Thank you, Emil!

The Macedonian specialist took over at CSKA in the summer of 2022. Last season, under the leadership of Rajkovic, our team became the winner of the regular season, setting the all-time records for the number of wins (30) and games won in a row (24) at the start of the regular season, which brought Emil the accolades of Coach of the Year in the VTB League. In the playoffs, the red-blues lost to Lokomotiv-Kuban in a seven-game semifinal series and won bronze against Zenit.

This season, the Muscovites became the winners of the first round of the VTB League, and Rajkovic became the coach at the All-Star Game for the second year in a row. At the same time, CSKA finished the second round with a result of 3-7, and in 2024 has currently won only 8 official games out of 17.

Together with Rajkovic, assistant coaches Marko Velickovic and Saso Todorovski are leaving the team’s staff.

Andrey Vatutin, PBC CSKA President:

This was not an easy decision for us. Firstly, because of the timing – it’s not often that a team has to change a head coach just a week before the start of the playoffs. Secondly, we developed an excellent human and professional relationship with Emil. I have already said earlier that Rajkovic approached his work with great responsibility; he found himself in a difficult situation in terms of big changes in CSKA. At the beginning of the season, expectations from our team's perspectives were not too high. Thanks also to the efforts of Rajkovic, we exceeded these expectations in the first part of the championship. But now, despite the fact that until the last round we fought for leadership in the very competitive VTB League regular championship, the results of the second round and, most importantly, the quality of the game did not please the club and the fans. Life has shown that the team needs urgent and serious changes. We will always treat Emil, as well as Marko Velickovic and Saso Todorovski, with kind feelings and the most sincere gratitude. I sincerely wish him and all his assistants good luck in their future work. And CSKA will continue to fight on the way to the highest goals.

Emil Rajkovic:

I would like to express my gratitude to CSKA basketball club and its President Mr.Andrey Vatutin on the always constructive cooperation and the trust given to me, the opportunity to lead one of the most glorious clubs in European basketball history. In this two years we had many victories and many pleasant moments that will stay in my memory. At this moment, I would like to thank my staff, the players and, last but not least, the fans of CSKA who always supported us in every game. I sincerely hope that the coaching change will give the needed spark and with the return of Casper Ware the team will reach the goal and win the championship.