By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Crvena Zvezda announced that Giannis Sfairopoulos is the new head coach of the team on a two-year deal. He replaces Dusko Ivanovic who was officially sacked Saturday (21/10) following Red Star‘s third loss over the first four EuroLeague games of 2023-24.
Sfairopoulos last coached Maccabi Tel Aviv from 2018 to February 2022, winning three Israeli League championships (2019, 2020, 2021), the 2021 State Cup, and the League Cup of 2020 and 2021. Zvezda will be his fifth post as head coach after stints also with Kolossos Rhodes, Panionios, and Olympiacos Piraeus, with which he established himself in the EuroLeague.
Under Sfairopoulos, Olympiacos reached the 2015 and 2017 EuroLeague Finals. In Greece, the Reds claimed the back-to-back 2015 and 2016 Greek League championship titles.
Olympiacos and Sfairopoulos parted ways in June 2018 and he was appointed head coach of Maccabi in November the same year.
The Greek coach has already arrived in Belgrade and he is expected to be introduced soon to the local media. Currently, the vice-president of the EuroLeague Head Coaches Board, Sfairopoulos was also an option for Baskonia if they decided to part ways with coach Joan Penarroya.
Of course, that’s not the case anymore. Zvezda currently has one of the best rosters assembled in the history of the club, the goal for the team is not just the EuroLeague playoffs but even make it to the Final Four.
Sfairopoulos who has been there with Olympiacos two times is considered the right person to deliver on those high ambitions of the management.