Meeting point 5:15 a.m., Munich Airport, Terminal 1: Early rising was on the agenda for the U18 Bayern basketball team on Thursday morning. Via Istanbul, the team headed to Podgorica – the capital of Montenegro is the first venue of a qualification tournament of the renowned Adidas Next Generation Tournament, to which FCBB has been invited again. The additional locations this year are Belgrade, Dubai, and Paris, with the finals taking place as part of the Final Four in Berlin.
Kharchenkov leads the team
The Bayern almost traditionally face Real Madrid in their group, along with Venice and Ljubljana. It all kicks off this Friday, with the placement games taking place on Sunday.
The Bayern stick to their concept and enter this tournament with a very young team. This year, players born in 2006 and younger are eligible to play. However, only five players from the oldest age group are in the squad selected by Emir Mutapcic, with guest player Andrija Susic from the Serbian club KK Mladost Cacak, even an U16 talent.
Leading the squad is the BBL-experienced Ivan Kharchenkov (17, born in 2006). He looks forward to his first ANGT after having to watch from the sidelines due to injury at last year's Munich preliminary round: "I am very happy to have the chance to play in such a big tournament. I already know a few players from the national team, and I am excited to play against them. I believe we have prepared well and come together to perform well at the tournament."
FCBB coach Emir Mutapcic, standing in for the absent U19 coach Federico Perego, looks ahead: "The ANGT is a new challenge for our very young team. Our goal is to represent ourselves well as a club and program. Although we are very young, I believe we are also very talented. We want to showcase this talent over the three days in Podgorica."
ANGT 2024 in Podgorica:
- Friday, 15.45 CET: FCBB – Ljubljana
- Saturday, 9 Uhr: FCBB – Venedig
- Saturday, 20.15 Uhr: FCBB – Real Madrid
- Saturday: Placement game
Das Aufgebot des FCBB:
- No. 3 – Aksel Laso – born in 2006
- No. 4 - Andrija Susic – born in 2008
- No. 5 – Dominik Dolic – born in 2006
- No. 6 – Nikolas Sermpezis – born in 2007
- No. 7 - Koray Grenz – born in 2007
- No. 8 – Desmond Yiamu – born in 2006
- No. 9 – Alan Topic – born in 2007
- No. 10 – Ivan Kharchenkov – born in 2006
- No. 12 – Matteo Petters – born in 2006
- No.14 – Ivan Volf – born in 2006
- No. 15 – Namik Muratovic – born in 2008
- No.16 – Eduard Rantz – born in 2007
Coaches: Emir Mutapcic (Headcoach), Renato Kapular (Assistant Coach), Moris Hadzija (Assistant Coach), Pablo Lopez (Athletic Coach), Marie Henriksson (Physiotherapist), Jovana Vucetic und Zoran Cvetkovic