Virtus Bologna, also in the running for bench Sasha Djordjevic

Eliminated in the playoff semifinals, Virtus Bologna is focusing its attention on the upcoming season, with special thought to the next coach who will have to coach the Vu Nere. The team will be revamped and there will be fewer resources available; general manager Paolo Ronci will remain, while Nenad Jakovljevic is bidding farewell after the missed Scudetto final.

According to reports in Il Resto del Carlino, Bologna is pondering the possible return of Sasha Djordjevic. The experienced Serbian coach coached Virtus for three seasons from 2018 to 2021, winning the Champions League and the Scudetto. After his experience in Italy, he won a Turkish championship with Fenerbahce and then coached the Chinese national team for two years.

Djordjevic would represent the ideal profile for the club: in addition to having experience and charisma, the Serbian coach has no qualms about putting trust in young people. The other name on the list is that of Croatian Velimir Perasovic, another experienced profile, born in 1965. Perasovic has been coaching for more than 20 years and has led Sivilia, Baskonia, Estudiantes, Cibona, Efes Pilsen, Valencia, Anadolu Efes and Kazan in his career.

According to Corriere di Bologna, the club’s list would also include two other profiles: Francesco Tabellini and Petteri Koponen. Tabellini, formerly at Virtus as a youth coach between 2007 and 2014, is considered an emerging profile highly regarded for his method and ability to work with young people, fresh from his experience in Paris that ended with his exoneration last March. Koponen, on the other hand, is a former Virtus player – whose jersey he wore between 2008 and 2012, winning the EuroChallenge in 2009 – who in the last two years has embarked on a coaching career in the NBL, leading the New Zealand Breakers.