live in a land where everything is possible, where the margin between doing something illegal and "informal" is super narrow and if you have enough and good contacts, the sky is the only limit. Despite of all these factors and even "faking" you are resident in the country + you are a qualified athlete, you could not get the citenzenship in less than 1 year and a half.

    I have many Argentinian friends whose grandparents are/were from Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia and they have had to wait ages in order to get the passport, as well as getting under a long process in order to get all the documents and birth certificates. That's why I was too curious about this case.


    Anyway, let's hope they have done everything right. I wouldnt like that later in the future, before an important tournent starts, another federation claims there were irregularities in the process and Melissa would be banned for a while. As it happened to Meliha.

    Quote from sloth

    Amazing for Serbia NT, good for Vargas being able to play again in international level, but I don't like it... If Terzic and the Federation were worry that the team would lost their magic, they should've, I don't know, invest in youth... I don't call it desperation, I call it bullshit.. This is a statement for the Serbian players saying: "you're not good enough, not even try".

    Also it is obvious that if Vargas be able to play for Serbia, she will play as non receiveng OH (like Mihajlović), i mean she is even better receiver than Mihajlović but not good enough to be full time receiver, and that means that Serbia will continue to play with 2-receiveng system, and with Popović retirement, that will not be possible to implement easilly with new libero (whoever it is).


    And although all countries with good prospects are mentioned here, Serbia is always seen as staying with a poor team after this outgoing generation, I have already talked about this topic and I will repeat that I don't agree with that at all.


    Bosković will play for at least another 2 olympic cycle, for few years we will have our junior national team capain, Vanja Savić as i hope very good substitution for Bošković (better than Bjelica for example), on the OH position, - Brankica and -Blagojević (who, although a very interesting player, has never been a particularly important player for the national team) we continue with Buša (she finally have treatment like she deserve) Lazović, Milenković (which were both among the best in the world in their generations, and I believe that in the future they will show that at the senior level), and we have the few very good prospects among youngsters (Mirosavljevic, Kockarevic, Uzelac,...), MB after amazing duo/trio Veljkovic-Rasic-Stevanovic, it is hard to believe to keep the number of such a spectacular player but in comparation to other Popovic, Aleksic is quite good and i believe that Kocic will show finally what she was in youth competition (she was beast, her main problem is selfconfident and withdrawal), also in future keep eyes on Djokic (amazing slider), Kurtagic (still young, but very talented), like i said it before on setter position Serbia and whole volleyball world will have big loose and ASAP we must to find solution for that, Mirković is imo a bit underrated on this forum but she is obviously far away from Maja level (but TBH, for example i don't see Malinov as way better setter than Mirkovic), i bet on Perovic, IMO she will be very good with few years (now she have just 19yo). Libero also big loose after Popovic retirement, she was and she is among the most underrated player on this forum and in general, and Pušić is just solid nothing more than that, and i dont see Gocanin as future star.


    So much from me, I certainly don't see so many other national teams that will be dominant in relation to Serbia (and even the often mentioned Italy or China, it will be harder than now), but I still think that Serbia will be able to play with everyone and try to maintain the level of results as much as possible and I think that we will be success in that.

    Quote from Leonardo.D

    Thank you so much for the answer! Like I already said, I do welcome the news Vargas will play for a NT in the future. I was just really curious to know how someone could get so fast citizenship in Serbia. Im from Latin America, and trust me, here we also live in a land where everything is possible, where the margin between doing something illegal and "informal" is super narrow and if you have enough and good contacts, the sky is the only limit. Despite of all these factors and even "faking" you are resident in the country + you are a qualified athlete, you could not get the citenzenship in less than 1 year and a half.

    I have many Argentinian friends whose grandparents are/were from Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia and they have had to wait ages in order to get the passport, as well as getting under a long process in order to get all the documents and birth certificates. That's why I was too curious about this case.


    Anyway, let's hope they have done everything right. I wouldnt like that later in the future, before an important tournent starts, another federation claims there were irregularities in the process and Melissa would be banned for a while. As it happened to Meliha.

    TBH concrete explanation how it is possible i don't know, because even though I live where I live, and I belong to the society to which i belong, and I am aware of how that society works, because it is not a secret here, I had no personal experiences, the more I loathe it so more specifically than the description and belief that everything is possible as far as your friends are concerned, politics is involved, and that is a precondition for complications here in this area, there were certainly no such problems with Vargas.

    I thought Vargas in Turkish NT was a done deal. :what: As much as i know, she spends her off-seasons in Belgrade, but so do some other Cuban players like Casanova e.g. . I think it is something that SBCommunity agency organizes.


    As Bogdan said, laws are applied exclusively here . There are cases of someone getting a passport out of the blue, but for ordinary people the requirements are as in the most countries. This picture sums it up



    I was getting excited that Serbia might in future abolish 'two liberos' system, but apparently it ain't happening. The only way i see Terzic not using two power players are if he doesn't find decent replaments for libero and setter positions. Vargas with just her serve would be addition to any NT but how Terzic wants to use her, is very risky

    I don't think getting Vargas to NT is not a sign of desperation, indeed it is a sign of intelligence. It would be dumb if turkish federation wouldn't have tried the same thing. Maybe they did but Vargas thought that she could achieve more with Serbian NT than with Turkish NT.


