Five nations have won the world junior men’s title three times — Greece, Hungary, Italy, Serbia and Spain — and all are in contention for a fourth crown when the 2025 tournament starts on Saturday, 14 June.
Overview
Hungary (above) is the reigning champion, having taken down Serbia 12-7 in the 2023 final in Bucharest, Romania. Serbia was kept scoreless for 17 minutes in this epic encounter.
United States of America snared the bronze medal with an 11-6 demolition of Greece.
Spain finished 10-8 over Italy for fifth and Montenegro went 12-9 over Croatia for seventh.
As with these events, the top eight teams from 2023 are seeded into the main two groups in Zagreb with the lower four groups having the harder route to the quarterfinals, having to win their groups and then beat the bottom teams from the top-tier groups.
Groups
USA (above) and Hungary will join Croatia (seventh in Bucharest) and Montenegro (eighth) in Group A.
Serbia and Greece are quartered with Spain (fifth) and Italy (sixth) in the equally powerful Group B.
Group C contains Brazil (14th), Germany (13th) and South Africa (18th), who all played in Bucharest.
Group D has Kazakhstan (21st in 2021), New Zealand (17th in 2023) and Iran (15th).
Group E boasts Colombia (16th in its last appearance in 2013), Argentina (16th) and Australia (11th).
Group F has Canada (back in the fold after 10th in 2019), China (16th when it last appeared in 2019) and Singapore (21st in 2007 when it last played this level).
History
While the possibility is for one team to go to four titles, upsets could occur.
Of the 16 teams fronting this year, 10 teams have made the medal dais since this tournament began in Milan/Como/Bergamo, Italy in 1981 when the Soviet Union took gold over Cuba, with Hungary securing the bronze from Italy.
Hungary has the proudest record with 11 medals — three gold, four silver and four bronze.
Italy is second on the list with nine medals — three gold, four silvers and two bronze.
Serbia comes in third at eight medals with three victories (the last in 2021), two silver and three bronze.
Croatia has seven medals — two gold, four silver and one bronze.
Greece also has seven with three crowns —2001, 2017 and 2019 — two silver and two bronze.
Spain, who last won in 1991, has three gold, two silver and one bronze.
The other medallists are Australia with silver in Kuwait City in 1999; Montenegro with bronze in 2021; United States of America with bronze in 2023 and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) in 1989.
Other medallists include the Soviet Union ( 2-1-0), Serbia & Montenegro (2G), Cuba (0-2-1), Slovakia (2B) and Yugoslavia (1-2-2).
Hungary and Italy are the only two teams to make seven gold-medal encounters.
International springboard
A scan of the current national squads shows that a host of players from the 2023 championships have progressed to senior level and competed with distinction.
No team has done what Hungary has, however, with seven players from 2023 now in international ranks and another who played World Cup this year getting a nudge up.
These include (and is not a complete list):
Hungary: Captain Vince Vigvari, Erik Molnar, Akos Nagy, David Tatrai, Zsombor Ekler and Zsombor Vismeg while Marcell Szecsi has just been called to join the senior squad. He is a centre forward and son of the triple Olympic champion Zoltan Szecsi. Vince Varga, who was part of the World Cup team this year, will be playing in Zagreb, and is set to join the senior team after these championships.
USA: Brothers Chase Dodd and Ryder Dodd.
Greece: Nikolaos Gkillas.
Australia: Marcus Berehulak, Tristan Glanznig.
Japan: Kai Inoue, Daichi Ogihara (above).
Serbia: Vasilje Martinovic.
Spain: Marc Valls.
Germany: Till Hofmann.
Romania: Andrei Neamtu.
Italy: Francesco Condemi.
New Zealand: Cole Phillips.
First-day line-ups
Group A has Hungary and Montenegro facing off with USA and Montenegro in the other encounter.
Group B has Greece taking on Italy and Serbia facing Spain in the last match of the evening.
Group C’s match is between Brazil and South Africa — the day’s first encounter — followed by Group D’s Kazakhstan-New Zealand battle; Group E’s Colombia-Australia match-up and Group F’s Canada-Singapore.
Summary
Hungary won last year’s Under-18 world crown and many of these would have progressed to the U20 team. Serbia and USA collected the minor medals at the previous U20 tournament and the only team missing in Zagreb from the top 10 in Belgrade last time is the Netherlands.
Expect these leading nations to create waves and be well-established in the quarterfinals