In a decision taken in consultation with German national and local authorities in the interests of the health and safety of all participants, the 2020-21 Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Finals have been postponed a week and relocated to Valencia, Spain.
Field and new host set for postponed 2020-21 ANGT Finals
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In addition, five teams have been awarded wildcard entries to join the three others that had already punched their tickets to the finals by winning qualifiers played across Europe in recent months.
U18 ASVEL Villeurbanne, U18 Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade, U18 Stellazzurra Rome, U18 Valencia and U18 Zalgiris Kaunas were invited to compete alongside already-qualified U18 FC Barcelona, U18 Real Madrid and U18 Mega SoccerBet Belgrade.
The 18th edition of the ANGT Finals, originally scheduled to run alongside the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four in Cologne, Germany, will now be held from June 3 to 6 at the state-of-the-art L'Alqueria del Basket facility in Valencia, where the first of this season's three qualifying tournaments was staged successfully, as well.
The field features four past champions who won six of the previous 17 ANGT titles. Zalgiris hoisted the trophy in 2003 and 2007, Zvezda was the 2014 champion, Real claimed the crown in 2014 and 2019, and Barcelona took the title in 2016.
The eight teams will be divided into two groups of four, which will play a round-robin format during the first three days of the event. The two group winners will square off in Sunday's championship game to crown the U18 continental champion.
Group A of the ANGT Finals is comprised of ANGT Istanbul winner Real, ANGT Belgrade runner-up Zvezda, ANGT Istanbul third-place finisher Zalgiris and ANGT Valencia sixth-placed team ASVEL. Group B features ANGT Belgrade winner Mega, ANGT Valencia victor Barcelona, ANGT Istanbul runner-up Stellazzurra and host Valencia, which placed seventh in the first qualifier on its own court.
Among the players currently on EuroLeague rosters who previously dazzled in the ANGT are Marcus Eriksson and Niels Giffey (ALBA Berlin), Vasilije Micic (Anadolu Efes Istanbul), Luigi Datome (AX Armani Exchange Milan), Borisa Simanic and Branko Lazic (Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade), Nikita Kurbanov (CSKA Moscow), Nikola Mirotic and Sergi Martinez (FC Barcelona), Diego Flaccadori, Leon Radosevic, Nihad Dedovic and Sasha Grant (FC Bayern Munich), Alexey Shved (Khimki Moscow Region), Yovel Zoosman (Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv), Livio Jean-Charles (Olympiacos Piraeus), Nemanja Nedovic (Panathinaikos OPAP Athens), Alberto Abalde and Usman Garuba (Real Madrid), Klemen Prepelic, Vanja Marinkovic and Guillem Vives (Valencia Basket), and Arturas Gudaitis (Zenit St Petersburg).