The Malta National men’s water polo team under the guidance of coach Milan Cirovic will seek a sixth consecutive qualification for the water polo European championships organised by European Aquatics. In a press conference organised by the ASA, the Aquatic Sports Association of Malta President Karl Izzo explained that over the next days both the men’s and women’s National water polo teams will be in action for international duty with two different targets.
He explained that whilst the men’s national team has one main target that of trying to qualify for the 2026 European water polo championships the women’s national team led by Aurelien Cousin will be seeking to gain experience from their qualification group to be held in Hanover in Germany.
The men’s water polo national team will play 3 games in a qualification group next week with games against Portugal Ukraine and France in that order. The games of this group will all be played at the National pool complex at Tal Qroqq. The first two teams in the group will qualify for the much anticipated 2026 edition of the European water polo championships.
Coach Milan Jovic was happy to see the return of two veteran players namely Stevie Camilleri and Matthew Zammit who have decided to accept the call up for the National team after they had both decided to retire from international duties. Although this is not being considered to be a comeback from retirement it’s still a big asset for the Malta team. Both players had been actively playing with Neptunes and San Gillian respectively over the last four years when they had not been in the Malta national team due to their personal decisions at the time.
Women’s national team coach Aurelien Cousin explained that he has a very young squad with an average age of 20 years with the youngest water Polo female player in his squad just turning 14 years recently.
The Malta women’s national water polo team is set to compete in the European Aquatics qualifiers for the 2026 Women’s European Water Polo Championship from June 6 to 8, 2025, in Hannover, Germany. Malta has been drawn into Group B alongside host nation Germany and Turkiye. This group comprises three teams, with the top two securing qualification for the final tournament.
He said he was jubilant to welcome for her debut with the Malta senior team Elena Borg Birch who has recently been playing in the top Spanish woman first division. She had a spell also recently in Italy where she also turned out for the Italy under 23 National team side due to the fact that she held a dual Passport, Italian and Maltese.
Cousin said that it will be very difficult to qualify for his team and the aim is to close the gap with the opponents and keep on preparing for a long term plan that will hopefully see the woman’s national team play in the women’s European championships in four years time.
At the end of the press conference Karl Izzo reminded the general public that entrance for the Malta men’s senior team games on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday will be free of charge at Tal-Qroqq and the general public is encouraged to attend and support the Maltese players.
