Sarunas Jasikevicius Departs as FC Barcelona Coach After Three Seasons

Jasikevicius in the Final Four pasada (REUTERS/Ints Kalnins)

Sarunas Jasikevicius closes his cycle as coach of the basketball section of FC Barcelona. The Barça club announced on Monday the departure of the Lithuanian coach, who has led the team for the last three seasons. His replacement will be fellow former player Roger Grimau, who will assume the position for the next two seasons, until June 30, 2025.

Jasikevicius leaves Barcelona with 5 titles at the controls of the Catalans: 2 ACB (2021 and 2023), 2 Copas del Rey (2021 and 2022) and a Catalan League (2022). In addition, he has classified Barça for three consecutive Euroleague Final Fours. His time on the bench, however, has been tarnished precisely because he has not achieved the great objective for which he was signed: to reign in Europe.

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Since the 2020-2021 academic year in which Saras arrived, Barça has always been in the decisive weekend of the European basket. However, they have failed to win the European Cup on any occasion: second in 2021, third in 2022 and fourth in 2023. On the last two occasions, they lost to Real Madrid in the semifinals.

Sarunas Jasikevicius in the semifinals of the Euroleague Final Four (EFE/ Enric Fontcuberta)

The ‘must’ of Barca basketball will therefore continue to be winning the Euroleague, something that has not been achieved since 2010. Jasikevicius did lift the club’s first in 2003, in his first spell as a Barça player (2000-2003). Before becoming coach of the section, he would wear the culé shirt again during the 2012-2013 season. Many trusted that Saras could redirect the course of a team that had been badly affected after the Xavi Pascual era, especially at a European level. However, the successes have been limited to the domestic sphere.

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As Barça points out in its farewell note, Jasikevicius leaves with a total of 268 games he has managed between the Endesa League (131), the Euroleague (118), the Copa del Rey (7), the Super Cup (6) and the Catalan League (6). ), with a record of 204 wins and 64 losses. The affection towards the man from Kaunas is evident in the entity, as has been made very clear: “FC Barcelona wants to publicly express its gratitude to Sarunas Jasikevicius for the professionalism, commitment, dedication and always positive and close treatment that he has shown always towards all the estates that make up the Barça family, and wishes them luck and achievements in the future. Barça will always be your home”.

Barça wins the ACB 2022-2023 (Barça Basket)

The departure of Jasikevicius joins that of the other great name of the Barça squad in recent years: Nikola Mirotic. The until now franchise player has already made it clear, both actively and passively, that he will not continue at Barça after four seasons. One more than a Saras with which there was some hope of a downward renewal in recent weeks, now completely dissipated.

Jasikevicius will be replaced by another old acquaintance from the Palau Blaugrana, also well known among the fans. Before reaching the first team, Grimau (44 years old) has trained, between 2021 and 2023, the Barça subsidiary and its junior team. As an assistant, he worked precisely at Barça B in both LEB Oro and LEB Plata. And, as was the case with Saras, his past as a Barça player precedes him.

We must not forget that Roger Grimau was captain of the team and, furthermore, the person in charge of raising the team’s second Euroleague to the sky in Paris, in 2010. He was a member of Barça between 2003 and 2011: without a doubt, he was the group that scored the most his sporting career. With the culé shirt, the escort in his day won the aforementioned Euroleague, 3 Leagues, 3 Copas del Rey, 4 Super Cups and 3 Catalan Leagues.

Roger Grimau, new Barça basketball coach (Barça Basket)

Barça himself wanted to emphasize, by firing Jasikevicius and introducing Grimau, that “he is starting a new project in the basketball section”. With a coach trained at home and who knows well young talents such as James Nnaji or Michael Caicedo, among others, the idea of ​​lowering the economic piston and betting, without pause but without haste, more on the medium-long player is confirmed. term.

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