By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Crvena Zvezda veteran forward and former captain Marko Simonovic has officially retired from playing at 36 years of age and will become the first assistant to newly appointed head coach Vlade Jovanovic, the club announced.
“I had the desire to work as a coach for a long time,” Simonovic said per Zvezda. “Around 5-6 years ago I started thinking about it after the suggestion of some people who work in basketball.”
Simonovic mentioned that it didn’t take him long to accept Zvezda’s offer to join the coaching staff. “The choice was easy and simple because what’s happening on Red Star is a great story for me. There’s a family atmosphere in the club and that means a lot in every way. There are people in management that I trust and I have confidence in, from the president to the coaches in the locker room.”
Throughout his career, Simonovic played 388 games with Crvena Zvezda, from 2012 to 2014, 2015 to 2017 and 2022 until he decided to hang his shoes this summer. He won four ABA League championship titles (2016, 2017, 2021, 2022), four Serbian League titles (2016, 2017, 2021, 2022) and the Serbian Cup five times (2013, 2014, 2017, 2021, 2022).
Apart from Zvezda, Simonovic also played for such teams as ALBA Berlin, Zenit St. Petersburg, Unicaja Malaga and Cedevita Olimpija. He was also a member of the Serbian national team that won the silver medal in the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games.