Virtus Bologna

Virtus Bologna

Virtus Bologna is founded in 1929, therefore, it is the oldest club in Italy and one of the most successful ones. In its 90 years of history, this organization has dominated the Italian and the European basketball winning 30 titles: 15 Italian Leagues (1946,1947, 1948, 1949, 1955, 1956, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1884, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2001), 8 Italian Cups (1974, 1984, 1989, 1990, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2002), 1 Italian Supercup (1995), 1 Italian LNP Cup (2017), 1 Italian League Serie-A2 (2017), 2 EuroLeagues (1998, 2001), 1 FIBA Saporta Cup (1990), and 1 FIBA EuroChallenge (2009).

However, the history of the team has been very rough because the management has been changed multiple times. That’s why there have been many times where the pressure of getting investors was really big and they struggled. One of the best periods of the club was between 1946 and 1950 when the team won 4 titles. After that, the most successful times were in the last decade of the last century. Between 1989 and 2002, Virtus Bologna won 5 league titles, 2 EuroLeagues, 6 Cups, 1 Supercup, and 1 FIBA Saporta Cup.

Some of the best players in Virtus Bologna history were Myke Sylvester, Micheal Ray Richardson, Gianni Bertolotti, Alessandro Frosini, Predrag Danilovic, Manu Ginobili, Keith Langford, Corey Brewer, Marco Belinelli, Andreas Glyniadakis, Mario Chalmers, Marcus Slaughter, Alessandro Gentile, and so on.  Also, a lot of great coaches has trained the Italian team. A few examples are Ettore Messina, Alberto Bucci, Alessandro Ramagli, Renzo Poluzzi, etc.

Right now, the coach of the club is Aleksandar Dordevic and the captain is Pietro Aradori. The other players on the roster are Kevin Punter, Kelvin Martin, Yanick Moreira, Alessandro Pajola,  Tony Taylor, Filippo Baldi Rossi, Alessandro Cappelletti, Dejan Kravic, Mario Chalmers, Matteo Berti, Amath M’Baye, David Cournooh, Gora Camara, and Brian Qvale.

Virtus Bologna is playing its home games in two gyms: Unipol Arena (9513 seats) and PalaDozza (5570 seats). In the national league, the team stands on the 10th place having only 10 wins and 11 losses. However, Virtus Bologna has qualified to the Basketball Champions League quarterfinals where it will play against Nanterre.

David Istrate

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