Alberto Antonia, the Spanish coach who first classified to South Sudan, where there is “no wing” | Basketball Sport

Alberto Antonia (Morsia, 33 years old) was always clear that his passion was basketball. He started playing at the age of 12 in his homeland. From there he jumped to other teams and played in Leb ORO (the second professional basketball league in Spain), although his career was deducted when he suffered in 24 knee injury that forced him to leave him. He left the competition, but not the basketball: “The injury arrives, and at that time, the coach in Ferrol tells me that I finish this season with him. I told him that because the way I should be connected to the basketball is that,” says Antonia. Now, ten years of exercising as a coach and overcoming many teams, he will face another new challenge next July: Aphrobassket With the South Sudan Women’s team. Murcian managed to classify the team in March, an achievement that the club has never achieved.

This success began when Antonia was training in Alkante. I arrived at Gold Leb with Lidntom Alkantity Thanks to this, a offer came through his agent: to be the first coach of the Montenegro Women team. The position of opening many doors. Antonia says: “The biggest difference with children is material, and in many cases he does not deserve the same things in male basketball as in the female, and it is not the same as the club’s management for nine months in one month,” Antonia says.

Three years after the Black Montenegro where two Eurobasket lived, they called it via email from Uganda, and during the first months, Antonia collected both teams. In February 2022, Montenegro was ranked in Eurobasket, and while he also got this position with Uganda for Avraubasket, he had to decide one of the two teams. He chose to continue in the African country since 2023. “It was a sudden change, the basketball in Africa is different, it’s more physical, but it is the least tactical level.”

On July 29, 2023, Uganda won the Senegal on the first day of the African Championship by 85-83, which never happened. Antonia says: “Senegal has won 11 or 12 times in the championship and Uganda has always lost at least 30,” she said. leap“This result was a starting point towards everything that happened later. It was contacted by Gorgui Dieg, former professional basketball player and Vice President of the Senegalese Federation, to train Senegal.” He was working on San Antonio Spears, making two calls with his uncle, who was a player in the American Professional League, and he had this luggage behind him, and creates comfortable for you, “says Antonia.

Finally, Sudan arrived from the south, where they understood that there are still major differences between the two countries: Antonia says that the process of choosing players is completely different depending on the country: “In Senegal, one can choose between about 80 players, and in southern Sudan from the south, they may be about 14 years.” Most girls know each other, and many of them are in Colleges The Americans and the Canadians facilitate the selection process. “Often the players tell us:” Hey, did you control this girl? He plays in such a section on such a site.

In the past three months, the South Sudan Women team has downloaded 15 jobs in Morning FibaFrom 101 to 85, being the second that improved more last year (the first is Switzerland, which promoted 16 jobs). “It is a choice that in his history he did not win a match, and in the last championship it has won three, also against the teams that were placed in the ranking in the arrangement. This is what made us a lot wake up and achieve bronze against Kenya in the AFROBASCET qualifications qualifiers, we have given us the wild card to go to the tournament.

The match against Kenya, which Morsian referred to It was played last February. The Southerd team won the bronze in the Afrobasket qualifiers after imposing 80-63 for the Kenyatta team, a team that won the silver medal last year in the African Championship.

In July, Sudan will compete from Sur for the title, a historical matter for a choice that cannot be trained in his country in the absence of the courts. “Today there is no wing, there is only a path in the streets. They do it that I think will be completed at the end of this year. Male selecting has always been doing all the pre -world training, Olympics, etc., on other continents. We will try to make a update in Spain,” says Antoa.

The coach was combined even a few months before the training of the national team for women in southern Sudan with his work as a second coach at Movistar students, who decided to finish after the dismissal of the first coach, Pedro Revo. Now, Antonia is not worried about his future. His priority is Afrobasket and then seizes any opportunity to be presented to him. “The club decides not to own Pedro, and it is clear that I consider that the person who brought me was forced to go out with it. I did this from respect and sporting loyalty. Now, from May I will start preparing Afrobasket and everything that comes out will be welcome, regardless of whether the basketball is male or female.” The history of South Sudan passes through the Board of Directors.