Alan Ibrahimagic entered the tournament officially as an assistant coach, but when German national team head coach Alex Mumbru faced a medical issue, Ibrahimagic stepped up and effectively became the leader of the Eurobasket champions.
Mumbru, who made history as only the second person to win Eurobasket both as a player and a coach after Greek legend Panagiotis Giannakis, remained in title the head coach, but the practical responsibilities fell on Ibrahimagic.
“Due to unfortunate circumstances, I had to coach the team,” Ibrahimagic said modestly. He added, “Alex Mumbru is the coach of the team and he is coaching it, but for me it’s a great honor to be part of this group.”
Dennis Schroder, sitting beside him, had a more colorful reaction: “F.. that!” The tournament MVP then gently covered the ears of his son, who was sitting on his lap, and praised Ibrahimagic’s efforts: “Shout out to Alan, what he did was not easy. Alex is the head coach, but what Alan did coaching us was incredible, we went 9-0, and that’s a hell of a coaching staff.”
For Ibrahimagic, however, the focus has always been the team.
“This is the quality of this team, it’s talented, but even more it also has great people, great characters, great fighters that never give up, so we were never in panic, or nervous because we knew that in the crunch time, we had our captain, we had Andy (Obst), we had Bonga, who ever was on the court, would take the right decisions. Daniel (Theis) hit his only shot in crunch time, so this says everything about these people.”
On a personal level, coaching Germany’s “golden generation” to actual Eurobasket gold carries a deeper meaning for him.
“I am glad as a youth coach who is fighting for young players in Germany. We have a lot of talent coming up, and I hope they get more opportunities to play in our top league. That’s the mission of Dennis and this generation, to bring more people to basketball, bring more interest to basketball, so Germany can develop even better. So it’s also about bringing something to the country, and I hope we have done it a bit this time, and this will show in the future.”
Alan Ibrahimagic coached Germany by “unfortunate circumstances” all the way to gold#Eurobasket https://t.co/gyX6s0klH0
— Eurohoops (@Eurohoopsnet) September 14, 2025
