Aleksandar Šapić

Aleksandar Šapić (Александар Шапић; born 1 June 1978) is a Serbian politician and former professional water polo player who has been the mayor of Belgrade since 2024, previously serving that role from 2022 to 2023. A member and current vice-president of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), Šapić had previously served as president of the New Belgrade municipality from 2012 to 2022.

Šapić was previously a member of the Democratic Party (DS) until 2014, and he later led the Serbian Patriotic Alliance until the merger into SNS which occurred in May 2021. During his professional water polo career, he played for two Olympic bronze medal squads, one for FR Yugoslavia at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, the other for Serbia at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and one Olympic silver medal squad for Serbia and Montenegro at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

Education
He graduated from the Megatrend University Faculty for Management in 2003, received his master's degree in 2009 and tried to defend his Ph.D. dissertation in 2012, in the field of industrial management. His doctoral thesis has gained public attention in 2014, when a number of experts claimed that it contained plagiarised parts.

Club career
He started playing water polo in 1984, in WC Crvena Zvezda where he played for all young categories teams. He transferred to WC Partizan in 1991, not yet fourteen he made his senior debut in 1992. He returned to WC Crvena Zvezda in 1993 and he continued his career in WC Bečej starting 1994. In 2001, he moved to Italy, WC Camogli, where he spent three seasons, and after that, he transferred to WC Rari Nantes Savona. He left Italy in 2006 when he went to Russian water polo club Shturm 2002 where he signed a contract that made him the best-paid player in water polo history.

During his brilliant club career, he won 21 trophies of which 9 National Championship (6 he won in SRY, 2 in Russia and 1 in Italy). He also won National Cups 9 times (7 National Cups of SRY and 2 National Cups of Russia). He once won LEN Euroleague and twice LEN CUP.

In the period 1996–2009 he was the leagues' top scorer fourteen times in a row, 6 times in SRY, 5 times in Italy, and 3 times in Russia. During his club career he scored 1.694 goals, most of the number 924 he scored for clubs in SRY, in Italian league he scored 494 times and in Russia 276 times.

He finished his professional water polo career in 2009.


 * Club titles (21)
 * 9 National Championships – 6 SRY, 2 Russia, 1 Italy
 * 9 National Cups- 7 SRY, 2 Russia
 * 2 LEN Cups
 * 1 LEN Euroleague


 * 14 consecutive top-scorer titles 1996–2009
 * National Championship of Yugoslavia Top Scorer (6): 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01
 * Serie A1 Top Scorer (5): 2001–02, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06
 * Russian Championship Top Scorer (3): 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09
 * LEN Champions League Top Scorer (2): 1999–2000, 2002–03
 * Olympic Games Top Scorer (3): 2000 Sydney:2004 Athens : 2008 Beijing
 * Best Sportsman by OCS (1): 2004
 * World Championship MVP (1): 2005 Montreal
 * World Championship Top Scorer (2):2003 Barcelona : 2005 Montreal
 * European Championship Top Scorer (3): 2003 Kranj, 2006 Belgrade, 2008 Málaga
 * World Cup Top Scorer (1): 2006 Budapest
 * Serbia's sport association "May Award" : 2008


 * Number of scored goals
 * SRY (Crvena zvezda, Becej) – 924
 * Italy (Camogli, Rari Nantes Savona) – 494
 * Russia (Shturm 2002) – 276

National team career
Šapić made his debut for the national team of Yugoslavia in December 1995 when he was only seventeen, and played for them until 2008. At the very start of his national team career, Yugoslavia won two European U19 championships – 1995 in Esslingen and 1996 in Istanbul – and Šapić was the best player and top scorer in both.

He took part in his first major competition at the age of eighteen, the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. He would play for the national team in the Olympic Games four times and he went on to win three Olympic medals, bronze when representing Yugoslavia at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, silver for Serbia and Montenegro at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, and another bronze medal when playing for Serbia at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. With the national team of Yugoslavia, later Serbia and Montenegro, and finally Serbia, he played in 22 sports tournaments overall, winning a total of 20 medals, five of which were from the European Championships, four from the World Championships and three from the Olympic Games. He won two medals in the World Cup, five in World League tournaments, and he won a gold medal in the 1997 Mediterranean Games in Bari.

Šapić scored 981 goals in 385 games that he played for the national team. He was twice top scorer in the Olympic Games. Šapić ranks third on the all-time scoring list in Olympic history, with 64 goals. He was four times top scorer of both the World Championship and the European Championship. He was also four times the top scorer of the World League tournaments and he won the title of top scorer twice in the World Cup.

During his national team career, the team was named "ideal team" eight times in the tournaments that he played in, three times in both the World and European Championships, and twice in the Olympic Games.


