Izán Almansa (Murcia, June 7, 2005) He has been the MVP of the U-19 World Cup, that has been disputed in Debrecen (Hungary). The center, who just turned 18, He has achieved something never seen before, because in two summers he already has three awards as the best of an international tournament. In this one he has averaged 16.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists for a PIR of 22.7. The best game for Almansa, who will play next season in the Ignite of the NBA Development League (G-League), was against Lebanon. In the round of 16 match, the Murcian only needed 16 minutes to reach a PIR of 30, thanks to his 15 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists.
Last year, together with his classmates from the generation of 2005 (Sergio de Larrea and Lucas Langarita)Almansa won silver at the U-17 World Cup in Malaga and became the first non-American MVP in the history of this tournament. Shortly after that, he won junior gold (Under-18) with the National Team, once again being the most outstanding player in the tournament.
The one from Almansa is the 13th MVP for a Spanish player in the training categories and the Murcian has won three of these awards, that is, almost one in four recognitions has been his. Last summer there was a national plenary session of MVPs because apart from Almansa, ex-madridista Juan Núñez (Under-20) and Unicaja point guard Mario Saint-Supery (Under-16) were also the best. But on this list, they look a lot more carats. The first of all was Sergio Rodríguez, junior MVP (Under-18) in 2004. Two years later, Ricky was the most outstanding in the cadet tournament (Under-16) and in 2011 they shone in their respective championships Nikola Mirotic (Under-20) and Álex Abrines (Under-18). In 2016, Garuba was the cadet MVP and Marc Garcia, that of the European Sub-20 and complete the list Rubén Domínguez (Under-16) and Santi Aldama (Under-18), both in 2019.
In the quintet, apart from Izan Almansa, was his partner jordi rodriguez: 13.6 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists (9.3) and forced overtime in the final with a shot that crossed the 6.75 line. Along with them, the French Zacharie Perrinthe American Mark Armstrong and the turk Berke Buyuktuncel.