Partizan president Ostoja Mijailovic explains how the roster was built / News - Basketnews.com

Ostoja Mijailovic pushed back against the notion that Partizan don't want local players on the roster. With a limited amount of domestic players, he explained that the end result is more important than having a certain amount of local players.

Credit: ABA League j.t.d./Dragana Stjepanovic Credit ABA League j.t.d./Dragana Stjepanovic

Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade are back in the EuroLeague after an 8-year break. With several high-profile players on the roster, the Serbian club is in 11th place in the tournament's standings, one win behind the eternal rival Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade.

Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade / Schedule

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Partizan often get criticized on the local front for not having enough Serbian players on the roster with the main game being played by foreigners. The club's president Ostoja Mijailovic pushed back against this notion and explained his view during his guest appearance on Prva TV.

"We had a situation where a banner was shown saying 'we don't want foreigners on the team'. We are not a national team, we are Partizan that wants to win trophies. What does it matter if the coach is from Cacak or Bijelo Polje? What does it matter if we have nine players from Serbia or from abroad? We would all like to have all local players but you will ask me if I won any trophies last year, not if I had foreigners or local players," Mijailovic told. "We cannot bring in Bogdanovic or Jokic. For us, the most important thing is to win trophies and for the matches to be well organized."

Danilo Andjusic averages the most playing time out of all Serbian players on the roster with just 14 minutes in the EuroLeague. All remaining Serbian play less than 10 minutes per game in the top European competition.

Mijailovic has an explanation for it.

"We cannot invent domestic players. You see teams that have domestic players bring in 37-year-old players who are sitting on the bench. Our city rival has five players who are not playing. It is commendable that they want to have local players. It is commendable that the home team won the game against Monaco. You have basketball countries like Spain or Lithuania - no local players," the president said.

"Trifunovic had the most points against Baskonia, there were also Vukcevic, Koprivica, Avramovic, Smailagic. These are all domestic players. As a Serb, I can say now that Partizan and Zvezda are somewhere in the middle of the table, which is really commendable. Olimpia Milan are second to last in the table and have a budget two or three times bigger than our," Mijailovic concluded.

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