Cosmin Radu ready for challenging season

© Lucio Vidotto

Cosmin Radu was part of the Primorje team that experienced the most successful season in club history last year claiming a second straight Adriatic league title, the Croatian cup and an absolute highlight in becoming Croatian champion. After a busy summer where Radu led his Romania national team to an 8th place at the 2014 European Championships in Budapest the centre-forward is ready for an even more challenging season with his Croatian employer. Three starters left the club but experienced players, one key defender and one absolute scorer, joined the squad in their quest to defend the Adriatic league title in the newly formed Regional League as well as facing a strengthened Jug team in the battle for the Croatian championship. Waterpoloworld asked the 'leftie' about his state of mind looking forward to an exciting new club season.

The preparations for the upcoming season are in full swing. For you after another 'international' summer, how do you feel personally going into a new club season with a little changed team?

We've started training already for a month and we've been building up in the practices our identity. Obviously is only the beggining of the season so there is a lot to put together but we do look well. I personally am looking forward for the start of the championships since playing is what I love most.

The news regarding Primorje this summer was marked by the leaving of both Paulo Obradovic to Jug and the Varga brothers to Szolnok. Giving the addition of both Damir Buric and Marko Elez, how much of a difference will this season be compared to last?

Losing great players like Denes, Daniel and Paulo was for sure a big blow for us as a team but the managment did a great job of replacing them with players that are just as good as them and will keep us at the same level that we were before.

You won the Adriatic league last season and now the league is expanded by the addition of the top 4 teams from Serbia. A good thing?

The Adriatic League was already, in my opinion, the strongest league in the world and now with the addition of those 4 Serbian teams I don't think that anyone can doubt that. It will be very interesting to play so many high quality games not only for us but also the the public coming to the pool.

What are you expectations for that Regional league? Should Primorje be considered one of the title favorites?

Well, since we have won last year's competion, I think it's only logical to be regarded favorites but I think that I can count at least 5, maybe even 6 teams beside us who can win this year's Regional League. All togheter it will be a very fun competition and I can't wait for the first games to start.