Kurt Cassar, the 17-year old former Hibernians player and now on the books of Stella Azzurra Roma, recently figured in a high-ranking tournament – the Next Generation EuroLeague – for his Italian club.

The tournament was played in Belgrade and eight teams took part –Red Star, Partizan and Mega Belgrade (all Serbia), Sarajevo (Bosnia), Prague (Czech Republic), Ludwigsburg (Germany), Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel) and Stella Azzurra Roma.

Stella Azzurra beat Partizan in their opening game but then lost their matches to Red Star and Ludwigsburg and had to settle for third place in Group A.

In a classification match, Stella Azzurri beat Prague to finish fifth overall.

Red Star won the tournament after downing Mega Belgrade in the final. They will now compete against Real Madrid, Barcelona and  Zalgiris, of Lithuania, in the Next Generation Euroleague to be played in Istanbul, in May.

“This was another useful experience in a high level tournament for players of my age. Red Star were impressive and in a class of their own,” Cassar said.

“Now we’ll shift focus to domestic season with a lot of crucial matches coming up in the Serie B league and the youth competitions.”

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