RUS - Eremin takes charge at Dynamo

MOSCOW (Superleague) - Stanislav Eremin has been appointed the new coach of Dynamo Moscow after signing a two-year contract with the team.

Eremin, who was among 20 candidates interviewed by club president Evgeniy Gomelskiy, leaves his position as head coach at UNICS Kazan after spending seven years there.

He has also coached CSKA Moscow, where he collected an impressive haul of nine Russian Superleague titles in the 1990s.

Ermin is already planning some changes at Dynamo with players expected to leave the team.

"More than 50% of the players who played for the club last season will stay in the team," Eremin told www.unics.ru.

"The rest of the players will leave the club due to different reasons but primarily because of financial and personal things.

"We need players and we need a team that will be able to play for the medals."

Caretaker manager Dmitri Shakulin will continue to work for the club as Eremin's assistant.

Ermin has already been boosted by the signing of Russian international and Spartak St Petersburg forward Fedor Dmitriev on a two-year contract.

Dmitriev played 23 games for Spartak last season and averaged 13.7 points and 4.9 rebounds.

Despite losing Eremin, UNICS Kazan have moved to sign Spartak Vladivostok's Romanian centre Virgil Stanescu.

The 30-year-old is the club's first signing of the off season and has put pen to paper on a a one-year contract at the Basket-Hall Arena.

UNICS president Eugeni Bogachev was happy to have clinched the deal.

"Stanescu has impressed us during our play-off game against Spartak," Bogachev told Sport Express.

"So we have decided that it will be better to have this player in our team than to have him in a team playing against us."

Meanwhile CSKA Moscow guard Teodoros Papalukas has revealed he will leave the club to pursue his career in the United States.

"I've decided to continue my career in the NBA," Papalukas said.

"I want to challenge myself in America so I have been considering several offers from there and only if talks are unsuccessful will I remain with CSKA."

The club have already prepared for the departure of Papalukas by signing fellow Greek guard Nikos Zisis from Italian club Benetton.

The 23-year-old has signed a three-year contract and CSKA vice-president Andrei Vatutin revealed they faced strong competition for his signature.

"We're happy that we've finally signed Zisis as many European clubs were interested in him," Vatutin told www.cskabasket.com.

"We have got a young and highly motivated player in our team who without any doubt is a fine example of modern guard.

"I have no doubts that he will become a real star of European basketball in the very near future."

Dmitri Sevastianov
FIBA