Usman Garuba

Usman Garuba
Player information
Full name	Usman Garuba Alari
birthday	March 9, 2002
place of birth	Madrid , Spain
size	203 cm
Weight	104 kg
position	Center / Power Forward
Club information
society	real Madrid
league	League ACB
Jersey number	18th
Clubs as active
2018–	real Madrid

Usman Garuba Alari (born March 9, 2002 in Madrid ) is a Spanish basketball player . He plays on the positions of the center and power forwards .

career

Usman Garuba, son of Nigerian immigrants from Benin City , began his basketball career in 2012 in the youth of CDB Basket Azuqueca , in Azuqueca de Henares . In the summer of 2013, 11-year-old Garuba joined Real Madrid's youth team . Within a few years he went through all age groups of the club and was able to win the Spanish U-14 championship 2014/15 and the U-16 championship 2015/16, in which he was named the most valuable player of the tournament. At the age of only 15, he was already in the A-youth squad and on September 23, 2017, he played his first senior encounter with Real Madrid's B-team in the EBA league, the fourth division in Spain. That season he won the Spanish U-18 championship with his club and was voted MVP of the final himself .

On October 28, 2018, Garuba made his debut in Real Madrid's professional squad in a championship game against CB Miraflores . At 16 years and seven months, he was the youngest center in the history of the Spanish league and, after Luka Dončić (16 years and two months) and Roberto Nuñez (16 years and six months), the third youngest basketball player for Real Madrid, who played a game in the ACB league. Usman Garuba was added to Real Madrid's first squad for the 2019/20 season. On September 29, 2019, he scored 13 points and 10 rebounds in a championship game against CB Murcia . At 17 years and six months he was the youngest player in the history of the league to double-double .

National team

Usman Garuba played with the Spanish national team in the U-16 European Championship in 2016, where he and his team won the gold medal with a 74:72 in the final against Lithuania. He got 16.3 points and 12.4 rebounds per game and was voted MVP of the tournament. Two years later he was again in the final of the U-16 European Championship with the Spanish team, but this time lost to Croatia 70:71. He himself scored 16.3 points, 12.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game.

Achievements and honors

Spanish national team

• U-16 European Championship: gold medal 2016 and silver medal 2018

Honors

• All-Tournament Team of the U-16 European Championship: 2016, 2018
• MVP of the U-16 European Championship: 2016

Web links

• Profile - on acb.com (Spanish)
• Usman Garuba - Overview of participation in international FIBA tournaments on archive.fiba.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Los nuevos hermanos Gasol. In: El Mundo . December 8, 2016, Retrieved October 28, 2018 (Spanish). 
2. ↑ Usman Garuba, el pívot más joven en debutar en la Liga Endesa. In: ACB.com. October 28, 2018, Retrieved October 28, 2018 (Spanish). 
3. ↑ Garuba, el más joven en lograr un doble doble. In: ACB.com. September 29, 2019, Retrieved September 30, 2019 (Spanish).