Thomas Kelati
Thomas Kelati, the only professional basketball player from Eritrea in Europe has signed to play for Greek basketball club Olympiacos.
The 26 year old point guard transferred from Spanish basketball club UNICAJA and made his first press conference stating:
“I am really excited, Olympiacos is one of the giants at European basketball, a team that has reached Heights in the world. It is my honour to be a member of this team.”
He admitted that two days ago he did not even know in which direction his career would go.
The contract that he signed was after a second meeting with his agent, who told him that Olympiacos would be interested in a two-year deal.
Kelati added: “Once I made up my mind, I stopped considering proposals from other basketball teams.”
Kelati says, he knows his new team well, as he faced Olympiakos during the Euroleague playoffs last year when playing for UNICAJA.
For the Eritrean player this is a good start to working on winning the race for the Greek Championship against arch rival Panathinaikos. He was born in the United States after his parents Emigrated to the US from Eritrea.
Following his four year academic career at Washington State University, he went to Europe and helped Belgian team Dexia Mons-Hainaut winning the Belgian Championship in 2006.
Kelati was then signed by Polish team Turow Zgorzlec before moving to Spain. The Greeks must have been very impressed by Kelati’s performance in last year’s match Olympiacos against UNICAJA.
Click here to see Kelati in action, a video watched by every Olympiacos supporter.
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