World Championships: Alvaro Granados Gives Spain ‘Movie’ Ending with Gold
Alvaro Granados played the hero for Spain on Thursday, with two of the team’s six fourth-quarter goals in a 15-13 win over Hungary at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.
Greece routed Serbia, 16-7, for the bronze medal. Croatia beat Montenegro, 19-13, for fifth place, and Italy edged the United States, 9-8, in the seventh-place match.
Granados, named the MVP of the men’s tournament, scored five goals on 11 shots and added two assists in the final. He put Spain up 11-10 with 6:34 left, then once Gergely Burian tied the game at 11, Alberto Munarriz scored on a power play from Sergi Cabanas to put Spain up for good with 5:32 left.
Granados consolidated that lead with a goal a minute later, and Unai Biel made it 14-11 off a Granados assist, enough to withstand Spain playing the last 3:51 after a red card to Bernat Sanahuja.
Captain Felipe Perrone, who is playing in his 14th and final World Championships, was 2-for-2 shooting with an assist in a storybook end to his career.
“It was really like a movie,” Perrone said. “I couldn’t believe it. I think even the best movies are not so organized like this — like the last goal, winning the World Championship. I’m so, so happy and so proud of the team.”
Photo Courtesy: World Aquatics/Singapore 2025
Sanahuja was named the game MVP with five goals on six shots. Munarriz scored twice and dished four assists. Unai Aguirre made 11 saves in goal. Spain’s defense held Hungary to 33 percent shooting (13-for-40).
“It shows how good we are and how good we play water polo, being able to beat Hungary two times,” Granados said. “I really respect Hungary, how they play water polo, they live water polo, they are probably, if not the best, one of the best countries in history playing this sport. I have huge respect for them. But you know this sport, we did good and we took the victory.”
Burian led Hungary with a hat trick. Daniel Angyal paired two goals with two assists. Vendel Vigvari and Vince Vigvari scored twice each, but on just 4-for-12 shooting.
The victory gives Spain its fourth world title. It moves Spain into a tie with Italy and Hungary for the most in competition history. It’s the first final since 2019 not to go to a shootout.
The battle for bronze was over early, with Greece leading 8-2 at half. Panagiotis Tzortzatos made 13 saves, and Dimitrios Skoumpakis scored two of Greece’s six unanswered goals in the second quarter, part of an eight-goal run to put the game away.
“I think we could do better, but this is sports,” Tzortzatos said. “We played an amazing tournament and we deserved at least to be in the bronze medal. We came for the gold medal, but at least a medal is very good for us.”
Efstathios Kalogeropoulos scored three goals and two assists. Evangelos Pouros added three goals. Skoumpakis and Stylianos Argyropoulos had two goals and one assist each as the Greek men backed the women’s team’s gold medal a day earlier with hardware of its own.
Vasilije Martinovic was the only one who had anything going for Serbia, with four goals on six shots. The rest of the team shot 3-for-26.
Croatia pulled away from Montenegro with an 8-2 margin in the third quarter. Marko Zuvela had three goals and three assists in that quarter alone on the way to five and three for the game. Konstantin Kharkov added three goals and four assists, and Luka Bukic was 4-for-4 shooting.
The U.S. had three chances to tie the Italians late in the seventh-place game, but Gianmarco Nicosia’s ninth save of the game turned them away. Filippo Ferrero and Edoardo Di Somma scored twice each, and Nicholas Presciutti dished three assists.
Ryder Dodd led the U.S. with three goals and an assist. Hannes Daube scored twice, and Adrian Weinberg made 12 saves.
Final Standings
- Spain
- Hungary
- Greece
- Serbia
- Croatia
- Montenegro
- Italy
- United States
- Japan
- Romania
- Canada
- Brazil
- Australia
- China
- Singapore
- South Africa