The magic of Facu Campazzo on his victorious debut with the Serbian Red Star

Facundo Campazzo received a nice gift from Christmas. The 31-year-old from Cordoba made his debut for the Red Star Belgrade and started with everything. Because he had 11 points (1-of-1 doubles, 2-of-5 triples and 3-of-3 free throws) and added three rebounds and five assists in his team’s 86-57 home win against Borac Mozartfor the twelfth date of Adriatic League.

The Argentine point guard, who joined the club a week ago, set foot on the parquet for the first time with 5’16 left in the first quarter and blew up the Aleksandar Nikolic Hallwho had dressed in blue and white to welcome him.

He entered, with the number 7 shirt, in place of the man from Mar del Plata Luca Vildozza, his friend – they had dinner together, with their families, on Christmas Eve – and teammate of the Argentine national team. And he played just over 19 minutes, helping the hosts add their tenth win (10-1 record) and assert themselves at the top of the tournament table, which brings together clubs from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia , Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia and North Macedonia.

Vildoza, meanwhile, was on the field for 14 minutes and had three points, two rebounds and five assists. Ognen Dobric, with 15 points, was the top scorer of the Red Star; while Hunter Hale he scored 17 goals for the visitors, one of the weakest teams in the competition (3-9 record).

Campazzo returned to play after almost a month. His last match had been on November 27, in the fall of Dallas against Minnesota, for the regular season of NBA, in which the Argentine played in just eight of the Texan franchise’s 19 games. After that match, the Mavericks they terminated their contract.

A few days later, Cordovan was released as a free agent and began looking for a new destination. There has been talk of the possibility of his return to the real Madrid, with whom he enjoyed his most successful years at club level; but there was no agreement with the Spanish club, which offered him a fee that the player and his representative deemed “insufficient and unacceptable”. And Red Star took the opportunity to make him an offer that he liked.

Last Monday, Campazzo arrived in Belgrade and signed a deal for $1,800,000 for the rest of this season, $2,500,000 for the next one and the possibility of breaking the relationship at the end of this season. And even if many have assured that the Argentine would have chosen to make use of that clause; In an interview with the Serbian media, he himself assured: “I am happy to be with this team and this coach (the prestigious Montenegrin Dusko Ivanovich). I have signed for two seasons and I hope to complete them until the end.”

Campazzo’s first official “appearance” with the team was on Thursday, in the duel in which Red Star beat him as a guest 90-86 olympiacosfrom Greece, for the 15th round of the regular phase of euroleague.

In that match – which was played in the Stadium of Peace and Friendship of Piraeus and in which Vildoza shone with 22 points (3-5 doubles, 2-7 triples and 10-11 free throws), 8 assists and 4 rebounds – Cordovan warmed up with his teammates, but was not available to play.

Is that the Belgrade team is still banned from registering new players in the top continental competition due to non-payments and financial problems.

The leaders of the Red Star have promised to solve this problem and have already presented the necessary documentation to do so before the organizers of the Euroleague, but the sanction has not yet been lifted. But the Serbian club, tenth with an 8-7 record, hope it will be resolved in a few days, so that they can add the Argentine to their squad before the next match, Friday at home against Barcelona.

Meanwhile, Campazzo has started to show his talent with a very good performance this Sunday, as if to pick up the pace –“It will take some time to find it”Ivanovic predicted a few days ago- and to start conquering the fans of his new team.