Not many players have won the EuroLeague and been crowned continental champions with their national teams. Let's see who has.
Celebrating those who have worn EuroLeague and FIBA continental crowns
Article
6 Mins read
Even though it is never easy to find success on both a club and national team level, some have managed to do just that. In fact, every EuroBasket-winning team in the 21st century has had at least one Turkish Airlines EuroLeague or BKT EuroCup winner on its roster.
No one has won more than King Rudy
In recent years, Spain's dominance at the EuroBasket has allowed some players to put together a legendary roll of honors. No one more than Rudy Fernandez, who first won the EuroCup with Joventut Badalona in 2008 and then added EuroBasket crowns in 2009 and 2011. In 2015, he won the EuroLeague with Real Madrid and a EuroBasket gold medal in the space of a few months! He added more EuroLeague championships in 2018 and 2023 and another EuroBasket gold in 2022.
Fernandez's achievements also include two FIBA World Cup titles, three Olympic medals, seven Spanish Leagues championships, seven Spanish Cups and the only Intercontinental Cup he took part in, which came with Real in 2015.
Fernandez leads a short list of players who won the EuroLeague, EuroCup and EuroBasket titles. Ricky Rubio won the EuroLeague with FC Barcelona (2010), the EuroCup with Joventut (2008) and two EuroBaskets with Spain (2009, 2011) before age 21. That list also includes Nando De Colo (CSKA Moscow 2015, 2019; Valencia Basket 2010; France 2013), Aleksey Savrasenko (Olympiacos Piraeus 1997; CSKA 2006, 2008; Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar 2013; Russia 2007), Antonis Fotsis (Panathinaikos Athens 2000, 2009, 2011; Dynamo Moscow 2006; Greece 2005), Felipe Reyes (Real 2015, 2018; Real 2007; Spain 2009, 2011, 2015), Lazaros Papadopoulos (Panathinaikos 2002; Olympiacos 2012; Dynamo 2006; Greece 2005) and Dejan Tomasevic (Panathinaikos 2007; Valencia 2003; Yugoslavia 1995, 1997 and 2001).
More multiple-time winners
There is also an elite group of players who have won the EuroBasket and the EuroLeague three times. Only two of them won all six trophies in the 21st century: Fernandez and longtime teammate Sergio Llull (Real 2015, 2018, 2023; Spain 2009, 2011, 2015). Recent three-time EuroLeague and EuroBasket winners also include Dejan Bodiroga (Panathinaikos 2000, 2002, Barca 2003; Yugoslavia 1995, 1997, 2001) and Zoran Savic (Split 1990, 1991, Virtus Segafredo Bologna 1998; Yugoslavia 1991, 1995, 1997).
You have to go way back to complete the list with Gennady Volnov (CSKA 1961, 1963, 1969; Soviet Union 1959, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1969), Janis Krumins (ASK Riga 1958, 1959, 1960, Soviet Union 1959, 1961, 1963), Valdis Muiznieks (ASK Riga 1958, 1959, 1960; Soviet Union 1957, 1959, 1961) and Maigonis Valdmanis (ASK Riga 1958, 1959, 1960; Soviet Union 1957, 1959, 1961).
Coaches Obradovic and Gomelsky set the standard
When it comes to head coaches, two names stand out. Zeljko Obradovic captured nine EuroLeague titles with five different teams: Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade in 1992, Joventut in 1994, Real in 1995, Panathinaikos in 2000, 2002, 2007, 2009 and 2011, and Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul in 2017, while he also lifted the EuroBasket trophy with Yugoslavia in 1997. If you think 10 combined titles are unbeatable, think again.
Alexander Gomelsky led ASK Riga to the first-ever EuroLeague three-peat from 1958 to 1960, won a fourth title with CSKA in 1971 and added seven EuroBasket crowns with the Soviet Union (1961, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1979 and 1981).
More and more champions!
Some 42 players have won either the EuroLeague, the EuroCup, or both, as well as a EuroBasket gold medal in the 21st century.
Marko Jaric was the first player to win the EuroLeague and the EuroBasket in the 21st century, getting both titles in 2001. Bodiroga and Tomasevic were his 2001 EuroBasket teammates and went on to win the EuroLeague.
