Kazys Maksvytis is one of the main candidates to take over the helm of the Italian club

15 minutes According to sources, the Venetian Umana Reyer, which played in the European Cup for the last five seasons, will say goodbye to the 61-year-old Croatian Neven Spahija after the season, and Kazys Maksvytis, the general of the Lithuanian national team, is considered one of the most serious candidates to take over the helm of the northern Italian club.

According to 15 minutes sources, after parting with Kaunas “Žalgiris”, the specialist from Darbėnai received invitations from Istanbul “Galatasaray” and Vilnius “Wolves” to join this season, but he rejected these offers.

This season, Umana Reyer, like Wolves, competed in Group A of the European Cup, where they won 8 of 18 matches and failed to qualify for the play-offs.

Venetian basketball players triumphed 93:77 in Vilnius at the end of November, but fell 57:75 against the students of Ned Pacevičius in Italy at the end of January.

In the Italian championship, “Umana Reyer” marches in fourth place with 18 wins and 10 losses, ahead of the teams of “Olimpia” Milan (20-8), “Germani” Brescia (20-8) and “Virtus” Bologna (20-8).

In the semi-finals of the national cup in February, N. Spahija’s pupils fell painfully 77:100 against Olimpia led by Ettores Messina.

Two basketball players from Lithuania have also competed in the Venice team. In the 2017-2018 season, Gediminas Orelikas wore the shirt of “Umana Reyer”, and in the 2021-2022 season, this team was represented by Martynas Echodas.

K. Maksvytis had worked in a foreign club only once, when he managed the Perm “Parma” team from Russia for almost three years from June 2019 to February 2022.

For the past year and a half, K. Maksvytis managed Kaunas “Žalgiris”. In his first full season on Nemunas Island, he reached the playoffs of the Euroleague and won the King Mindaugas Cup (KMT) and the Lithuanian Basketball League (Betsafe-LKL).

This season in the EuroLeague, the tactician managed 5 wins in 17 matches in the first part of the season, which cost him his job when Italian Andrea Trinchieri replaced him at Zalgiris.

K. Maksvytis, who has been leading the Lithuanian national team since September 2021, is currently preparing for the Olympic selection, which will take place in Puerto Rico in the first week of July.

The coach has repeatedly mentioned that he is not going to sit on two chairs at the same time.