Three years ago, Albert Sàbat decided to embark on the Girona Basketball project with the hope of helping the club grow and return, little by little, to the elite. He was xx years old and the club had recently been walking as a senior. The ACB was then a utopia in which only the most daring dreamed. Three seasons later and with the major success of the return to the elite against Estudiantes, Sabbath closes a glorious cycle. Llagosterenc, about to turn 37, has decided to close the circle and retire from professional basketball after 20 active seasons. Of course, Sàbat does not get off the Girona Basketball boat. Once the player stage is over, the former exbase will continue to be linked to the club as a member of Aíto García Reneses’ coaching staff. “I think it’s the right time. After what we have achieved, it is time to give way to other people and start another stage that I take with the same desire, enthusiasm and commitment that I made when I played “, he explains” gratefully “to the club for having the “decide when to retire.”
Saturday, then, closes the circle leaving Bàsquet Girona in the ACB, a category that he tasted for the first time in Fontajau with the old CB Girona in the 2002-03 season while he was part of the linked team, the ADEPAF Figueres. With CB Girona he continued for a couple of seasons until 2005 when he started a career for the LEB Or i Plata defending the shirts of Lleida, Tenerife, Vigo, Vic, Sant Josep Girona, CB Canarias, Alicante and Tizona Burgos. In 2015 he returned to the ACB thanks to the Joventut de Badalona (15-17) and the Obradoiro (17-19). After the stage in Galicia, Sàbat accepted the challenge of returning home for the second time and captaining a Girona Basketball team that had just created the senior team a couple of years ago.
From there, Sabbath became the team’s beacon and a prominent protagonist in the club’s meteoric rise to the ACB. Llagosterenc folds after 97 participations, a promotion to LEB Or, two MVPs of the Catalan League LEB Or, two Catalan Leagues LEB Or and a historic promotion to the ACB. A baggage that makes him, with the permission of Marc Gasol, the first legend of the club.
Closed the stage on the track, Sabbath does not go very far. In fact, it will continue on the floor, a few meters further back. The player from Llagostera will be part of the technical staff and will be one of the assistants of Aíto García Reneses, the new coach of the team. “I really want to start my career at home. I will also be able to do it with Aíto, a coach from whom I will learn a lot, ”said Sàbat, who added that he is“ delighted ”to remain linked to the club. “I can’t be happier and more grateful,” he said sincerely.
Once the debut season for the elite begins, the club will pay tribute to him in the Fontajau pavilion and Sàbat will receive recognition from the Girona public.
With the confirmation of Sàbat’s farewell, Bàsquet Girona continues to work to outline the staff for this new exercise. At the moment, Aíto García Reneses only has three confirmed players: Marc Gasol, Èric Vila and Maxi Fjellerup. From here, the club works to decide which of the players who have achieved promotion continue in the ACB Josep Franch and Jaume Sorolla are the ones with the most numbers – and, above all, to find reinforcements that allow them to face guarantees the season in the elite. Aíto and the sports management have a job ahead of them so as not to fail in the choice of signings and to allow the members, who have not failed and who in less than 24 hours exhausted the almost 4,000 available seats in Fontajau.
