Basketball: “I think it’s the right time”, Nando De Colo will retire at the end of the season

A page will soon be definitively turned for French basketball. Nando De Colo, one of the best French players in history, and undoubtedly one of the most underestimated by the general public, announced that he would retire at the end of the season he is playing with Fenerbahçe.

“To be transparent, this will be my last season,” De Colo, 38, told the specialist site BeBasket on Tuesday.

“Since the start of the year, I had in the back of my mind that it was going to be my last season,” added the point guard who started the season with Asvel before joining Fenerbahçe (Turkey) in January, where he had already played from 2019 to 2022.

“Move on”

“I think life is made up of moments and timing too. And I think it’s the right time to move on,” continued De Colo, who retired internationally after the Paris Olympics in 2024, after a second Olympic silver medal in a row.

De Colo, born in Saint-Catherine (Pas-de-Calais) and trained in Cholet, was also 2013 European champion and bronze medalist at the 2019 World Cup as well as at Euro 2015 with the French team.

A player with keen reading of the game and diabolical skill (41% at 3 pts and 93.5% on free throws on average in 13 Euroleague seasons), he is the second best scorer in the history of the Euroleague (5,157 points), won in 2016 and 2019 with CSKA Moscow.

In 2016, he was elected MVP of the regular season and then of the Euroleague Final Four.

Also winner of six national championships (5 with CSKA Moscow, 1 with Fenerbahçe) and the Eurocup (C2) in 2010 with Valencia, he played two seasons in the NBA (2012-2014), in San Antonio and Toronto.