Simone Pianigiani takes over Cedevita Olimpija team

Cedevita Olimpija senior team have a new head coach. Italian tactician Simone Pianigiani will lead the Dragons from the bench.

Italian tactician Simone Pianigiani is the new head coach of the senior team of Cedevita Olimpija. Pianigiani will take over the team the team from Stožice in the 2023/24 season, and the former head coach of the Italian national team signed a three-year contract with the Ljubljana side. On the bench of Cedevita Olimpija, Pianigiani will replace Miro Alilović, who led the Slovenian champions after they have parted ways with Jurica Golemac in March 2023.

The club from the Stožice Arena will thus enter a new era, as Pianigiani will be the first head coach on the Dragons bench who does not come from the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Together with him, Andrea Turchetto will also come to the bench of the Ljubljana team, and he will work in Ljubljana as an assistant to the head coach.

In Pianigiani’s showcase we can find six Italian National Championship titles, seven Italian Super Cup titles, four Italian National Cup titles, the title of Turkish National Cup champion and the title of Israeli National and Cup champion. During his career he led Montepaschi Siena, Fenerbahce, Hapoel Jerusalem, Olimpia Milano and Beijing Ducks. He also worked for the latter in the period before moving to Ljubljana.

He remained on the bench of Siena for the longest time, with whom he won the third place in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague in the 2007/08 and 2010/11 seasons. Between 2009 and 2015, Pianigiani was the head coach of the Italian men’s national team, with which he participated in the 2011, 2013 and 2015 EuroBaskets.

“The first cycle of Cedevita Olimpija’s activities has come to an end and we are entering a new one, which we are starting refreshed with the arrival of a new Sports Director and a new Head Coach. Vlado Ilievski is known to everyone who is connected in one way or another with basketball in Ljubljana and Slovenia, and is satisfied that he has joined our management team. Simone Pianigiani, who is considered a proven name in the world of basketball, will take over the management of our senior team in the new season. Given the fact that Vlado and Simone have known each other for a long time, I believe that they will work together perfectly, and that they will fit into the work of our club without any problems,” said the General Manager of Cedevita Olimpija, Davor Užbinec, upon announcing the signing of the contract with Pianigiani.

“I am pleased to have joined Cedevita Olimpija. I know Ljubljana from the times when I was a visitor here in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague and was present at EuroBasket 2013. The Stožice Arena is beautiful. I met all the members of the organization at Cedevita Olimpija and I am looking forward to working in the upcoming season. The first impressions are exceptional, because there are many people in the club who have been associated with basketball for many years, and I have already heard good things about Cedevita Olimpija. The feelings are very good,” said the new head coach of Ljubljana’s squad, upon his arrival in Ljubljana.