The Slovenian way to rebuild Barça

BarcelonaThe Aleksander Sekulic era at Can Barça began this Wednesday. The blaugrana club and Sekulic have reached an agreement for the incorporation of the coach as the new head of the culer bench. The 48-year-old coach will sign a contract until June 30, 2028, and will become the first Slovenian coach in the history of Barça basketball.

Sekulic's appointment generates consensus both at the Palau Blaugrana and within the board of directors. The initial idea was to sign Paolo Galbiati, but Baskonia rejected Barça's proposal and demanded an unattainable compensation. Despite considering other coaches such as Ergin Ataman, Sergio Scariolo, and Velimir Perasovic, the club has finalized Sekulic's incorporation. The Slovenian comes from coaching Dubai Basketball, which is precisely the EuroLeague club where Xavi Pascual, Íñigo Zorzano, and Òscar Orellana will go. Furthermore, Albert Oliver will also not continue in the technical staff. One of Sekulic's assistants will be Marc Estany, who until now was at Kids&Us Manresa.

Sekulic began his coaching career at various clubs in his home country, with extensive experience combining the roles of assistant coach and head coach. In the 2021-22 season, he took the reins of Era Nymburk in the Czech Republic, with whom he became League champion. In 2022, he made the leap to Russia, where he coached Lokomotiv Kuban for two seasons (2022-24). In the 2025-26 season, he took charge of Zenit Saint Petersburg, until he packed his bags to move to Dubai in April. The new blaugrana coach is the current coach of Slovenia, a position he has held since 2020. At the helm of the national team, Sekulic secured qualification for the Olympic Games for the first time in the country's history and finished his journey in Tokyo in the semifinals, in a meritorious fourth position, in the summer of 2021. Previously, as an assistant coach for his country, he also won the EuroBasket in 2017.

New team model

Barça, which will increase its salary investment from 28.6 to 35 million euros, wants to rejuvenate the project and bet on a generational change. After announcing the signings of Olivier Nkamhoua, Justin Robinson, Agustín Ubal, Josh Nebo, Umoja Gibson, and Stanley Umude, the basketball section has a verbal agreement with Tyrese Martin. The Blaugrana club expects to announce Xevi Pujol as technical secretary in the first week of August. The Catalan communicated his departure to Baskonia with two months' notice, but his incorporation will end in litigation, as the Basque entity wants greater financial compensation.

The only players whose continuity is assured are Juan Núñez, Darío Brizuela, and Joel Parra, whom Barça renewed a few days ago. "Those of us who are here will give 100% to defend this crest as it deserves," says the Catalan forward. Despite having a contract in force, the future of Kevin Punter and Toko Shengelia is uncertain. The American shooting guard wants to leave the project, but cannot find a club that matches the escalating salary he agreed to with the Culer entity. The Georgian power forward, who agreed to his renewal when Xavi Pascual and Will Clyburn were part of the team, has doubts and has opened a period of reflection.