Basket: Mitrovic fired from Monaco
AS Monaco announced on Monday the end of its collaboration with its emblematic coach Zvezdan Mitrovic. The Monegasques remained on five consecutive defeats in the Euroleague. Sunday, they also lost against Strasbourg in the league.
In a statement released Monday afternoon, Monaco announced that they were separating from their coach Zvezdan Mitrovic. The club specifies that the two parties have decided to end their collaboration by mutual agreement. Coach of the Roca Team from 2015 to 2018, he then moved on to the Asvel bench, before returning to the Principality in 2020.
Much more than the last defeat in Strasbourg on Sunday in Betclic Elite (99-90), it is the setback against Milan on Friday (65-71), the fifth in a row in the Euroleague, which seems to have been one too many. The quarrel with Mike James, the second at the edge of the field after the one on the Istanbul floor on November 19, also. The coach had, at the start of the season, to deal with important egos and his relationship with some American players, locker room executives, had been strained lately.
With Monaco, Zvezdan Mitrovic won the Eurocup in 2021 and three Leaders Cup (2016, 2017, 2018). He was also one of the great architects of Monaco’s rise to Pro A in 2015. “From Pro B to the highest European level, every page of our history bears the imprint of Coach Z”, still salutes the Monegasque club in its press release.
Sasa Obradovic, again Mitrovic’s successor
And Monaco was quick to formalize the name of Zvezdan Mitrovic’s replacement. As announced earlier, it is Sasa Obradovic who will now occupy the post of coach. The Serb, predecessor of Zvezdan Mitrovic on the Monegasque bench (during the 2019-2020 season), then joined the Red Star in Belgrade and then left the club in his hometown last December.
For Monaco, his return sounded obvious: “Who other than Sasa Obradovic to succeed Zvezdan Mitrovic?” The club wrote in a second statement. Especially since the Serbian had left Monaco in June 2020, after a season stopped by the Covid and a taste of unfinished business.
For Sasa Obradovic, the fact that Monaco plays in the Euroleague mattered a lot. “The Euroleague was a priority for me. I always have that in mind, and that’s what I ideally want every year. It’s simply the best competition in Europe, with crazy intensity and incredible matches, ”he replied in an interview published by the club. The Monegasques play their next match Wednesday against Kaunas, the Euroleague red lantern.