Thank you, Ettore!

Ettore Messina had his last press conferense as a host in USH CSKA today. He thanked the club and the fans, shared his impressions on life in Russia and his plans of moving to Real Madrid...

“I must tell you the truth that I was not ready to say goodbye to everybody. But things developed quite quickly. I understood that was an important decision by the club’s owners to continue to support CSKA as a team which have Russian players and, more important, Russian coach. So I agreed with Andrey Vatutin to step back from my last year of contract and we parted ways. Now it’s time to say ‘thank you’ for the opportunity to come here, to have this great experience with CSKA and Russia. For sure I and my family will have a lot of great memories. I wish CSKA and Zhenya Pashutin to have a great future, great season and I am sure they will.

…I had a couple of conversations with Real Madrid management and I will go there again soon to have another meeting to make sure that we see the future of the project in a same way. If yes, we will have an agreement.

…I was offered the position of Technical Director by CSKA but I thought it was better to say ‘no’ for two reasons. First, I was not sure if I will be good enough to stay out and not to work on the court when preparations start in September. Second, it would not be a good thing for Zhenya to have me behind his back. He is a grown man, a grown coach and he is capable to walk on his own legs.

…Russia was changing a lot in these four years. But I am not a sociologist to make any comments on this. I’ll give you my strongest impression in basketball. The fans respect players and coaches a lot. That’s a very important thing, and that’s something I like very much. The second thing I was impressed is that the music and the literature are a big part of your culture. Not only for old people but for young people also. It’s not the same in my country. The third thing is that Russia has the same problem which affects Western society. The lack of effort and the lack of illusion is the problem of many young people all over the world. And this is something which should be addressed to all the governments. It’s very peculiar that this happens both in the Western Europe and in the Eastern Europe.

…The chapter about Russia and CSKA in my possible memoires will be very important. This experience changed me and my family in a lot of ways. I just hope to continue to have a good relationship with all the people I met here. But at this moment I don’t have a title for the chapter.

Thank you and good luck!”

Today Ettore Messina will be available for the fans’ questions on Sovetsky Sport hot line from 4 p.m. till 4.30 p.m. Moscow time. Phone number is + 7 495 637 64 33.