While Forlì is still on the trail of Pierpaolo Marini (Rimini is ahead but Basketball 2015 doesn’t give up), almost all the players who are part of the roster of the recently concluded season and who the club has decided not to confirm are being settled. Excluding the confirmed Davide Pascolo, Daniele Magro and Luca Pollone, a separate discussion must be made for the long-term patient Kadeem Allen who, if all goes well, will not return to the track before the end of the year. Daniele Cinciarini could still be part of the team that will play next season. However, there are four former Forlì players who have already found a new team.
The most painful departure, and the first in chronological order, was that of Federico Zampini who on June 20 was announced as the new playmaker for Vanoli Cremona in Serie A: the very same club that in about 12 months has stolen from the red and whites the return to Serie A1 and the 2023 MVP Nathan Adrian. Zampini, who turned 25 on Thursday, was still under contract with Unieuro, but the agreement included an exit in the event that the boy received offers from Serie A, which promptly occurred. And in the last three days, three other protagonists of last season’s red and whites have landed, all in top-level teams.
The first to sign was Xavier Johnson, who was hired on Thursday by the ever-ambitious Udine (in the previous days they had signed the big men Giovanni Pini and another former Forlì player, the veteran Davide Bruttini). For Johnson, who turned 31 on June 8 and who Forlì released without too many regrets, especially in light of his lackluster performances in the semifinal series against Trieste, this is the fourth Italian team after Capo d’Orlando, Verona (where he had Pini as a teammate) and Forlì.
A few hours later it was Fabio Valentini’s turn, who followed Andrea De Nicolao, the first luxury target of the Forlì market, to Acqua San Benedetto Cantù. Valentini, born in 1999, signed a one-year contract with an option for the 2025/26 season: “I’m very happy to be in Cantù and to be able to play in front of a top-class crowd and for such an ambitious project”, are the first words of the former Forlì player who will be coached by the new Cantù coach Nicola Brienza. Devis Cagnardi, the outgoing coach, became the new coach of Fortitudo Bologna yesterday after his divorce from Attilio Caja. A few hours before Valentini’s signature, Cantù also made official the purchase of the 2002 guard-forward Jonaas Rissmaa, who spent the year in Brindisi.
Yesterday, however, a new agreement was signed by the Italian-trained Montenegrin Todor Radonjic who signed for Valtur Brindisi, which the previous day had opened its signing campaign with the arrival of the Italian center Giovanni Vildera from Trieste. Radonjic, who turned 27 in April, leaves Forlì after finishing last season averaging 5.4 points and 2.9 rebounds in 17 minutes of play. He was the top scorer of the Cup final and the revelation player of the event.
Now among the ‘Forlivesi’ from last year still to be sorted out – net of news from Daniele Cinciarini – there are still Giacomo Zilli and Maurizio Tassone.
