The base, currently in La Penya, won a WNBA ring and was a tricampeona from Europe with Spain
The Spanish international player Anna Cruz has announced this Thursday that she will retire at the end of this season, with 38 years and with 23 campaigns in the elite of basketball, both in Spain at the club and selection level-European critics and worldwide and world champion-world champion-and Olympic-and in Europe and with a ring of the American WNBA in its credit.
In an open letter in her networks, the Catalan says that for a few years of April she had the withdrawal, which now “seems to be serious.” “I will hang my boots when I finish this season. It is uncommon to imagine my life without a ball in my hands, but I know that it is the right time and site,” he acknowledged.
In fact, the letter is accompanied by a video with some of its best moments, and that was designed to be sent a year ago. “This video you are watching was prepared to be published in July 2024, but a couple of meetings with the Penya and ‘Pum’: I was already liabing again,” he said.
And it is that he parked the withdrawal in 2024, after finishing his stage at Barça BCS, to live a last campaign, still underway, defending the greenish colors of the Penya, historic club of his hometown. “The idea of defending the colors of the Penya in the city that has seen me grow was a temptation too big and something that made me very excited. I could not resist,” he explained.
“Thank you very much Penya for making it possible, for opening the doors of your home and allowing me to close the circle in this special way. This season is being a gift. Thanks to the basketball I have lived many things that I never thought they could happen to me, but what excites me most is that my family has also been able to enjoy me,” he was sincere in his letter.
It will end a long and successful career. With the Spanish team he played more than 150 games and was an Olympic runner -up in Rio 2016, a tournament in which Spain achieved the pass to the semifinals, against Turkey, thanks to a basket on the horn of Cruz. And it was also important in the three conquered Europeans (France 2013, Czech Republic 2017 and Serbia 2019), in addition to the world runner -up in Türkiye 2014 and two World Cup bronzes and two other continental bronzes.
At club levels, it undoubtedly emphasizes that he was WNBA champion in 2015 with the Minnesota Lynx, but the Badalonesa was also champion of the Women’s Euroleague in 2017 with the Dynamo Kursk and conquered two cups of the queen with the Rivas Ecopolis. He started the race at Ub Barça and will end it at the Joventut Badalona, after passing through Burgos, Olesa, Rivas, Oremburg, Dynamo Kursk, Fenerbahçe, Araski, Zaragoza and again Barça.
“Anna Cruz today announced her withdrawal from professional basketball at the end of the season, thus closing one of the best sports races in national basketball. When she was just a girl, Cruz started with her first boats in our city, at the Gitanjali school, in which it was the beginning of a legendary sports career, until she finished in her city’s team, the Joventut Badalona club,” said the greenish club in a statement.