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| ANGT Qualifiers hosts, dates and introduction of Next Generation Teams announced |
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- Adidas to select Next Generation Teams comprised of top European talent outside the tournament pool to compete at each qualifying event
The road to the 2022 Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Finals will pass through Munich, Germany; Belgrade, Serbia; Patras, Greece; and Varese, Italy.
Those four cities have been chosen by Euroleague Basketball to host this season's four ANGT qualifying events, to be held in each of the first four months of 2022.
The talent at each of the four sites will be greater than ever before with Adidas sending specially selected Next Generation Teams to be one of the eight teams at each weekend event. The new Next Generation Teams will be staffed by Adidas, which will recruit 12 top European talents whose clubs are not competing at any of the ANGT qualifiers. The addition of the Next Generation Teams ensures that all of the best young players across the continent will have a chance to compete in the ANGT.
The ANGT Finals will be held in conjunction with the 2022 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four in Berlin, Germany, at the end of May, where the participants coming from the qualifiers will be joined by wildcard entries to set the eight-team field that will play to become the 2022 ANGT Champion.
The first qualifying event will be held in Munich and run together with FC Bayern Munich on January 21-23. This marks the fourth time Munich will host the event – a streak that was interrupted last year by COVID-19 restrictions, which forced it to be relocated to Istanbul. Bayern has competed in the ANGT seven previous times and last reached the ANGT Finals in 2019 in Vitoria-Gasteiz.
The Serbian capital will host this season's second qualifying event with Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade on February 25-27. Belgrade was the site of the first-ever qualifying tournament for the 2007-08 season and has done so every season since. Accordingly, this marks the 15th consecutive year this event will take place and the 11th in a row with Zvezda as a host. Zvezda has participated in the ANGT in each of the past 14 seasons, is a three-time finalist and was the champion in 2014.
Patras, home to one of the finest youth programs in Greece, will host its first ANGT qualifying event for the first time together with Promitheas Patras on March 25-27. This season will be the third in which Promitheas competes in the ANGT as it attempts to reach the Finals for the first time.
An ANGT qualifying event will take place in Italy for the first time since December 2015 when the city of Varese together with Varese Pallacanestro host this season's final event on April 1-3. This will also mark Varese Pallacanestro's debut in the ANGT. The previous Italian host of the event was Rome.
The nearly two decades of the ANGT have seen a host of tomorrow's biggest and brightest stars pass through. The ever-growing list of players currently on EuroLeague rosters who previously dazzled in the ANGT includes Marcus Eriksson, Jonas Mattisseck, Stefan Peno, Tim Schneider and Yovel Zoosman (ALBA Berlin), Vasilije Micic and Yigitcan Saybir (Anadolu Efes Istanbul), Danilo Andjusic, Rudy Demahis, Donatas Motiejunas and Armel Traore (AS Monaco), Davide Alviti, Luigi Datome, Riccardo Moraschini and Giampaolo Ricci (AX Armani Exchange Milan), Simone Fontecchio and Vanja Marinkovic (Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz), Ognjen Dobric, Marko Gusic, Stefan Lazarevic, Branko Lazic, Luka Mitrovic and Aleksa Uskokovic (Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade), Marius Grigonis, Alexander Khomenko, Nikita Kurbanov, Andrei Lopatin, Nikola Milutinov and Alexey Shved (CSKA Moscow), Michael Caicedo, Rokas Jokubaitis, Nikola Mirotic and Sergi Martinez (FC Barcelona), Nihad Dedovic, Jason George, Ognjen Jaramaz, Leon Radosevic, Adreas Obst and Zan Sisko (FC Bayern Munich), Ismet Akpinar, Tarik Biberovic, Metecan Birsen and Marko Guduric (Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul), William Howard, Elwin Ndjock, Matthew Strazel and Victor Wembanyama (LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne), Mathias Lessort and Ante Zizic (Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv), Livio Jean-Charles (Olympiacos Piraeus), Eleftherios Mantzoukas and Nemanja Nedovic (Panathinaikos OPAP Athens), Alberto Abalde, Thomas Heurtel, Juan Nunez and Tristan Vukcevic (Real Madrid), Mario Hezonja and Artem Komolov (UNICS Kazan), Marek Blazevic, Niels Giffey, Mantas Kalnietis, Lukas Lekavicius, Karolis Lukosiunas and Edgaras Ulanovas (Zalgiris Kaunas), and Arturas Gudaitis and Dmitry Kulagin (Zenit St Petersburg).
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