Madrid (AFP)
He is back: almost 20 years after his departure, the emblematic Spanish pivot Pau Gasol (40) will return to his training club, FC Barcelona, until the end of the season, the player and the Catalan club have jointly announced. Tuesday.
"Pau Gasol returns to Barça. And will stay there until June 30, 2021": it is with these words that the Catalan club made the official news Tuesday afternoon in a press release.
"I am very happy to announce that I am coming home and that I will join the ranks of FC Barcelona basketball soon. I want to put my qualities and my experience at the disposal of the club at a key moment of the season", for his part indicated Pau Gasol in a press release posted on his Twitter account.
According to the Spanish press, Barça, who had been looking for a pivot since last summer, closely followed the evolution of the tarsal scaphoid fracture of the left foot which kept the tall Spaniard (2.16 m) away from the prosecution for almost two years, and offered him a place in its workforce.
He will report to coach Sarunas Jasikevicius, with whom he played at the turn of the millennium with the Blaugrana, and will reunite with interior Nikola Mirotic, with whom he played in Chicago and Milwaukee in the NBA.
Pau Gasol will be able to play in the Euroleague with Barça if it is validated before Wednesday February 24, deadline to register a recruit who has not yet played a single minute in the queen of European competitions this season ... while the Barça already sits at the top of Europe.
- forced break -
A return to his roots that caused a sensation in Spain: best player in the history of Spanish basketball, Pau Gasol joined Barça at 16, in 1996, before leaving him five years later for the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA, where he spent 18 years and won two titles (2009 and 2010).
For his last season at Barça, in 2000-2001, he finished MVP of the finals of the Spanish championship that Barça had won 3-0 against Real Madrid, and crowned in the Copa del Rey ... all at only 20 years.
He will then join the big American league, where he will spend most of his career between Memphis (2001-2008) and the Los Angeles Lakers (2008-2014), alongside his friend Kobe Bryant.
He will then freelance in Chicago (2014-2016), San Antonio (2016-2019), and Milwaukee (2019), before observing a forced break due to injuries to his left foot.
The Spain international (208 caps) wants to end his career at the Tokyo Olympics, which were postponed from summer 2020 to summer 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
This will be the 5th Games in which he will participate after Atlanta-2004, Beijing-2008, London-2012 and Rio-2016.
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