Mario Hezonja renews with Real Madrid

Mario Hezonja will play next season for Real Madrid… according to Mario Hezonja. The 29-year-old Croatian forward has signed for the white team through a message on social media published this Thursday. The entity, however, has not officially recognized him, a new chapter in a soap opera in which the player took steps towards signing him for Barcelona but which now places him as a Real Madrid player for the coming seasons. Or not…

“As you all know, after my last game of the season I became a free agent with the ability to decide where I wanted to play for the next few years. I did not reach any prior agreement with anyone, and I have always said that when there is something, I will tell it first. Real Madrid believed in me when many others did not, they cared about me and my family from the day I arrived at the club and have made us feel at home. My only intention was to continue, so it makes me very happy to announce that my journey will continue at home, at Real Madrid, for a long time,” Hezonja expressed. The player himself thus closes the door to his return to Barça, where he played between 2012 and 2015 before jumping to the NBA, an airlift that he himself has fueled.

The germ of the mess was the Croatian forward’s discomfort due to his lack of prominence in some moments of the season. For example, he only played three minutes in the second half of the Cup final in Malaga won in February against Barcelona, ​​and was erased from the celebrations along with his teammates. There began the underground movements regarding a possible change of shirt, and the Barça club took positions to recover its former promise, now a star.

The contacts continued throughout the campaign while Hezonja played on both sides. On the one hand, he rejected two renewal offers from the white club during the course. On the other hand, he winked at his continuity. “Mr. Florentino threatens me every time he sees me in the dining room to stay here. I hope… We all have the same thought,” he said before the Euroleague Final Four. And he doubled his verbal commitment with a message to the board: “We have the potential to be the best team in the history of the Euroleague. I really think about it. “A lot will depend on the people at the top.”

Berlin marked another turning point. Madrid fell in the fight for the title against Panathinaikos on May 26 and Hezonja was punished for a sequence of a triple scored in seven attempts, especially a failure in a second half in which Chus Mateo’s team missed the duel . “The defeat was entirely my fault, I have lost a very important title for my team. Absolutely. It is the truth and it must be said as it is. In basketball, if you don’t score baskets you’re not going anywhere. You can talk about defenses and all this shit that seems very nice for the internet, but if you don’t put in, you can’t do anything. Today I lost a very important title for my club. I always speak from the heart. “Great players win tournaments,” he stated on Onda Cero.

The redemption of winning the League title against UCAM Murcia on June 12 led to another declaration of love from the Croatian towards the whites. By then he had already given, the day before, a written “yes, I want” to Barcelona through an agreement without contract status, but while he was writing in Barça he expressed himself in white. “I’m not going to talk about the three titles. I am a perfectionist and I always like to win. I feel bad for having lost a title in the worst game of the season. I would like to give these fans more titles in the coming years. They have welcomed me with open arms when people said shit about me that was a lie. I want to return that affection with more years of success,” he said after winning the third title of the season after the Cup and the Super Cup. Captain Llull gave him the match ball (“he is an example of a leader and means a lot to me,” said the Croatian), but once again he was the only player in the squad who did not participate that night in the celebrations for the League.

The oath in favor of Madrid ended up dynamiting Barcelona’s bid and its intention to offer him an economic contract above what he received in Madrid, which maintained the right of first refusal. The Barça club ruled out his incorporation after Super Mario’s new positioning and the groundswell against his incorporation generated by groups of Barcelona fans. Hezonja had been auctioned off on the market, allowing himself to be loved by the two greats of Spanish basketball and disconcerting both parties equally, even looking askance at the NBA. The last example is his self-renewalfor Madrid, setting the times before the white club.

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