Βy Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Alessandro Gentile is spending his last hours as a player of EA7 Emporio Armani Milano. The side of the player requested a meeting with the Italian club in order to negotiate his release and join Panathinaikos until the summer of 2018.
The initial intention of the Italian champs was to let him go on loan to an other Euroleague team until the end of the season, but Panathinaikos doesn’t want to have the player only for a few months and lose him in the summer. The Greek club has a verbal deal with the player for a contract which also includes next season and now Gentile has to find a deal with Milano in order to end his current contract, which also ends on the summer of 2018.
And here’s the tricky part. The contract of Gentile in Milano includes a buy out for the upcoming summer and also a 1,5 million euros salary for the 2017-18 season. The contract offered from Panathinaikos for 1,5 season is not covering in full this amount of money and also the salaries left in this season, while the Greeks don’t want to pay any buy out.
So either Milano, Gentile, or both of them would have to compromise on the financial issues. Considering however the fact that both Milano and Gentile want to end their collaboration, this compromise is more than possible and Panathinaikos is waiting for the player to be released. According to Eurohoops sources, the meeting between Gentile’s side and Milano is expected to happen in the next hours.