Sarunas Jasikevicius appointed as Barça basketball coach

Sarunas Jasikevicius will coach Barça's basketball first team for the next three seasons. The club have reached an agreement with the coach through to 30 June, 2023, as the 44 year old returns to the place where he spent four seasons.

Successful years with Kaunas

‘Saras’ joins from Zalgiris Kaunas, where he earned great results with five LKL titles (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020) and three cups (2017, 2018 and 2020). His coaching career began in 2014, after his time as a player came to an end, and he was assistant coach for Gintaras Krapikas during 1.5 seasons. In January 2016 he was named head coach of Kaunas. 

In the Euroleague, Jasikevicius has found excellent form with Zalgiris, reaching the Final Four in 2018 and the Playoffs in 2019. The Lithuanian team occupied 9th place -one win off the Top 8- in 2019/20, and were enjoying a great second half of the season. 

Two spells at Barça as a player

As a player, Jasikevicius won the Euroleague (2003), two ACB leagues (2001 and 2003) and three Copa del Rey trophies (2001, 2003 and 2013) with Barça, for whom he played from 2000 to 2003 under Aíto Garcia Reneses and Svetislav Pesic, and also in the 2012-13 season for Xavi Pascual. Jasikevicius participated in a total of 241 official games for the club in ACB (162) and Euroleague (79) competition.

His playing career saw him win 4 Euroleagues (with Barça in 2003, Maccabi in 2004 and 2005, and Panathinaikos in 2009), as well as 9 national leagues in the different countries in which he played.