Basketball: Bavaria succeeds Transfercoup: Barca-Star comes

FC Bayern Basketball has signed the Finnish international Petteri Koponen. The 30-year-old sniper, who was active for FC Barcelona in the last two seasons, signs a three-year contract with the German champions until the end of the 2020/21 season.

“Petteri has made a mature decision to embrace our ideas and our future. He is an incredibly experienced class player who will enrich us with his great basketball personality and a high level of skills,” comments Bavaria’s sports director Daniele Baiesi on the transfer coup.

And he continues: “With him we have a knockdown shooter that is both a playmaker and a good defender. “We are extremely happy that he has decided to accompany us all on our journey.”

Koponen had been with FC Barcelona since 2016, where he won the Spanish Cup, the Copa del Rey, under ex-Bavarian coach Svetislav Pesic.

In his first year with the Catalans, he scored 10.1 points per game, even though he was injured in a traffic accident shortly before the start of the season and was absent for weeks. In the Spanish ACB, he scored a good 20 minutes and 8.8 points in 39 games last season (trio: 60 out of 124).

The Finn, who is currently still in his home country, is looking forward to his commitment in the Bavarian capital: “For me the move to Munich is a great new challenge, because Bayern Munich is a club that is strongly positioned for the future to become a great basketball team. I hope to be a part of it and help the club reach the next level. It’s a great experience for me to pursue these new goals over the next three years and achieve something big.”

Koponen is the fourth new member of coach Dejan Radonjic’s team after Leon Radosevic and Maodo Lo from Bamberg and Robin Amaize (from Bayreuth). The Munich-based company currently has six foreign and six German professionals under contract.