Carlos Arroyo, new FC Barcelona Lassa playmaker

35 year old Carlos Arroyo has left Cangrejeros Santurce of Puerto Rico in his home country to join Barça for one season, pending his medical examination.

Last season, the point guard was at Galatasaray in Turkey, where he averaged 15,5 points and 5 assists in domestic play and 9.7 points and 4.3 assists in the ten Euroleague games he featured in.

Born in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, he’s coming to Barcelona with experience of both the NBA and European basketball behind him.

NBA history

He played for no fewer than seven different clubs in nine years in the United States, Toronto, Denver, Utah, Detroit, Orlando, Miami and Boston. It was in 2003/04 alongside Raül López at the Utah Jazz that he really made his breakthrough, although this was followed by two difficult years with Detroit. In 2005 he moved to Orlando and recovered his previous form, and four years later he moved to another Florida based club, Miami, to play an important role with Dwayne Wade. His final experience of stateside hoops was at Boston in 2010.

Back and forth

Arroyo had already crossed the Atlantic when he was just 22 to play for TAU Ceràmica in Vitoria, Spain, but after just a handful of matches he returned to the US. He would not be back in Europe until the 2008/09 season when he joined Maccabi Tel Aviv, where he was named MVP of the Israeli league finals.

After two years back in the USA, he then started turning out for Besiktas of Turkey in 2011. After one and a half fine years, he switched to their Istanbul rivals Galatasaray in 2013, with whom he faced Barça in the Euroleague quarter finals. Injury meant he only played a minor role in a 3-0 defeat for his team.

After a brief stint back with his boyhood club in his native Puerto Rico, the much travelled player is now back to play with his fifth European club, FC Barcelona.