Real Madrid has officially announced the departure of Basketball coach Sergio Scariolo, after the basketball team's first trophyless season since 2011. "Real Madrid C. F. and Sergio Scariolo have mutually agreed to bring his tenure as head coach of the first basketball team to an end", said the club. There have been reports that the white club will pay five million euros in compensation to Scariolo for breaking the contract two years earlier.
This was the second stint of the Italian manager at Real Madrid, after 1999-2002. He is best known in Spain for being head coach of the Spanish national team during several stints, ending last year. At the helm of the team, he won silver Olympic medal in London 2012, bronze medal in Rio 2016, the 2019 World Cup, and four EuroBasket titles (2009, 2011, 2015, and 2022).
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During the 2025/26 season, he recorded 58 wins and 28 losses, but lost three finals. In a social media video, he said that he "with humility and pride, I can say that we have achieved" the goal of returning Real Madrid to the highest level in the European competition, and the team suffered a lot of injuries during the final parts of the season.
Real Madrid decided to hire Pedro Martínez, coach at Valencia Basket, the breakthrough team of the year in Spain: first EuroLeague final four appearance, Spanish Super Cup (beating Real Madrid) and Spanish League (beating Barça). Martínez's departure to Real Madrid has caused indignation at the Valencia team...