Astana had full faith in the coach. What is happening at the only EL club that is not from Russia?
Nikita Biryukov July 5, 2024, 14:15 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
The Kazakh club has renewed the contract with Fotis Takianos.
At the last VTB United League council meeting, which took place on June 14, it became known that Moscow’s Runa and Belarus’ Minsk will not be able to continue participating in the championship next season. It turns out that the only non-Russian club in the 2024/2025 season will be Kazakhstan’s Astana. Let’s find out what’s going on in the team.
Last season, Astana had mainly foreign players: Royce Hamm, Markell Johnson, Carvel Anderson, Devin Davis and Jordan Skipper-Brown. However, this does not mean that local Kazakhstani players did not help the team. For example, Rustam Murzagaliev, Vadim Shcherbak, Dmitry Gavrilov and Roman Marchuk performed excellently. Each of them played more than 10 minutes per match, and the first two on the list even played 15 minutes each, contributing to the team’s success.
On February 20, 2024, Oleg Kiselyov, who had been leading the team since June 2022, was dismissed. Fotis Takianos was appointed head coach. In the second round of the regular season, Astana did not perform well – three wins and 11 losses. The club from the city of the same name did not make it to the play-in stage and ended the season early. But the team decided not to fire the coach, but, on the contrary, to trust him. Today a new contract was signed with the Greek specialist. His assistants will remain Gleb Plotnikov and Dmitry Bazarevich.
Who is this Takianos?
“Astana” is rushing to the playoffs. Who is Fotis Takianos, who headed the Kazakhstan club?
It will be interesting to see what kind of team Astana will become next season. Vasile Pusica, Skipper-Brown and one of the key players in the squad, Royce Hamm, left the club from Kazakhstan and joined Parma. It is a great joy that Markell Johnson, who last season set a new record for interceptions in the United League – 86, will stay. The Kazakh team is trying to compensate for the departure of foreign players, so far they have only been able to sign Shakur Jiston, a striker who previously played for Maroussi (Greece).
The official decision of the United League now allows Astana to include three Russian players in the squad as locals, which is a step towards improving its competitive position, as noted by the president of the league Sergei Kushchenko. At the same time, Astana has a limited right to conclude contracts with basketball players from the extended roster of the Russian national team, as they will be classified as foreign players. Despite this, the United League showed its willingness to reach a compromise for the sake of the development of Kazakhstani basketball, giving Astana such an opportunity.
Fotis Takianos
Photo: Press service of BC “Astana”
Astana has pinned its hopes on Takianos, who has the potential to form a team that matches its basketball philosophy. Now the Club has limited itself to signing contracts with only two players: the aforementioned Jiston and Andrei Desyatnikov, a centre-back from Dynamo Vladivostok, who won the Super League last season. Considering that there is still a long time before the start of the regular season, the Club will have to look for replacements for the foreign players who have left.
It seems that Hamm’s place has been taken by Desyatnikov and Skipper-Brown’s by Juston, but only time will tell how competent and correct these replacements are. It seems that Takianos has a kind of carte blanche in the form of a training camp with a team in the off-season and the opportunity to have his say in terms of completing the squad. On the eve of the new season, Astana is carrying the flag of international participation in the United League. Its achievements last season set the tone for future success, but the club now faces the challenge of not only maintaining but also improving its reputation.
