Sotiris Manolopoulos named new Iran basketball coach
Greek coach Sotiris Manolopoulos took charge of the Iranian basketball national team, the sport’s national governing body announced on Tuesday.
The appointment ends the Iranian federation’s months-long quest for a new head coach after parting ways with Turkish Hakan Demir, following below-par results and performances in last year’s FIBA World Cup and Asian Games.
Iran was one of the three teams to leave the World Cup without a single win across in five outings and then failed to progress beyond the quarterfinals at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in October.
Having served as the head coach and assistant at numerous clubs in his home country, including Panathinaikos and AEK Athens, Manolopoulos, 54, was last in charge of Dinamo București in the Romanian top-tier league.
An assistant coach on the Greek national team bench two years ago, Manolopoulos was also part of the coaching staff when Panathinaikos won back-to-back league titles as well as three Greek Cup trophies between 2013 and 2015.