Alexander Gankevich becomes main team player

Forward-center Alexander Gankevich (20 y.o., 201 cm) signed “2+3” contract with the main CSKA team.

Currently the club together with the agent are exploring the options for the player to play on loan next season.

Gankevich is the Army Men junior project’s product, he played for CSKA-JBL and CSKA-2 since 2011. Last season he defended Ural Yekaterinburg colors in Russian SuperLeague 1, averaging 8.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.6 blocked shots in 25.1 minutes in 28 games. Upon the end of the season Gankevich came back to CSKA 2 to help the team take the title of the VTB United Youth League, he averaged 11.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 1.7 steals, 0.7 blocked shots in 24.7 of the Final Eight games.

Alexander also played for the Russian National Teams during 2011 U16 European Championship, 2012 and 2013 U18 European Championships, 2013 U19 World Championship, 2014 and 2015 U20 European Championships.


Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:

It will be the third year when Gankevich works with me in the preseason. We are following his progress and he is definitely doing steps ahead. We are looking forward to see how he improves next season.

Alexander Gankevich, CSKA forward/center:

I am definitely happy to sign the contract with the main team. I am with CSKA since my childhood, I watched all the great players here, looked at them as examples, had a chance to practice with them. Certainly, it is a dream for any player to appear on CSKA roster. It’s great that my hard work let me make the dream come true. After performing on the youth level it took time for me to get used to play with adults. The season with Ural let me gain confidence and after it I felt more calm during CSKA main team practices. I will do my best to improve to gain the right to be one of the Army Men leaders.