Zoran Erceg

Zoran Erceg
Player information
birthday	January 11, 1985
place of birth	Pakrac, SFR Yugoslavia
size	211 cm
position	Power Forward / Center
Club information
society	Galatasaray Liv Hospital
league	Türkiye Basketbol Ligi
Jersey number	4th
Clubs as active
2003–2008 FMP Železnik Belgrade → 2006 KK Borac Čačak 2008–2011 Olympiacos → 2009–2010 Panionios Athens 2011–2012 Beşiktaş Milangaz 2012–2013 PBK CSKA Moscow Since 2013 Galatasaray Liv Hospital 00 0
National team
Since 02007	Serbia

Zoran Erceg ( Serbian - Cyrillic Зоран Ерцег ; born January 11, 1985 in Pakrac , SR Croatia ) is a Serbian basketball player . After starting his career in his Serbian homeland, Erceg played in Greece and Turkey as well as a year at CSKA Moscow in Russia . The Serbian national player and his club teams have so far won the international competitions EuroChallenge 2012, the VTB United League 2013 and the ABA League 2004. In national titles, Erceg won the Russian and Turkish championships as well as the cup competitions in Serbia and Montenegro , Greece and Turkey. Since the 2013/14 season he has been playing in the Türkiye Basketbol Ligi again , this time for the Turkish champions Galatasaray SK Liv Hospital from Istanbul.

Career

In 2003 Erceg moved to the Serbian capital to join the FMP Železnik, which at that time ran under the sponsor name Reflex. In the 2003/04 season they won the Serbian-Montenegrin Cup competition and became national runner-up. A year later, Erceg won the title in the ABA League with the club in 2004 and was able to win the Cup competition of Serbia and Montenegro again in 2005. In the 2005/06 season he was loaned to KK Borac from Čačak at the end of the season, while his teammates again won the ABA league. After Erceg's return to FMP Železnik they moved in the 2006/07 season as the defending champion again in the championship decision of the ABA league, which was played out as a final series this time, but lost to local rivals KK Partizan Belgrade in two games in a previous year's final defeat . Despite the defeat, Erceg was named the best player in the second final game and was allowed to take part in a final with the Serbian national team for the first time in the summer that followed. In the first final round since the separation from Montenegro, however , the Serbian selection disappointed and lost all three preliminary round matches at the 2007 European Championship .

In 2008 Erceg got a five-year contract with the Greek top club Olympiacos Piraeus in A1 Ethniki . With the team he moved into the " Final Four " of the highest European club competition ULEB Euroleague 2008/09 , in which, however, they were defeated in the semifinals to the Greek arch rivals Panathinaikos Athens and in the "small final" to FC Barcelona . Even in the final series of the Greek championship, serial champion Panathinaikos could not be stopped. In the 2009/10 season Erceg was loaned to Panionios Athens, who just managed to get into the championship play-offs in eighth place in the championship , in which they were clearly defeated by defending champions Panathinaikos in the first round. Erceg then returned to Olympiakos, who finished undefeated in the main round of the Greek championship in the 2010/11 season in first place. Also unbeaten in the play-offs was the final series against defending champion Panathinaikos, in which, however, the home advantage was just as impossible as in the quarter-finals of the ULEB Euroleague 2010/11 and received three defeats in four games. At least the title in the Greek cup competition was successfully defended. Then Erceg's contract was terminated and he moved to Turkey.

In the 2011/12 season Erceg played for Beşiktaş JK Milangaz from Istanbul in the Türkiye Basketbol Ligi . Together with Carlos Arroyo and Pops Mensah-Bonsu , he was one of the protagonists when a Turkish club team won only the second title in a European competition. In the 91: 86 final victory over Élan Chalon , he dominated the front court with 25 points and 15 rebounds, along with Mensah-Bonsu, who contributed 26 points and 20 rebounds and was named " Most Valuable Player " of the final game. Even in the Turkish cup competition and championship, the team was unstoppable and scored a triple . It was only the second championship win in the history of the Beşiktaş basketball team and the first since 1975. In the 2012/13 season Erceg played for the dominant Russian series champion CSKA Moscow, where he was out for several months after an Achilles tendon injury at the beginning of the season. While the titles of the Russian champions in the PBL and in the Eastern European VTB United League 2012/13 were successfully defended, they failed in a new edition of the previous year's final in the semifinals of the ULEB Euroleague 2012/13 to Erceg's former club and defending champion Olympiacos Piraeus. For the 2013/14 season Erceg returned to Istanbul to coach Ergin Ataman , who had become coach of local rivals Galatasaray SK after winning the title with Beşiktaş. Ataman had already piloted Arroyo to Galatasaray in the preseason and won the Turkish championship in 2013 with the team. After local rivals Fenerbahçe Ülker had "upgraded" with Panathinaikos' former successful coach Željko Obradović , Mensah-Bonsu, the third protagonist of the 2012 triple winner, was signed at the beginning of the 2013/14 season.

Web links

Commons : Zoran Erceg  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• ERCEG, ZORAN - Statistics on the websites of the ULEB ( English )
• archive.fiba.com: Players - Zoran ERCEG (SRB) - Overview of participation in FIBA tournaments (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Besiktas Milangaz - Elan Chalon / EuroChallenge 2012: Besiktas Bring The Cup To Turkey. FIBA Europa , April 29, 2012, accessed on November 27, 2013 (English, match report and statistics). 
2. ↑ CSKA Moscow signs big man Erceg. ULEB , June 28, 2012, accessed November 27, 2013 . 
3. ↑ CSKA Moscow: Erceg, out several months. ULEB , October 24, 2012, accessed November 27, 2013 . 
4. ↑ GALATASARAY signs big man Erceg for two seasons. ULEB , August 1, 2013, archived from the original on December 2, 2013 ; accessed on November 27, 2013 (English).