Nando De Colo will skip the EuroBasket with France: 'I want to be back for the World Cup' / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

The French national team will be missing a very important piece in their 2022 EuroBasket effort (September 1-18, 2022), following their success and the silver medal won at the Tokyo Olympics.

Nando De Colo

Team:Fenerbahce IstanbulPosition:PG, SGAge:34Height:196 cmWeight:91 kgBirth place:Sainte-Catherine, FranceProfileNewsStatistics

As Arnaud Lecomte of the French newspaper L'Equipe reports, Nando De Colo has decided to take a break from the team and will skip what would have been his thirteenth international tournament with Les Bleus.

De Colo, 34, said he talked to (coach) Vincent Collet and the players about it a few months ago, explaining to them that he absolutely had to skip the EuroBasket.

"I had to do it for my family and me, in order to be present until the 2024 Olympics, with the desire to come back in the 2023 World Cup," De Colo said to L'Equipe.

Up to this point, De Colo had never skipped an international tournament. He had just accidentally dropped out of the 2014 World Cup a few days before due to a broken finger.

"They understood the situation, they know that I have always been present. In Europe, we go through long seasons, we have no rest after international competitions.

Last summer, it was incredible winning a medal at the end, but you spend two months without your family, and that's what I need today," the second scorer (13.5 points) and best passer (6.2) of France at the Olympic tournament told the French outlet.

Having won five international medals and two EuroLeague titles (2016, 2019), De Colo is contemplating an ideal finish in the 2024 Paris Olympics, which would be the end of his national team career.

According to L'Equipe, Jean-Pierre Siutat, the president of the Federation, and Boris Diaw, the general manager of the Blues, met last weekend in New York with Evan Fournier and Rudy Gobert, to talk about France's next tournaments.

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