Lazar Marinovic's unique summer: VNL, EuroVolley, and a wedding in between

Lazar Marinovic, the 26-year-old outside hitter of Serbia, had an intense summer before CEV Enel EuroVolley 2026 Men. Not only was he on the roster for VNL and EuroVolley for the first time, but he also got married. In between two matches.

After a match in Orléans against Cuba, during the second week of VNL, he went to Serbia for his wedding and immediately returned the next day to play with his National team.

Will you remember this summer for the rest of your life, right? 
(He laughs and smiles) "Of course I will. It started before summer when I found out that I will be part of the National Team for the VNL, a news that shocked me in a positive way, since the last years were a little turbulent for me. I had already planned the wedding but I decided to think day by day, because I didn’t know for how long I could be part of the group. But then it came the end of June (my wedding was on the 27th), so I had to ask the coach if I can leave, even if I wanted so bad to be with the guys at the VNL."

And what did the coach say?
“At the beginning he was worried because at the same time another player, Zarko Ubiparip, had his wedding too [they are both opposite spikers] and we had a few injured teammates so it was not easy to manage the situation of the group. At the end he said yes, but I had to come back as fast as I could, so I took the first flight after the evening match, went to Serbia, did the wedding and the morning after, at 6 am, I took a flight back to France together with my wife, because after the week of VNL we had a little honeymoon there. It was just three days, but better than nothing.”

And then, after the VNL, the CEV Enel EuroVolley 2026 Men, your first ever: what does it mean to you to be here?
"I already knew most of the guys here, so it was easy for me to adapt to this new life, that is really scheduled, you have a couple of hours of free time a day maximum. But I try not to think about it that much, I prefer to focus on what to do day by day, I am very honoured and happy to be here, and let’s hope we will go on with another victory." 

Serbia is one of the most decorated National teams in Volleyball and now you are part of the new generation of Serbian players, do you feel the pressure from the past?
"I know we are young, that we have to prove that we are as good as the previous generation but at the same time I think we have just to play the way we know, give 200% on the court to reach the best, maybe a medal at EuroVolley as the girls did, but we will see match after match. I also have to say that here at EuroVolley all the teams are competitive, for example Estonia I didn’t know they were so good in almost every aspect of the match: defence, attacks, blocks."

This evening you will play Finland in a sold out arena full of Finnish fans: how do you feel about it?
"It will be tough, In my careerI I played in front of 3-4 thousand people so I cannot wait to see the full arena cheering, the atmosphere is always good when you have a lot of fans. I know they won't support us, but anyway we will play at our best and hope they will enjoy the show."