Paris (AFP)

Back on the Rock for Zvezdan Mitrovic: after two years at the head of Villeurbanne and a complicated break with Asvel, the Montenegrin was appointed Thursday coach of the Monaco basketball club, a position he already held from 2015 to 2018.

"AS Monaco Basket is particularly pleased to announce the identity of its coach for the coming season, in this case Zvezdan Mitrovic," announced the "Roca Team", which led the Jeep Elite before the season ended. be declared white due to the coronavirus pandemic.

With the Principality club, which he brought into the elite of French basketball, Mitrovic finished three times at the head of the regular season, without being crowned champion, and reached the final of the Champions League, the third European competition.

Mitrovic, who also headed the national selection of Montenegro until September 2019, has also won the Leaders Cup three times (2016, 2017, 2018).

Winner of the Elite championship and the Coupe de France with Asvel in 2019, to which he added a Leaders Cup in 2020, Mitrovic was dismissed at the end of May by the club of Tony Parker, for "serious misconduct".

Critic of the "method" used by Asvel, Mitrovic appealed to the Euroleague to settle the dispute. But on June 23, the Euroleague mediator had to admit his failure to "bring the two parties together".

The Montenegrin was replaced on the bench of Villeurbanne by TJ Parker, the brother of the owner of the club, who has already ensured several interim workers in this position.

In Monaco, Mitrovic succeeds the Serbian Sasa Obradovic, whose departure from the "Roca Team" had announced on June 8. He joined the Red Star in Belgrade.

On the rock, Mitrovic will have to rebuild a private team of several executives: the playmaker Norris Cole and the international back Paul Lacombe were poached in late spring by the great rival of Rhone.

The 2020-21 season of the championship is slated to begin the weekend of September 26-27, the National Basketball League announced in early June.

Monaco will also compete in the Eurocoupe this season.

© 2020 AFP