 * World Championship
 * 1998 – bronze medal – top scorer – ideal team
 * 2001 – silver medal – top scorer – ideal team
 * 2003 – bronze medal – top scorer
 * 2005 – gold medal – MVP and top scorer – ideal team
 * 2007 – 4th place


 * European Championship
 * 1997 – silver medal
 * 2001 – gold medal – top scorer – ideal team
 * 2003 – gold medal – MVP – ideal team
 * 2006 – gold medal – top scorer – ideal team
 * 2008 – silver medal – top scorer


 * Olympic Games
 * 1996 – 8th place
 * 2000 – bronze medal – top scorer – ideal team
 * 2004 – silver medal – top scorer – ideal team
 * 2008 – bronze medal


 * World League
 * 2004 – silver medal – top scorer
 * 2005 – gold medal – top scorer
 * 2006 – gold medal
 * 2007 – gold medal – top scorer
 * 2008 – gold medal – top scorer


 * World Cup
 * 2002 – bronze medal – top scorer
 * 2006 – gold medal – top scorer


 * Mediterranean Games
 * 1997 – gold medal


 * Number of scored goals
 * National team (SRY, SMne, Serbia) – 981
 * Number of goals scored in career – 2675


 * Top scorer
 * 2 times top scorer Olympic Games
 * 4 times top scorer European Championship
 * 4 times top scorer World League
 * 2 times top scorer World Cup


 * Ideal team
 * 8 times chosen in ideal team (OG, WC, EC)

Post-retirement career
Besides his full of trophies water polo career, he gave his contribution to Serbian sport through engagement in sports organisations. He was the president of the water polo club Crvena zvezda from 2003 to 2004.

After finishing his career as a player in Italian club Rari Nantes Savona for the club he continued working as a sports manager for European competitions in the period 2006–2014.

Political career
He was the assistant of the mayor Dragan Đilas from 2009 to 2012. He was elected the president of New Belgrade municipality in 2012 and he was reelected in 2016. He is still the president of the biggest municipality in Belgrade. He ran in the Belgrade Assembly elections in 2018, as a mayoral candidate. Šapić stated that he is not interested in pre-election coalitions, and that he will compete alone, as an independent candidate. His list took third place with 9,09% (12 seats in the assembly).

In 2018, Šapić founded the right-wing Serbian Patriotic Alliance (SPAS). In the 2020 parliamentary election, SPAS won 3.83% of the votes and 11 seats in the National Assembly, becoming part of the ruling coalition led by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).

In May 2021, he merged SPAS with the ruling SNS and became its vice-president. In June 2022, he was elected as the mayor of Belgrade with a narrow majority of 57 votes out of 110 city assembly deputies. He pledged to work for the interests of all people of Belgrade and to continue the projects of urban development, public transportation, environmental protection and social welfare.

Šapić was criticised for not attending a commemoration ceremony for the victims of the Belgrade school shooting on 3 May 2023, which occurred at Vladislav Ribnikar Model Elementary School in Vračar, resulted in the deaths of ten people, including nine students and a security guard, and injuries to six others. Instead, Šapić and the city authorities organised their own commemoration.

Embezzlement scandal
Millions of euros intended for lectures on preventing peer and digital violence in 2021, the first year post the corona virus pandemic outbreak, were designated by the Ministry of Family Care and Demography. However, these funds were funnelled to phantom associations, each receiving an average of 210,000 euros.

At the heart of this controversy is Aleksandar Šapić, alongside his three close associates - Aleksandra Čamagić, Bisera Pejčić, and Kristina Glišić.

Operating within the competition commissions of the Ministry, they wielded influence in the allocation of funds and approval of fabricated reports submitted by these dubious organisations.

BIRN's investigation uncovers that these phantom entities, financially supported by Šapić's associates over the years, diverted the allocated funds. Instead of utilising the money for lectures in schools across 17 cities in Serbia, the funds were redirected to numerous private agencies owned by their relatives, friends, neighbours, and acquaintances.

Unfortunately, the intended lectures either did not take place or were conducted on a significantly smaller scale, often relegated to the purview of the local youth office. The scandal highlights concerns about the allocation process's integrity and the misappropriation of public funds under the influence of key individuals like Aleksandar Šapić.

Kentkart scandal
In April 2023, Aleksandar Šapić faced allegations of corruption and abuse of power after audio recordings of his chief of staff Nenad Milanović offering a deal to the Turkish company Kentkart, which provides ticketing services for public transportation in Belgrade, were revealed to the public. According to the recordings, Milanović proposed that Kentkart agree to terminate its existing contract from 2021 and in return, he would arrange a new public procurement for them. Kentkart rejected the offer and accused Milanović of trying to involve them in illegal activities. Šapić denied any wrongdoing and said that he was happy that the prosecution would investigate the case. He also claimed that Kentkart had been overcharging the city for years and that he intended to end their contract and sue them for damages.

Charity work
He is the founder of a humanitarian foundation – Be Humane that is founded in 2014, and it started working in June 2014. Be Humane raises funds in order to help children, adults, institutions and organisations from Serbia. Be Humane in a very short time became one of the most relevant and most trusted humanitarian foundations in the region and its aim is to help to cure and ensuring needed therapy for children at the first place.

Since it was founded until today, with the help of Be Humane more than 1 million euros was raised. Thanks to that great number of users' help were supplied with therapy and send to proper medical treatment. In February 2016 Aleksandar Šapić donated all the medals he won in his water polo career and they are being sold in auction, money raised in this humane action will be donated for curing and therapies of Be Humane users.

He received numerous awards for community service and humanitarian work. With those awards, many institutions in Serbia showed respect and gratitude to him for everything he did in the field of humanitarian work as an active sportsman and he continued doing, even in a more intense and responsible way, after he is retired from water polo.

Personal life
Šapić is married and a father of two sons. He lives and works in Belgrade. He speaks Serbian, Russian, Italian, and English.

Šapić has appeared in the 2004 Serbian film When I Grow Up, I'll Be a Kangaroo, portraying the role of a local neighbourhood heavy named Gangula. He took part in the humanitarian TV program Ples sa zvezdama, a Serbian version of Dancing with the Stars.