Spain - Rudy Fernandez, 2006 FIBA Europe Young Player of the Year
The 196-cm Fernandez will turn 22 in April, but despite his tender age, has already had a major impact with both the Spanish national team and club side DKV Joventut Badalona. In 2006 he led Badalona to the EuroCup title and was
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The 196-cm Fernandez will turn 22 in April, but despite his tender age, has already had a major impact with both the Spanish national team and club side DKV Joventut Badalona. In 2006 he led Badalona to the EuroCup title and was selected Final Four MVP. He followed that up with a gold medal at the FIBA World Championship in Japan with Spain.
No stranger to individual accolades, Fernandez burst onto the scene in 2004 with an MVP performance at the Copa del Rey, even though Joventut lost in the final. He then made his debut with Spain at the 2004 Olympics and has been a national team regular ever since.
"I would like to offer my congratulations to Rudy Fernandez," said FIBA Europe Secretary General Nar Zanolin.
"He is a great young player and fully deserves this award. There are so many young talented players in Europe right now and the competition is stiff, but I think that Rudy deserves the title thanks to his play for both Badalona and Spain."
Fernandez, whose sister Marta plays for the women's national team, beat out competition from Andrea Bargnani and Marco Belinelli for the 2006 title. He was selected after a vote by an expert panel of journalists, players and coaches and a fan poll. The panel's votes were weighted to count for 70% of the final vote while the fan poll counted for 30%.
Both Bargnani and Fernandez claimed eight first place votes among the 30-person panel. Fernandez's eight second-placed votes were enough to beat out Bargnani who received four.
A total of 22 countries were represented in the panel. 17-year old sensation Ricard Rubio, a teammate of Fernadez at Badalona, won the fan vote, while Fernandez finished in fourth and Bargnani in fifth.