Aito takes a sabbatical – Gonzalez becomes boss at Alba

Change: Israel Gonzalez (right) takes over from Aito Garcia Reneses.

imago images/Andreas Gora

It’s not a tough cut for Alba when Gonzalez takes over the executive role. The 46-year-old Spaniard has been working in the Berlin coaching staff for years and is now following his 74-year-old compatriot, who is taking a break. Since last November Gonzalez has been a so-called “Associate Head Coach” to relieve Aito – he will be promoted in his current contract, as the “Albatrosses” reported on Tuesday.

Aito and Gonzalez have won the championship twice with Alba in the past four years, the BBL Cup once and reached the EuroCup final in 2018/19.

Sports director Himar Ojeda speaks in the official announcement of a “new chapter” that Alba is opening: “We have prepared this step for a long time, starting with his role as assistant coach and then switching to associate head coach last autumn. Israel has a big one Understanding of the game, he shares our basketball idea and our values ​​in the club. ” A door will always be open for Aito in Berlin.

Continue “Nice and exciting game”

The new head coach was happy to be “now the head coach of this great club”. His plan at the Ostbahnhof is to continue promoting “this beautiful and exciting basketball game”, again with an audience. “It will be overwhelming to finally play in front of a full hall again, if circumstances permit.”

For his part, predecessor Aito spoke of a great time in Berlin. “I enjoyed being in this city, in this club, with the fans and especially with the people I worked with every day,” said the outgoing coach. “Now the time has come for me to take a break as a coach and recharge my batteries. I am very happy for Israel that he is taking over the position of Alba head coach.”

During Aito’s corona illness, Gonzalez had already coached the team alone for almost a month and led to seven wins in eleven games despite injury-related failures of some key players.