Belgrade, Serbia, March 25, 2009 – Serbian Volleyball captain Nikola Grbic has announced his intention to play for the national team in this year’s FIVB World League after talks with Serbia Volleyball Federation President and FIVB Executive Vice President Aleksandar Boricic.

Grbic, who with brother Vladimir was part of the Yugoslavia team that claimed gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, had said after the 2008 Olympics that he would retire from international Volleyball but the lure of the World League Final Round in the Serbian capital of Serbia through July 22-26 proved too much to resist.

“The fact is that I said myself that I wished to finish with the career in the National Team. However, I must say that this became a great challenge when it was officially announced that the Final Tournament of the World League would be played in Belgrade Arena,” said Grbic.

“Many wonderful memories are linked to this grand hall and I believe that it will again be filled to the last place in July this year. So, I decided to play in the World League. As for the rest… we’ll see,” said Grbic.

Serbia head coach Igor Kolakovic said, “This is indeed very opportune and encouraging news for all of us in men’s Volleyball and the Volleyball world of Serbia. Everyone knows well how much the presence of Nikola Grbic means to all of us, and how important he is for the general quality and ambitions of our team.

“It is sure that with Nikola we will gain not only the quality but that the team itself will be more compact. We will have to negotiate about his engagement in the World League events as his season in Italy finishes in May,” said Kolakovic.

Grbic has played 122 matches in the past 10 years for Serbia in the FIVB World League. In a glittering career he has won Olympic gold in 2000, gold at the 2001 European Championships (along with a silver and four bronzes in this event), bronze at the Olympics, three silver and two bronze in the FIVB World League and bronze in the FIVB World Cup and FIVB Grand Champions Cup.