Jean-Baptiste Sarrazin / Photo credit: JEAN-PIERRE MULLER / AFP 21:39 p.m., April 25, 2023

On April 15, 1993, CSP Limoges left its mark on the history of French sport after winning the Final Four of the European Cup of Basketball Champions Clubs in Athens. A moment engraved in the memory of Richard Dacoury present in the program "Europe 1 Sport".

30 years ago, CSP Limoges became the first French club to win a European Cup, guided by its coach Bozidar Maljkovic and his pugnacity. A surprise coronation that has marked the history of basketball, and more generally, of French sport. CSP player at the time, Richard Dacoury was present in the Europe 1 Sport show (every evening from 20 p.m. to 23 p.m. live on Europe 1) and remembered this great moment. Today, "there are still memories of this great epic. This title is still very present. We celebrated last week and even 30 years later it was very, very strong. I do not get tired of it, "reacted with emotion the former number 7.

For Richard Dacoury, thanks to this European title, Limoges will remain "forever the first" in the history of French basketball. A victory all the more beautiful as the CSP was an outsider in the competition despite the national domination marked by two hat-tricks in the 1980s (1983 to 1985 and 1988 to 1990). However, the CSP had forged a first record on the continental scene, at the lower level, with the title in the Korac Cup (1982 and 1983).

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Bozidar Maljkovic, the magic wand

And this European title, Limoges owes it essentially to a man who upset the trajectory of the Limoges club: Bozidar Maljkovic. "He changed everything. We changed sponsors, jerseys," recalled Richard Dacoury. The Serbian coach revolutionizes the club and transcends the players as the former player Jacques Monclar decrypted in Europe 1 Sport: "Beyond the victory, they were at the end with a fantastic method and gave a form of culture of victory. It will remain as a turning point in French basketball."

Richard Dacoury, Frédéric Forte, Jim Bilba or Michael Young, the Limoges basketball players discover rigor and work hard. "There were great players who made up this team" and who applied to the letter the method imported from the East by the coach. Even today, Limoges remains a reference in French basketball. "This coronation has made the city of Limoges known throughout France," said Richard Dacoury who, through his book entitled Le Dac, intends to transmit this memory to future generations.