Goodbye to an entire era in Real Madrid basketball. After eleven years as head coach of the white team, where he has been key in one of the most glorious cycles in its history, Pablo Laso has been dismissed from the Madrid bench and will be replaced by Chus Mateo. An unexpected move after the meringues reached the Euroleague final and won the League against Barça that apparently responds to a key reason: the differences of opinion that exist between the coach and the club about Laso’s own state of health.
And it is that the coach from Vitoria suffered a heart attack a little over a month ago which forced him to leave the team and focus on his recovery. But just a week after the incident, Laso already directed the training sessions for the League final and was present in the fourth game of the final, in which the tie closed with a celebration in which he also participated. All this, despite the fact that the club asked for complete restwhich increased the problems between the coach and the sports management.
Once the season was over, the tug-of-war would have continued, with Real Madrid insisting to Laso about the need for him to take a break and his repeated refusal, who looks perfectly qualified to start the 2022/23 season as first coach. Until this Monday, when the management of the white club has decided to terminate the contractual relationship that united both parties.
According to different media, Madrid sources affirm that the club had transferred various proposals to Laso to facilitate a change that they saw as essential according to the medical judgments available to them. It had even been considered as an option for the coach to finish his contract despite taking the sabbatical year or for him to become part of the technical team within an office, but the coach from Vitoria had no intention of taking a step to the side in any case.
«In the spirit of Real Madrid, according to the version that comes out of their offices, there was nothing else to do but wait for Pablo Lasoone of the best coaches in history both there and nationally, until the warnings from the medical services in reference to the myocardial infarction on June 5 and its consequences ceased, “says the specialized basketball journalist Mike Maestre in the AS newspaper.
During the decade in which Pablo Laso has been coach of Real Madrid, the white team has won six ACBs, six Copas del Rey, seven Spanish Super Cups, two Euroleagues and one Intercontinental Cup, becoming one of the most golden times in the entity’s history. A total of 22 titles in addition to his own style that led the Vitorian to become one of the most respected coaches in the entire international basketball scene.
Chus Mateo, what will happen to him in the position, he has in fact been Laso’s own assistant in recent years and has already replaced him on the Real Madrid bench when the man from Vitoria suffered a heart attack, so in principle it seems clear that in Chamartín are committed to the continuity of the projectalthough without its main protagonist in front.
