FIBA ruled that any team that wants to sign Dario Saric will have to pay 550,000 euros to his current club KK Zagreb. After several months of wait for FIBA’s decision, the future of Croatia’s hot prospect remains uncertain.
The decision came as a complete surprise to the player and his family who didn’t expect for such turn of events.
“What can I say, we are all in shock, and Dario and the whole family and lawyers. Nobody can believe that this is true”, index.hr quotes Dario’s father Predrag Saric.
The original contract with KK Zagreb included a buy-out of one million euros. Even though the amount was reduced almost by half, it’s still rather high. Especially so in these economic circumstances.
Saric penned a four-year deal with Bilbao last summer but couldn’t join his new club due to a dispute regarding his contract with KK Zagreb.
This season Saric, who is regarded as one of the top prospects in Europe, was on loan at Split since KK Zagreb were dropped to regional league.
Last summer Saric became FIBA Europe Under-18 champion. He was the top scorer with 25.6 points per game and second in rebounding with 10.1 rebounds per game.
The 18-year-old prodigy made his national team debut later in summer. Saric averaged 9.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game helping his country qualify for EuroBasket 2013.
