A trick is going to change your life. “I’m going to Fenerbahçe, see?” After a glorious period of three seasons at Panathinaikos, with five Euroleague titles included, Zeljko Obradovic, the most awarded coach in European basketball, will no longer doubt. After many years of fantasizing about the possibility of returning to work with his good friend, the first person who will be able to face his new challenge will be raising Josep Maria Izquierdo (Badalona, 1967), who for those years was working. in l’Ajuntament de la seva ciutat. “It was the end of July and I was going to answer that if I donated two hours, I would pack my suitcase and go to Istanbul,” joked the Catalan, who was paying attention to this newspaper from Belgrad.
More than a decade later, and after winning the Euro League again in 2017, the ninth for the Serbian and the second for Izquierdo, they continue to work more and more daily, now in Partizan Belgrade, who also rep the Barça in an always hot Stark Arena. “Here basketball is passed on, a feeling of belonging to the club and això not just now in the parties, on the street of the people and transmitting their pride ends and tot lost. “The fans forgive a defeat but not the lack of effort,” says Izquierdo.
“I worry more about others than about them, I always ask if I have received money,” said the Serbian coach.
The Badalona coach had many years in the lower categories of the Penya when in 1993 he brought Zeljko Obradovic to the Olympic bench. The Serb, endorsed by the European Cup won by Partizan two years ago –precisely winning the final against Joventut–, will appear with a trencador book, with a clear Balkan accent, in which the physical appearance had as much weight as the technician “I’m going to say that it was the only way to win and it’s not wrong because I won the European Cup,” presumes Izquierdo, who is going to act as a mediator between the coach and a team with veterans like Villacampa and Corny. Thompson for whom those tremendous physical efforts could pose a problem.
Off the court, Izquierdo and Obradovic also connect quickly and begin to forge a friendship that lasts until the end of the day. The technician is going to fall in love with the area and is going to buy a house in the Maresme that he faces. It happens every summer there and there is age coincidence between the children of all two, the friendship with the Left is going to become stronger. In the long stories that have shared the length of the years – “I started working at 14h and sometimes ended up at 20” –, there has always been an opportunity to work together, but not It will be the end that the Serbian is going to abandon Athens when he is going to be able to realityt.
Esquerre and Obradovic will connect together and leave the track and forge a friendship that lasts 30 years
In the country of the tempest, Izquierdo has been able to connect with Millor Obradovic, a whole legend of banquets, the image of which in the parts resembles that of an angry ogre, always cridant and protestant. “On the court I have no friends, as I believe there are no friends at all. “I’m pretty good because I know that if I lose the one they throw, it’s him,” says Esquerre. Això yes, the Serbian has a different face on the slopes. “He is a charming guy who takes great care of his surroundings, he cares more about the voltant tea than about the mateix – underline the one from Badalona. Hi there are many examples to explain. When it’s time to get paid, for example, it’s always worrying and asking me if I got paid to stay calm. Or if a player goes to the meeting, they are always interested in seeing if they have dealt with them and if they need anything else.”
Nowadays, the duel of these days will be the first in which Kevin Punter, now at Barça, faces his former team, Partizan, only to work on the left. “I think you are starting to collect the fruits of the feina seva, it is one of the crashes of this Eurolliga. I remembered that I was the first to arrive at the training and afterward, at the end, I always remained to continue millorant. “It was an example per a tothom.”
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A conversation with Josep Maria Izquierdo could not end until his esteemed Joventut appeared. “I can always see the other parts and, moreover, I have a direct line with the people there, but not to say that my children are going to the Olympics. This is a complicated situation because it is not just the big clubs that have three players, but also the American University League fits player projects and pays so many. “I thought that La Penya is at an impasse, that it is patint, but it is difficult to maintain a team that combines experience and youth.” This is the opinion of Zeljko Obradovic’s most extremist group.
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