After Panagiotis Giannakis has been officially fired, the search for a new head coach of Olympiacos has officially started. As TalkBasket.net reported a couple of days ago, Ettore Messina is the top candidate to replace Giannakis. Club’s president Panagiotis Aggelopoulos visited Spain in order to meet with Ettore Messina and discuss his possible move to Greece.
Messina is currently under contract with Real Madrid. His contract runs out in 2012 which means that Olympiacos’ owners will be forced to pay the buy-out in order to sign one of the most successful coaches in European basketball.
Though Messina’s first season in Madrid was rather disastrous. Real Madrid failed to reach Euroleague Final Four and they were also eliminated in ACB Play-Offs sem-final. Florentino Perez, the president of Real Madrid, declared his faith in Messina despite the results.
Head coach of Euroleague champions Barcelona, Xavier Pascual, appears to be the latest addition to the list of potential candidates to coach Olympiacos next season. Spanish coach has one more year left in his contract with Barcelona.
