Basketball professional debut at 14
Alba Berlin signs Italian record players
Status: 3:45 p.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes
Matteo Spagnolo signed a long-term contract in Berlin
Source: dpa/Axel Heimken
Alba Berlin continues to work on the squad for the coming season. Now the club committed a special talent. Matteo Spagnolo comes from the youth team of Real Madrid. In his native Italy, the 20-year-old has already set several records.
Alba Berlin has signed Matteo Spagnolo from Italy for the new season in the Basketball Bundesliga and Euroleague. The 20-year-old talent is coming to Berlin “as part of an agreement with Real Madrid” and will receive a contract until the end of the 2025/26 season, Alba announced on Wednesday. Spagnolo is currently preparing for the upcoming World Cup with the Italian national team.
“Matteo is a player we’ve been following for a while. He’s very talented and has enormous potential, so we’re really excited about his signing. This season he will share the great responsibility of the point guard position with Ziga Samar,” said Alba sporting director Himar Ojeda.
The young playmaker first drew attention to himself at the age of 13. In a U14 tournament, he scored 77 points for his team in the semifinals and 78 points in the final. Spagnolo then moved to Rome and made his debut in the third division at the age of 14. As the “Gazetta dello Sport” reports, he was the youngest player in Italy at the senior level at the time.
Alba Berlin is in transition
From 2018, the guard played for Real Madrid’s youth teams and the second men’s team for three years. For the past two seasons, Spagnolo has been on loan to Italian clubs Vanoli Cremona and Aquila Basket Trento. In 2022, he was also drafted 50th in the NBA draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves.
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Alba Berlin has to almost completely rebuild its squad after numerous departures. With Maodo Lo, Jalen Smith, Tamir Blatt, Yovel Zoosmann, Ben Lammers and Luke Sikma, six players left the capital club. In addition to Spagnolo, Ziga Samar and the Americans Matt Thomas and Justin Bean are new to the team of head coach Israel Gonzalez. After three German championships in a row, the Berliners were eliminated in the quarter-finals last season against eventual title holders Ulm. In the Euroleague, Alba finished 16th out of 18 teams.