    By the way, let's not exaggerate the contribution of Ognjenoviç. Yes she is one of the best active setters right now but Serbia NT with all the individual stars, they don't rely on the setter quality (you can say this for example Thai NT since their success relies on the system run by Tomkom instead of individual stars) Serbia won ECh with Zivkoviç who is not a spectacular setter but such setter is more than enough when a team is full of individuals with great skills.


    I think lack of a good libero would be a bigger problem than absence of Maja in Serbian NT system.

    Quote from penguin

    I was getting excited that Serbia might in future abolish 'two liberos' system, but apparently it ain't happening. The only way i see Terzic not using two power players are if he doesn't find decent replaments for libero and setter positions. Vargas with just her serve would be addition to any NT but how Terzic wants to use her, is very risky

    100% agree, and somewhere in some catastrophic newspaper (they are obvious completely uninformed in volleyball, they better haven't written anything) i saw sensational news that Serbia will have the best attacking trio and that Mihajlović - Vargas will play as OH's LOL. Serbia will implent 1 receiving system. :sos::sos::sos:

    Personally I've always been against 'naturalized' players in general. As Italian for example I've never felt represented by Tay Agüero or Juantorena, or Costagrande. All of them were born and raised in other nations and don't represent Italian volleyball in my opinion. But at least they had some connection (marriage or relatives) with Italy, have lived in Italy and speak Italian language.

    This is not the case of Melissa Vargas. Melissa Vargas has nothing to do with Serbia, she doesn't speak a word of Serbian language, and she has never lived there.

    This is just about Corruption. People giving money to obtain a favour (a passport) back... it can happen everywhere, especially in developing countries like Serbia or Azerbaijan, but it is not acceptable. And FIVB must not allow this Scandal.

    Quote from Toguttt

    Personally I've always been against 'naturalized' players in general. As Italian for example I've never felt represented by Tay Agüero or Juantorena, or Costagrande. All of them were born and raised in other nations and don't represent Italian volleyball in my opinion. But at least they had some connection (marriage or relatives) with Italy, have lived in Italy and speak Italian language.

    This is not the case of Melissa Vargas. Melissa Vargas has nothing to do with Serbia, she doesn't speak a word of Serbian language, and she has never lived there.

    This is just about Corruption. People giving money to obtain a favour (a passport) back... it can happen everywhere, especially in developing countries like Serbia or Azerbaijan, but it is not acceptable. And FIVB must not allow this Scandal.

    IMO i completely agree that the way that Vargas get serbian citizenship is scandalous but for Serbia as a country,not for FIVB and volleyball in general. FIVB is volleyball federation (at least should be), and they don't even have the authority to question something like that (after all, even to investigate, our foreign minister = the mascot will "charmingly" invent some nonsense). I don't see even a minor difference and relief for Aguero, Costagrande, ...., in relation to Vargas, they talk + alive + married to an Italian (or something like that), to me it's all nonsense, it's just about power, influence and money.

    If the league and the national team were of such strength in Kyrgyzstan instead of Italy, they would play for Kyrgyzstan, there is no representation of the nation, which in this case must be the only measure. It is scandalous that there is a possibility of naturalization of players of these types, but the decision of the FIVB must be the same as in the case of previous players.

    And more important thing is that Aleksandar Boričić men from senior volleyball managment currently president of CEV but highly valued and influential in the FIVB is from Serbia.



    Honestly biggest SHAME on FIVB because they allow things like this. Serbia have moral and domestic-legal responsibility, Italy only moral, but it was up to them to try, and it was up to the FIVB to ban that possibility from the start.

    Quote from Bogdan123

    100% agree, and somewhere in some catastrophic newspaper (they are obvious completely uninformed in volleyball, they better haven't written anything) i saw sensational news that Serbia will have the best attacking trio and that Mihajlović - Vargas will play as OH's LOL. Serbia will implent 1 receiving system. :sos::sos::sos:

    🔥


    who needs reception when you can just smack the ball back to the other field >>>

    At the end of the day, I'm not against naturalization. Globalization >>>>


    At least Vargas will still play NT, and they will have to work on the issues as a team with Serbian nt anyway, it will be teamwork and they are one in that way.


    but...yes Vargas' case might be slightly different, as she will take maybe close to nothing from Serbia as a country and just attend the NT matches, I guess that's a bit strange whereas other players obv. live in the country/play in the league, but also such things are harder for a small country like Serbia in general (with a good but not top level domestic league)

    One more importang thing (about Vargas and serbian national is that by FIVB regulations about naturalized player and playing for "new" country, by country


    41.2.2 Only one player having previously played for another national team of the same age category can be a part of a team, for a given event.



    As Brankica Mihajlović played for BiH senior national team, while she is in the serbian national team Vargas will not be able to play for Serbia.

    Brankica IMO at least will be with national to the WCH 2022 (she will be 31 yo), so probably first year when she will be able to play for Serbia will be 2023, even that is coincides with a two-year grace period, which must pass from a FIVB decision.

    idk why in this east countries is so easy to get citizenship

    In italy as example is more complexe

    For normal people it is not easy even here, of course anyway it is easier than in Italy or especially then some high development countries like Germany,....but this particular situation is certainly a precedent and bypasses the regulations that certainly exist and are very clear on paper.