BadalonaMahamadou Landoure is 13 years old, 2.11 meters tall, plays for Real Madrid and broke all records by adding 56 points, 33 rebounds, 14 fouls and 5 blocks in the Endesa Mini Cup final against Barça. The Mali pivot finished with 82 rating credits. The organization chose the player, who usually competes with the white club’s cadet teams, as the best player in the tournament aimed at young children. His statistical average was 19.2 points and 17.4 rebounds.
The Madrid center, who was crowned champion for the ninth time in the last ten years, took a step forward during the semifinals, when he played a decisive role in the triumph against Joventut, adding 14 points and 16 rebounds for 23 credits of assessment Landoure played in last year’s Mini Cup with Barça, a club that signed him up as a guest player. It is the same case for Victor Wembanyama, who contested the 2018 tournament with the Catalan team. The two key people who made that experience with the Blaugrana shirt possible and who tried to sign him were Pere Capdevila and Rubén Alcaraz, but the player’s family preferred to return to France.
“Last year Landoure played in the Mini Cup with Barça and he was nowhere near the player he is now. For those of us who had seen him last year, the evolution is very clear: he moves much better on defense, although he still has room to improve, especially when he is not close to the basket, and on offense he has won resources in the low post and continues to be very powerful finishing near the hoop. Madrid is working on him very well and you can tell that he is playing with the U16s during the season, although he is not yet that dominant there. Competitively, it is far above the Minicopa category”, assures ARA Artau Pascual, director of scouting d’Eurohopes.
Landoure was booed by some of the fans, who questioned his age. The Spanish embassy in Mali has recently received several inquiries related to the date of birth of the player, who aspires to follow in the footsteps of his compatriots such as Soumaila Samake and Cheick Diallo and reach the NBA.
Some clubs in the ACB consider that the format of the Minicup needs revision and are critical of the use made of invited players, some of whom have no intention of being linked with the club that places them in the showcase “The time has come to rethink the Mini Cup”, says one of the promoters of the tournament. Madrid brought two guests to the Badalona competition; the Catalan Max Teixidó, a player from UE Claret who now competes with UE Mataró, and the Montenegrin Marko Popovich. Barça, for its part, bet on the Congolese Josué Oku Yelim, from the same international intermediary as Landoure.
The final of the Endesa Mini Cup brought together 8,630 people at the Palau Olímpic, a record for the competition. Antonio Martín, president of the ACB, emphasized the success of the event. “It’s an incredible fact that demonstrates Badalona’s passion for basketball and how spectacular this competition is, increasingly important for everyone,” he said. The title match was broadcast live by Movistar.
Unicaja, champion in Badalona
Unicaja completed an exceptional Copa del Rey by beating Lenovo Tenerife (80-83) and lifting the trophy. Despite having important losses and not entering the forecasts, the team trained by Ibon Navarro scored the third surprise in four days. Tyson Carter was named the best player of the tournament. Miquel Iceta, Minister of Culture and Sports, was whistled at the moment of handing over the trophy to the champions.