As it was officially made known by CSKA Moscow's General Manager Andrei Vatutin, Ettore Messina will not continue in CSKA Moscow and his successor will be the Russian coach Evgeniy Pashutin.
"First of all please allow me, in the behalf of the club's administration, players, staff and fans to thank the great Ettore Messina for his work for CSKA. Without a doubt he is the greatest coach of the modern CSKA era. Messina's era is a golden era for our club. In four season of work we have demonstrated bright results, which will be hard for anyone else to achieve again.
Four Euroleague finals in a row, two Euroleague titles, 4 Russian championship and 2 Russian cups is a great achievement. It is impossible to express the development of our basketball: his talent and knowledge was always available to the young coaches. We would be extremely delighted if Messina accepted our offer to continue to offer his services to our club as a technical director."
Ettore Messina responded to Vatutin's announcement and proposal of working a technical director at CSKA Moscow:
“The situation in the club called for change, and I am happy for Zhenya Pashutin to get this kind of possibility. Still I am happy for the time in Moscow, for the incredible achievements we were able to reach. I am also honored to have a proposal from Andrey Vatutin to work in the club on a different position, but I need to think carefully about it.”
Pashutin's statements:
“It is something unbelievable: CSKA is the best team if the country if not in Europe. To be in helm of CSKA is a dream of every coach, the great happiness, but at the same time phenomenal responsibility, because the club is always fighting for the highest goals. This is a challenge, a big life cycle. I have a lot of energy and desire to work and to continue winning traditions for CSKA, I want to raise the team to a new level. I would like to thank Andrey Vatutin and club’s owners for their trust."
