Nikola Stamenić

Nikola Stamenić (; born 17 April 1949), also known as "the General", is a Serbian water polo coach widely considered one of the greatest coaches in water polo history. Under his guidance, Yugoslavia men's national water polo team won the gold medal in both the 1991 World Championship in Perth and the 1991 European Championship in Athens, becoming World and European Champions in the same year. At club level he successfully coached (most notably) Olympiacos, Crvena Zvezda, Partizan, Bečej and Marseille.

Playing career Stamenić was born in Belgrade, Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia. He played water polo most notably for Partizan Belgrade, where he won two back-to-back European Champions Cups in 1975 and 1976 under the guidance of coach Vlaho Orlić. He was also a member of the Yugoslavia men's national water polo team, winning two bronze medals in the 1973 World Championship in Belgrade and the 1974 European Championship in Vienna. He coached CN Marseille from 2002 to 2005 and won the French Championship in 2005, which was Marseille's first championship title since 1996. His training methods, his tactics and his deep understanding of every aspect of the game of water polo exerted a great influence on every player that ever played under his guidance.