By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos insisted on the Francisco case, and on Wednesday night (29/7) the Greens finally got their man.
The Greek club paid a buyout of 450,000 euros to ASVEL and completed a deal with one of the best EuroLeague players of last season.
The French club had declared earlier that they wanted to keep the player who was signed as the leader of their new project, but the financial situation of the team proved to be the deciding factor in the case.
Panathinaikos insisted and was vindicated by acquiring one of the best guards in Europe, although ASVEL initially seemed unyielding.
It should also be noted that the Frenchman will earn around 3.5 million euros per year playing for Panathinaikos, a figure lower than his signed contract in France.
However, his desire to find a club that would allow him to compete for the Euroleague title, the fact that he would have French teammates in Mathias Lessort, Moustapha Fall and Guerschon Yabusele with whom he has coexisted in the French national team, and obviously ASVEL’s financial issues created a series of factors that led to the completion of the agreement with Panathinaikos.
It has to be noted that Francisco was already in Greece, spending his vacations with Yabusele in Mykonos, and arrived in Athens in the early hours of Thursday to complete the paperwork of the deal.
The 29-year-old French guard played in 42 games with Zalgiris in the Euroleague in the 2025-26 season, averaging 16.5 points, 2.9 rebounds and 6.5 assists.
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