Red Star has found a new coach, and not just anyone - according to reports, the Belgrade club has reached an agreement with Ibon Navarro, the Spanish specialist who in recent years turned Unicaja of Málaga into one of the most decorated teams in Europe.

Navarro is 50, and in four seasons at Málaga he collected trophies that far bigger clubs only dream of: two FIBA Intercontinental Cups (2024 and 2025), two Champions League titles (2024 and 2025), two Spanish Cups (2023 and 2025) and the Spanish Super Cup in 2024. This isn't a coach who comes to prove himself; this is a coach who comes with a full trophy cabinet behind him.

The Spaniard's arrival follows the parting with Saša Obradović, after Red Star failed to reach the final of the ABA League - a result that, for a club with these ambitions and budget, is considered a failure. When you spend that much, fourth or fifth place isn't an option, it's a problem.

For the Balkan basketball world, this is bigger news than it looks at first glance. Navarro brings a different school - Spanish precision, a system, patience in building - into an environment usually dominated by passion, improvisation and pressure from the stands. Whether that combination will work in one of European basketball's hottest cauldrons, we'll see. Unicaja was his project from the start; in Belgrade a ready-made team awaits him, with high expectations and even higher impatience.