The 37-year-old coach put pen to paper on a four-month contract with the Iran Basketball Federation.

Ciric has played for two Olympic bronze medal squads, one for FR Yugoslavia at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sidney, the other for Serbia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and one silver medal squad for Serbia and Montenegro at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

“Iran water polo can reach the same level as Kazakhstan, Japan and China. I am here to help the team to improve but I have no magic stick. We need time,” Ciric said.

“First of all, we have to analyze our team; this is our short-term goal. Then, we can talk about our long-term goal,” he added.