By Niki Bakouli/ bakouli@eurohoops.net
Despite a barrage of denials and half words, Fenerbahce/ Ulker made a valiant run in order to sign Zeljko Obradovic and did it. As basketfaul.com reported Semih Ozsoy traveled to Belgrade in order to re-initiate the negotiations after Fener‘s total failure of dealing with Dusan Ivkovic and according to our sources Mirsad Turkcan may have traveled with him.
The negotiations started again with Zoc’s starting price this time being the tremendous sum of 3.1 million euros per season. Fener wanted desperately a big name coach, its first bidding was 2.7 million per season but finally both sides found the way to comprimise. The Turkish club failed to complete the deal in their first round of this summer’s talks, however this time things were different.
According to our latest informations from Serbia, there is an agreement for a two years deal (1+1) which will be signed in the following hours and the transaction will be officialy announced. The final salary of Zoc should be close to 3 million euros per season and the deal was confirmed by a source very close to the negotiations. Obradovic himself wasn’t present in the meeting, because he traveled to Cacak, his home town, for personal reasons.
UPDATE: The deal was signed on Tuesday morning and Zeljko Obradovic after one year’s absence returns to basketball.