SKOPJE (FIBA EuroBasket 2017 Qualfiiers) - The basketball federation of The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia announced on Thursday that Serbian-Cypriot Dragan Raca will coach the national team in the upcoming FIBA EuroBasket 2017 Qualifiers.

The agreement between the two parties includes a clause for the automatic extension of their collaboration to include FIBA EuroBasket 2017 next summer, provided coach Raca steers MKD to a successful qualification campaign.

This assignment will be the third for the 55-year-old tactician at the helm of a national team, who had coached Cyprus from 2004 to 2005 and Lebanon from 2007 through 2009.

Under Raca, Lebanon conquered the silver medal at the 2007 FIBA Asia Championship and then reached the semi-finals of the 2009 edition of the continental championship.

The new MKD coach moved from Serbia to Cyprus in 1990 and spent the last 12 years of his playing career in the Mediterranean country, ultimately acquiring dual nationality and suiting up for the Cypriot national team.

He retired as a player in 2002 at AEL Limassol (Proteas EKA AEL) and immediately took over as coach of the club, hence commencing his new career.

Following a three-year spell at AEL and his stint as Cyprus national team head coach, Raca went on to work at APOEL and Greek side Iraklis Thessaloniki.

He had a second spell at AEL upon his return from Lebanon in 2009 and worked at Apollon Limassol the following season.

In 2010, Raca took over a new challenge as he moved to the Chinese league and assumed head coaching duties at Guangzhou Free Man (now named Beikong Fly Dragons), a position he held up until last season.

The Serbian-Cypriot tactician is replacing at the helm of MKD coach Marijan Srbinovski, who had taken the reins last summer and guided the Balkan side through their EuroBasket 2015 campaign in September.

MKD won one of their five games in Group C in Zagreb and consequently failed to advance to the Round of 16.

Meanwhile long-serving MKD star Vlado Ilievski, who turned 36 this year, announced his retirement from international duty at the end of the tournament.

Raca is expected therefore to go into a new direction in the summer and perhaps put together a somewhat rejuvenated roster in order to tackle the Qualifiers challenge.

MKD were drawn in Group G and kick off their qualification campaign with a home game against Luxembourg on 31 August, while they will also do battle with Hungary and Great Britain in home and away games.

FIBA