Roland Schmidt | Photo: LBS
President of Latvian basketball club “Rīgas Zeļļi” Edgars Buļs in the program “Water oils” has revealed that Roland Šmit’s new contract in Turkey could be the most profitable that any Latvian basketball player playing in Europe has ever received.
It has already been reported that Shmits, who represented Kaunas “Zalgiris” for the last two seasons, signed a contract with the Turkish giant “Anadolu Efes” of Istanbul. If previously it was estimated that Šmits earned around 770 thousand euros this season, which allowed him to earn the honor of the highest-paid player in the Lithuanian league, Buļs claims that the Valmieri’s salary in Turkey will be even higher.
“If I’m not mistaken, according to unofficial information, Jānis Timma used to earn two million euros per season in the Khimki team, but at that time he extended his contract with the team every year. But the total amount of Shmit’s new contract with “Anadolu Efes” could be the largest among Latvians in the history of European basketball – the salary for the season could be over one million euros,” revealed the president of “Rīgas Zeļļi”.
Before joining the Kaunas team, Schmidt represented the “Barcelona” team, becoming the champion of Spain in 2021, also winning the King’s Cup three times. He started his career in Spain in the Fuenlabrada club. In 2017, the Latvian was recognized as the rising star of the ULEB Eurocup.
