Basketball
The crisis can bring top players onto the market at bargain prices
Daniel Hackett left CSKA Moscow for Virtus Bologna. Due to the war in Ukraine, the huge pool of foreign players in the VTB league whets the appetite of the teams, especially since some cases can be at… a bargain price, as the show Must Go On With Pantelis Diamantopoulos put it.
The situation in Russia has emptied all teams in the country of foreign players. CSKA Moscow, Zenit and Unics Kazan are the most typical examples of this, with the three EuroLeague teams playing almost exclusively with domestic players for the VTB League until recently.
How will all teams fare for the rest of the season? Unknown as no one can predict how the war in Ukraine will continue. The most likely scenario at the moment, however, is the one that speaks of maintaining the existing situation.
If this is confirmed, it is very likely that the contracts will be gradually terminated and the foreign players will look for the next career step for the rest of the season.
Daniel Hackett has already started, leaving CSKA Moscow to return to Italy for Virtus Bologna. However, the veteran Warden may not be the last, but the example that others will follow. While even Will Claiborne was registered as a transfer target from Real Madrid before Misko Raznatovic’s rebuttal.
And since the pool of foreign players in the VTB league is huge and includes several interesting cases, it becomes clear what kind of dominoes can be made in the market. Especially if we are talking about bargain prices in several cases, since the contracts have a monthly or two-month term – until the end of the season.
By the way, one last thing worth mentioning: the transfer window in the EuroLeague has been permanently closed since February 23, 2022. Opera and means that every addition to a team in the tournament is exclusively related to the domestic league.
At the Must Go On show on Friday, March 4th, Pantelis Diamantopoulos and Alexandros Trigas discussed and analyzed the concrete possibility.
I am a sports writer and journalist who has written for various online publications including Sportish. I’m originally from the UK but currently live in Toronto, Canada. I’m also an author on Sportish and have written several articles on a variety of sports-related topics.