AS Monaco, which has just chained five defeats in the Euroleague and who lost in Strasbourg (99-90) on Sunday in the French league, announced on Monday December 13 that they had ended their collaboration with their coach Zvezdan Mitrovic .
“AS Monaco and Zvezdan Mitrovic have, by mutual agreement, decided to end their cooperation”, affirmed the club of the Principality on its website, before showering it with praise.
“From Pro B to the highest European level, every page of our history bears the imprint of Coach Z. He is a unique example in European basketball: a club and a coach who began their journey from the second division of the national championship, raised the Eurocup above their heads then felt the taste of the Euroleague “.
Coach of Monaco from 2015 to 2018, and returning to the club in June 2020, Mitrovic, 51, led the Principality’s team to the title of French ProB champion in 2015. Then he won the Leaders Cup three times (2016, 2017 and 2018), and above all, on April 30, won the Eurocup against Unics Kazan, offering at the same time a place in the Euroleague for the Red and White.
Eight months after being named best coach of France and the Eurocup, Mitrovic was therefore dismissed, after seeing his team lose five consecutive times in the Euroleague, and dive in Strasbourg on Sunday evening.
From Wednesday, Sasa Obradovic will be on the bench and lead the “Roca Team” in a crucial game. “I want a fighting team, which would kill and sacrifice endlessly, for each other”, explained, on the club’s website, Mitrovic’s successor.
According to Obradovic, “there is a lack of team cohesion”. “My challenge will be to make us become a team”, he continued. “It takes a lot more consistency and the players have not yet reached their maximum potential.”
Former back of the national team of Yugoslavia with which he was three times European champion (1995, 1997, 2001), world champion in 1998 and finalist of the Olympic Games 1996, Obradovic is also a seasoned trainer. German champion in 2006, Ukrainian champion in 2012, he was elected best coach of the Eurocup during the 2017-2018 season.