To Sulejmanovic the word fear does not exist. He who comes from a very complicated past due to the war in the Balkans, has had to forge a career based on sacrifice. A trajectory that He spent as a child at Union Olimpija and through the Barça youth academy, there where his current teammates Rabaseda, Hakanson and Ubal also formed (he still belongs to the Barça squad and is on loan at Miribilla). “When the offer came to me, it’s hard to turn it down. The desire of the majority is to be in that locker room, sharing it with those players for three years was incredible… like living your dreams. Everyone has an image that they are not nice guys, that they do not want to help you, but it is the opposite.. When I was there, from the first player to the last player they were always willing to give me a hand on how I had to do things on and off the court, so I’m grateful to have that opportunity in my career and to meet people like that in my life. I learned a lot from that experience”.
In his second spell at Miribilla, the Bosnian center has encountered serious setbacks to reach the level he gave three seasons ago. After closing two years in Tenerife that were very good collectively, but not so much personally, he hardly had a leading role in the Eurobasket with Bosnia and landed in Bilbao with very little rhythm “I feel so much better now. I sprained my ankle against Bahçesehir. I didn’t want to stop and it took me longer than I wanted to recover. I trained little, a day or two before the games, I couldn’t come before the session and stay at the end as I like, so it’s impossible to catch up with the competition”, he laments, although he admits that he is having a year “with many ups and downs”. Miribilla has not yet started in unison with the ‘Sule, Sule’ of 2020. But he will arrive. ”Be it good or bad, I try to never lack energy. I work every day to be better and that the image of my team is good”.
Ponsarnau’s team exhausted a large part of their chances to enter the Cup in Girona. The most feasible key to being in Badalona is to win against Barça at the Palau and for Valencia to lose at home against Zaragoza. The card of playing the 32 point difference that the Taronja have in their favor seems unfeasible. Sule was already part of that Bilbao that achieved the epic cup ticket at the Blaugrana in 2020, based in Carpena. He has been in the last three Cups, one with Bilbao Basket after promotion and the last two with Tenerife. “It is an incredible event. It’s a shame not to have taken advantage of that opportunity that came from winning in Girona. In this life nothing is impossible and no one is unbeatable, if you believe, trust and work with energy, things come your way. The victory three years ago was a gift to our work. If we win at the Palau, we will be more focused on our real objective (permanence) and, if it also leads us to the Copa del Rey, wonderful”. Of Barça, he only has words of praise: “It is a top team, fourth in the Euroleague and among the three ACB leaders. It motivates me a lot to play against them, they have a squad to win all the titles. They are favourites, but in recent years the best does not always win, there are more possibilities for the modest. You should never stop believing.” He believes that the reading of Fontajau’s defeat is that they must correct mistakes and improve, and if in the end they do not enter the Cup “it cannot be said that it is a catastrophe.” It is about enjoying the journey.