BELGRADE (Serbia) - This summer's FIBA U18 EuroBasket will unite the top nations in this age group, with each team fighting for the ultimate prize of being continental champions.
This year's edition will take place in the Serbian capital of Belgrade from July 26 to August 3.
Who is participating?
A total of 16 teams will compete for the title in Belgrade. They have been split into four groups of four for the Group Phase as follows:
Group A: Israel, Italy, Germany, Bulgaria Group B: Türkiye, Sweden, France, Austria Group C: Lithuania, Greece, Serbia, North Macedonia Group D: Spain, Belgium, Slovenia, Latvia
What is the schedule?
The Group Phase will occur over the opening five days of the tournament, with a rest day on July 31. Based on their group position, teams will be seeded for the Round of 16 stage.
The competition will continue as a bracket until the Final on August 3, with Classification games also determining each of the 16 positions.
Check out the full schedule, here.
Who were the winners in 2024?
Germany secured their maiden FIBA U18 EuroBasket title after beating Serbia 93-83 in Tampere, Finland.
The Germans raced out of the blocks to lead by as many as 20 points in the first half, but needed to withstand a strong fightback from the 2023 Serbia, who have now made it onto the podium in five of the last six editions.
Christian Anderson led Germany with a game-high 31 points, and Ivan Kharchenkov neared a triple-double with 18 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists.
Savo Drezgic had 30 points, 7 assists, and 6 rebounds for Serbia.
Elsewhere, Slovenia claimed bronze with an 84-70 victory over Israel in the Third Place Game.
Hosts Finland were relegated alongside Denmark and Croatia, while North Macedonia won the Division B tournament on home soil in Skopje. Beaten finalists Bulgaria and third-placed Austria also earned promotion.
Former MVPs
Despite the heartbreak of missing out on a podium finish, Israel's Ben Saraf claimed the tournament's MVP award after finishing as the tournament's leading scorer with 28.1 points per game.
The evergreen Saraf had two 40-point games - one of which came in the heartbreaking double overtime loss to Serbia in the Semi-Finals. Saraf broke the reign of dominance set by Serbia and Spain in the previous MVP winners list.
The five previous winners include:
2024: Ben Saraf (ISR) 2023: Nikola Topic (SRB) 2022: Izan Almansa (ESP) 2019: Santiago Aldama (ESP) 2018: Marko Pecarski (SRB)
Roll of honor
Serbia will aim to inch closer to the old Soviet Union's title haul of eight this summer on home soil. Spain will also look to equal Serbia's number of titles, but they still hold the most amount of medals in total with 14.
Position | Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Soviet Union | 8 | 3 | 1 | 12 |
2 | Serbia | 6 | 2 | 2 | 10 |
3 | Spain | 5 | 4 | 5 | 14 |
How to watch?
All the action will be available to watch live on the FIBA YouTube channel - and can also be accessed via the respective game pages on the website.
Want more action?
The best way to stay updated about all of the action is via the official tournament website and by following NextGenHoops on X, Instagram, and Facebook.
Don't forget to check out the action from the FIBA U18 EuroBasket, Division B and Division C tournaments.
FIBA