Slovenia: Champion Basketball Team under the Wings of Generali

Slovenia’s national basketball team win the European Championships — supported by Generali.

Vanja Hrovat, CEO of Generali Slovenia, presenting a special gift to the Slovenian team during a press conference. In her words, "Many congratulations to you on your magnificent performance. You played with a true lion’s heart. We are proud to be your sponsor, and I am delighted that you not only brought excellent basketball to Slovenia; you also reaffirmed our faith that Slovenians too can be winners."

Generali Slovenia has been supporting Slovenia’s national basketball team since 2011. Throughout all its ups and downs, Generali has maintained a strong belief in the team’s abilities and talents — and this year, they fulfilled their potential. With fingers crossed, we followed their success during the 40th EuroBasket in 2017, which took place between August 31st and September 17th. From the very first game to the final, the Slovenian team exceeded all our expectations. After their win against Serbia (93:85), the gold medal was theirs. It was a historic moment.

In the words of Generali Slovenia CEO Vanja Hrovat, “During Generali Slovenia’s six years of collaboration with the Basketball Federation of Slovenia, we have been a Golden Sponsor of our national men’s basketball team. We have followed their progress through three European Championships as well as the World Championship in Spain in 2014. The players have always brought their best game, but they didn’t manage to reach the podium until this year. Everything changed when Slovenia became European Basketball Champion!”

Generali’s Lion was at the front of the eager queue to greet our champions when they landed back in Slovenia.

Undefeated all the way to gold

The Slovenian team was already on the right track when it won its EuroBasket 2017 games in Istanbul. The first team to admit defeat was Ukraine, followed by the excellent Latvians and the title defenders Spain. Enthusiasm for basketball in Slovenia reached fever pitch when the team won through to the final for the first time in history to defeat Serbia in an intense match. Slovenia finished the championship with nine victories and without a single defeat, becoming the first team to achieve this since 2003. It was an incredible victory.

by Marjana Bastar