He Mario Hezonja case comes to a boil: At Real Madrid they are betting on the continuity of the Croatian forward, despite rejecting the first renewal offers; At the same time, this Friday it was revealed that he had a closed agreement with Barcelona, as they have announced Brand and Sports world and has been able to meet AS. Even, according to several sources, it has been going on for weeks. On Wednesday, Hezonja, 29, was proclaimed league champion with Madrid and, as soon as the match ended, he said this without being asked about his future: “I’m not going to talk about three titles, I would like to talk about more. I’m like that, I’m always a perfectionist. This year we have only lost the game we played badly and we have lost a title. I feel really bad about this, but I would like to give back to our people, to my club, to Real Madrid… In the coming years I would like to give this back with many more titles. I hope it happens”.
These statements really felt bad within Barça and the club questioned the suitability of the Croatian’s incorporation. To such an extent that this Friday afternoon The entity has closed the door to his signing through the Efe agency, to which an authorized Barcelona source has assured that it does not exist. “no agreement” to sign the forward and that he will not play at the Palau. The spokesperson explains that nothing has been finalized and that the club was interested in its future before the Final Four, as there was interest on all sides, but “nothing was ever signed”according to the same source, and subsequently Barça has assessed “other options that seem better”. One of those options is Kevin Punter. The Barça club has also denied Real Madrid any commitment to the Dubrovnik-born athlete.
On the other hand, one of the main culés animation groups, that of the Dracs, posted on social networks a message regarding Hezonja with the following text: “After all the statements he has been making lately, the gestures and the mocking looks, also when he came to play at the Palau… Given the existing rumors, we are clear. Mario? No, thanks”.
The option of Kevin Punter instead of Hezonja
This Friday afternoon, Sports world It also reported an agreement between the Barça club and Kevin Punter, which has been confirmed to AS. The shooting guard is one of the best outside players in Europe and was already very close to committing to the Catalan team last summer. Now he has one year left of his relationship with Partizan Belgrade, with whom he finally decided to renew in 2023, so he would have to negotiate the termination with the Serbian team. Several market sources consulted see it as unlikely that Barça will undertake the additions of Punter and Hezonja in the same summer and believe that it will be one or the other.
HezonjaIn addition, as explained to AS, He met this morning with the sports management of the white club, which continues to bet on its renewal as one of the main players for the next season. With the Hezonja case in full swing, your main agent, Kostas Papadakis, tried to calm the situation in the greek environment SDNA: “Everything related to his present and future is only valid if it comes from him or from me. Hezonja has a contract with Real Madrid until the end of the season and then you will make your decision”.
And with the case boiling, Aleksandar PetrovicDrazen’s brother, former Croatian coach and now in charge of Brazil, says that he sees him in Panathinaikos: “The Real Madrid leaders will speak with him every day. The problem they have is another: He has a too large squad, 15 players. Hezonja does not get the minutes you want, nor the role I would like. There is much more space at Panathinaikos in the small forward and power forward positions and that can be an advantage. He would return to the place where he started. They adore him there.” Outside of Spain he has also been linked to Partizan Belgrade.
Background
In May they represented a bombshell, When they came to light, the contacts between Barça and the Croatian forward, who were not making progress in negotiations eternal with Real Madrid. On the table, an obvious economic issue. But it was also said that he was not entirely happy with his role in Chus Mateo’s team. Since last year, Panathinaikos had been the great threat to take him. He played for the Athenian team and has acknowledged several times that he would like to wear the green shirt again, with which he recovered sensations and happiness for the game after a time in the NBA that ended with a bad taste in his mouth.
Barça entered the bidding, but Real Madrid continued working to close an agreement that now seemed on track. Hezonja himself already joked about his situation in the Final Four in Berlin (“Florentino Pérez threatens me to continue… and hopefully”). And now, after winning the League, He once again made some statements that seemed to smack of continuity in white and that have been so bad for the culé entity.
In the event that Barcelona, or any other ACB team, presented an agreement for him, Madrid would have the right of first refusal, but it seems impossible for it to exercise it if the figures are those that have been published: about three million euros net per season, close to six million euros gross per campaign, almost 24 million in a contract of at least four seasons. Some market sources see it as highly unlikely that the agreement will actually reach that amount, but they are unaware of it.
From Barça to Madrid passing through the NBA
After winning the Euroleague last summer, there were rumors that he could leave, but Hezonja made it clear that he would fulfill the second year of his contract in Madrid while the green shadow of Panathinaikos lengthened. After, Barça appeared on the scene, a return with a lot of morbidity due to its stopover in Madrid and because it didn’t sit well with him that the club didn’t have him when he decided to leave the NBA. He had been a Barça player since 2012, when after winning the Junior Euroleague with Zagreb he signed for three seasons. As a Barça player, he was elected Emerging Star (Rising star) of the LEB Oro with the reserve team, and later took steps in the first team under the guidance of Xavi Pascual, with whom it was rumored that he had not had a good relationship, and that they ended up having communication problems. The coach has denied it from Dubrovnik and Hezonja also made it clear in an interview for AS that he had not had any trouble with the man from Gavá: “Things always went very well with him, he helped me a lot, he talked to me as much as he could and I never stopped learning. A great coach with a lot of authority in the club and that suited me well.”.
At Barça he left flashes of superclass without, still very young, continuity. In a match against Manresa (February 2015) he scored 8/8 in triples. In the 2014-15 Euroleague he averaged 7.7 points and 2 rebounds. But later, before completely breaking into a star with Barça, he made the leap to the NBA, where he continued to play as a Barcelona player.
That changed later, when he had to return and did not do so to a club that had his rights in Europe, with a price of 400,000 euros for his freedom. At the Palau they were looking for a forward… but with a different profile, so they renounced the rights of a player who went to UNICS, and played at his best competitive level (14.2 points and 6 rebounds). His next destination was Real Madrid, where he arrived at an ideal moment in his career to contribute as a very solid player on the court, both in defense and attack, with traces of the star that he always aimed to be and, furthermore, already with rested veteran character in the locker room. In white he has won all the titles in the last two years, under the command of Chus Mateo.
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