2023-06-26 18:36:08
The worrisome economic crisis that grips Barça and has forced it to carry out cuts in all its sections has also taken Sarunas Jasikevicius ahead. After the forced dismissal of Nikola Mirotic, to whom the club did not even propose a salary reduction to continue in the Barça team, the departure of Jasikevicius was added this Monday. The Lithuanian coach leaves the club almost a week after winning the ACB League in disagreement with the decrease in the budget for basketball (at least 20% of 44 million euros) and the management of the controversial departure of the Spanish-speaking player. Montenegrin.
Roger Grimau, until now coach of the Barça subsidiary and without experience in the elite benches, has been chosen to replace Jasikevicius. The former captain of the Barca team takes over from the Lithuanian to lead the team for the next two seasons, after Jasikevicius earned 3.5 million euros gross per year and Barça was not willing to pay more than 600,000 euros per season to its new coach .
Jasikevicius has decided not to renew his contract with Barcelona and is leaving the Catalan club after having won two Leagues and two Cups as coach and having qualified the team for the last three Final Four of the Euroleague. Although the continuity of the Lithuanian coach was practically taken for granted after Barça overwhelmed Real Madrid 3-0 in the Endesa League final, there has been no agreement between Jasikevicius and the entity chaired by Joan Laporta and the coach leaves the club three years after his arrival.
Barça takes an important step backwards without Jasikevicius, who is replaced by Grimau (44 years old), one of Barça’s reference players in recent times, whom the club where he was trained will allow to make an unexpected leap as coach after being coach of the junior and Barça Atlètic (EBA League champion in the 2021-2022 season) in the last two seasons. As a player, Grimau defended the Barça first team shirt for eight seasons and was the captain who lifted Barça’s last Euroleague, in 2010.
«Barça and Sarunas Jasikevicius have decided to part ways after three seasons. The club is starting a new project in the basketball section and has reached an agreement with Roger Grimau, who will be the Barça coach for the next two seasons, until June 30, 2025,” Barcelona announced on Monday afternoon. . The culé club thanked Jasikevicius “for the professionalism, commitment, dedication and always positive and close treatment that he has always shown towards all the levels that make up the Barça family” and wished him “luck and achievements in the future”.
Regarding Grimau and the subsidiary, Barcelona recalled that this season young talents like Dame Sarr and Kasparas Jakucionis have made their debut with the first team, “while others who have passed through their hands, such as James Nnaji -recently chosen number 31 in the draft – Rafa Villar, Michael Caicedo, Agus Ubal and Gael Bonilla have also had minutes with the first team”.
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