European Aquatics Athlete of the Year Awards 2025: men’s water polo nominees

Stylianos Argyropoulos can look back on another great year in his illustrious career. He clinched World Cup silver and World Championships bronze with the Greek national team, while at club level, he played a leading role in FTC-Telekom’s season which saw them claim 44 wins from 45 matches as they lifted all four trophies they contested.

Argyropoulos led the charge as Greece went almost all the way in the World Cup finals in April. After downing Japan, the Greeks took revenge on the Hungarians for their heavy defeat in the Division One semis and this time they won with ease, with the Greek giant scoring five.

The Greeks pressed Spain in the final, but lost narrowly despite Argyropoulos scoring four.

At the Worlds in Singapore, Greece ousted Italy in the quarter-finals, with Argyropoulos contributing four goals. Two days later, however, they lost once again to Spain, this time in a shootout. But a comprehensive win over Serbia saw the Greeks return to the world podium after their previous visit in 2023.

With Fradi, Argyropoulos and his team-mates were returning guests to the top of the podium after each final they played. They remained unbeaten in Hungary, and they had only one loss in the Champions League where Argyropoulos was a constant threat in all matches he played.

His six goals in Savona might be considered the highlight of the season for him. However, his contribution goes far beyond scoring important goals as his complex game involves forcing exclusions, delivering brilliant assists and doing a huge job in defence.

Alvaro Granados enjoyed another outstanding season, especially in the Spanish national team. His performances in the key games were even more remarkable as he had to bounce back from a double shock in the previous summer.

Though he led Spain to their first European title in 2024, the national team failed to get beyond the quarter-finals at the Paris Olympics.

Granados also had to return to his old club Barceloneta after his contract with Recco was voided due to the Italian giants’ financial hardships.

Still, Granados showed his class as he led Spain to a World Cup triumph and another world title campaign in Singapore in the summer.

In the World Cup, the master shooter stepped up in the final of the Division One tournament in Otopeni. He dismantled the Hungarian defence single-handedly by hitting eight goals.

Then in April, at the World Cup Finals in Podgorica, he carried on this tremendous form for all three matches as Spain beat Germany, Croatia and Greece to clinch the gold – and Granados netted six, seven and four goals respectively.

He also helped Barceloneta sweep all domestic titles and reach the Champions League Final Four – though a shootout loss to Novi Beograd prevented them from playing a rematch with FTC in the final – for their only regular time defeat in the entire season.

In the summer Granados shone in Singapore at the World Championships where Spain won all their matches to return to the top step of the podium. Again, Granados was at his best in the final, once more against Hungary, as he hit five goals and received the MVP Award of the Championships.

Winner of the 2024 EA Athlete of the Year Award, Dusan Mandic has made the shortlist again after another memorable season. The giant Serbian leftie perhaps wasn’t so stand-out as in the previous year when he led Fradi to their first Champions League triumph after five years and then lifted the Serbs in the knockout phase of the Olympics before they went all the way to complete their treble at the Games.

Still, Mandic was there again and delivered when it mattered the most – most notably in the semis of the Champions League Final Four.

Marseille were recovering from being four goals down and the game was heating up in the fourth period. At 10-10, when another man-up seemed to go down the drain, Mandic held the ball, the water-level at his neck before unleashing a shot which put Fradi back on track, and they went on to retain their crown.

In the summer, he was the driving force once more for the Serbs who managed to make the top four again after 2023, losing narrowly to Hungary in a semi-final where Mandic scored six goals.

One of the “last crusaders” of the great Hungarian school whose game still includes those famous Magyar tricks besides the essential gladiator tools, Krisztian Manhercz enjoyed a remarkable season both with Champions League winner FTC-Telekom and with the Hungarian national team.

He joined FTC for this season after having a great spell with Marseille and once he recovered from a hand injury he started offering his invaluable assets.

In fact, he saved his best to the last – in the Champions League Final Novi Beograd managed to keep Fradi under pressure for quite a while, but it was Manhercz whose pinpoint and brilliantly versatile shots finally broke NBG’s young goalie Milan Glusac. Manhercz finished the final with six goals, which earned him the MVP Award at the Final Four.

In the reshaped Hungarian team, where he inherited the captaincy from the legendary Denes Varga, who had called it a day after Paris 2024, Manhercz played a key role as the team finished runners-up at the Division One tournament and took bronze at the finals.

In Singapore, Manhercz led the new team on a stunning run as they first took out the reigning world champions, Croatia, in the quarters, then knocked out the Olympic champion Serbs in the semis and held a lead before the fourth period against the European champion Spanish side before their rivals took the upper hand.

Spain reached the highest heights which could be conquered in 2025 – two majors and two gold medals. And Bernat Sanahuja helped them reach the heights as he was once more the epitome of the unsung hero delivering quietly and efficiently.

Sanahuja was always on hand to score important goals, netting four in the semis at the World Cup finals in Podgorica when they beat Croatia. In the final, against Greece, he hit only one, but that was crucial as it halted their rivals’ comeback to reset the two-goal difference in the fourth period.

The real show from Sanahuja came at the Worlds in Singapore. He was simply overwhelming in the knockout phase of the event. He fired in six against Montenegro in the quarters and netted three against Greece in that dramatic semi-final which ended 7-7 after four periods.

In the gold medal match, Sanahuja was devastating once more as the Spaniards came from behind to beat Hungary in a thrilling final. Both Granados and he finished the match with five goals, though Sanahuja needed only six shots while Granados had 11.

He and his team-mates in CNAB barely tasted defeat. In the entire season, they had only two regular time losses, though a shootout defeat in the semis against Novi Beograd prevented CNAB from making the Champions League final. However, a bronze medal secured a fine ending to their great season where they also landed all trophies at home.

Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics

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