Belgian center Tomas Van Den Spiegel signed a contract with CSKA until the end of the season. The player arrived in Moscow yesterday, passed medical examination and took part in both practices of the team.
We asked CSKA president Sergey Kushchenko, CSKA head coach Ettore Messina and CSKA forward David Vanterpool to tell us some words about the player:
Sergey Kushchenko , CSKA president:
- Right after David Andersen got injured we started to receive calls from different European clubs and agents offering us players for a huge amount of money. We could not accept the kind of offers so it took rather a long time to find a player. I guess Van Den Spiegel can help us a lot. Messina, Holden, Vanterpool, Smodis know him and played with him so there should not be a problem in understanding each other.
Ettore Messina, CSKA head coach:
- First of all, I'd like to mention that David Andersen is a player whom is almost impossible to replace. He is a center of European All-star level. Tomas van den Spiegel is a player with completely different abilities. He likes to play pick'n'roll, he runs the court well. He will bring to our team quickness and defensive approach. Tomas can grab many rebounds because of his long arms. However Alexey Savrasenko will remain our starting center. But I'm sure that Tomas will be ready to contribute when he will be on court. His understanding of the game is rather good too. Tomas has experience of Italian Seria A finals and Euroleague Final Four. And it is also very important that he has a lot of enthusiasm on playing for CSKA.
David Vanterpool, CSKA forward:
- We played against each other when Tomas was with Fortitudo. He runs the floor well. He can dunk in NBA style and he can finish the attacks in a right way. He is a type of player who can really help us a lot. And of course I should mention that he has a great personality.
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