The only Lithuanian to claim EuroLeague and EuroBasket titles was Sarunas Jasikevicius (Barca 2003; Maccabi Tel Aviv 2004, 2005; Panathinaikos 2009; Lithuania 2003). Eurelijus Zukauskas, Mindaugas Zukauskas and Saulius Stombergas narrowly missed the cut, winning EuroBasket 2003 with Lithuania and the EuroLeague with Zalgiris Kaunas... in 1999.
There were 11 EuroLeague winners — or future winners — on the 12-man Greek squad that won EuroBasket 2005: Ioannis Bourousis, Dimitris Diamantidis, Dimos Dikoudis, Antonis Fotsis, Nikos Chatzivrettas, Lazaros Papadopoulos, Theo Papaloukas, Vassilis Spanoulis, Kostas Tsartsaris, Panos Vasilopoulos and Nikos Zisis. Only Michalis Kakiouzis, who reached three EuroLeague Final Fours, didn't lift the trophy.
J.R. Holden and Victor Khryapa join Savrasenko as Russian winners. Anthony Randolph and Luka Doncic won EuroBasket 2017 with Slovenia and the EuroLeague with Real in 2018, and the rest of the names are Spanish: Fernandez, Llull, Rubio, Reyes, Sergio Rodriguez, Juan Carlos Navarro, Victor Sada and Juancho Hernangomez, who raised the EuroBasket 2022 trophy before helping Panathinaikos win the EuroLeague last season.
Plenty of Spanish players join Rubio, Reyes and Fernandez as EuroCup and EuroBasket winners: Alberto Diaz, Pablo Aguilar, Victor Claver, Pau Ribas, Fernando San Emeterio, Guillem Vives and Alex Mumbru.
The list is completed by Antoine Diot, Mickael Gelabale and Florent Pietrus of France, Savrasenko, Sergey Bykov, Sergey Monya, Zakhar Pashutin and Petr Samoylenko of Russia, Papadopoulos and Fotsis of Greece, and Tomasevic of Serbia.
Celebrating the seven EuroLeague and AmeriCup champions
The list of players who have trophies as champions of both the EuroLeague and the FIBA AmeriCup is short. It features seven names: Manu Ginobili, Pepe Sanchez, Andres Nocioni, Facundo Campazzo and Gabriel Deck of Argentina, Anderson Varejao of Brazil, and Gustavo Ayon of Mexico.
The first to lay claim to this honor was Ginobili, who in 2001 won the EuroLeague with Virtus Bologna and later that summer won the AmeriCup. His Argentina teammate that summer, Sanchez, was next when he claimed a EuroLeague championship the next year with Panathinaikos. Andres Nocioni, who — like Ginobili and Sanchez — won the AmeriCup for the second time in 2011, tasted EuroLeague glory for the first time in 2015.
Nocioni is one of the three Argentinians to win the AmeriCup as well as the EuroLeague with Real. Campazzo was already a two-time EuroLeague champion (2015, 2018) when he won the AmeriCup alongside Deck in 2022. Deck then joined the club by winning the EuroLeague with Real last season.
Ayon joins Campazzo as the only player to win the EuroLeague twice as well as the AmeriCup. Ayon, who won the 2013 AmeriCup with Mexico, was a teammate of Campazzo on both the 2015 and 2018 Real squads. Brazil's Varejao completes the list; he was a EuroLeague champion with Barcelona in 2003 and an AmeriCup champion in both 2005 and 2009.
A single EuroLeague and AfroBasket
Salah Mejri from Tunisia is a two-time AfroBasket winner (2011, 2021), the 2011 AfroBasket MVP and, with Real Madrid, won the 2015 EuroLeague. He is the only player with both titles, though Senegal's Boniface Ndong came pretty close. Ndong won the EuroLeague in 2010 with Barcelona and earlier was named the 2005 AfroBasket MVP even though Senegal finished second after a narrow loss to Angola.
More players will surely add their names to these lists in 2025 when a new crop of EuroBasket, AmeriCup and AfroBasket winners celebrate atop the podium.