{"id":510341,"date":"2026-08-17T10:26:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T08:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=510341"},"modified":"2026-08-17T10:26:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T08:26:03","slug":"luca-illes-joins-cluj-napoca-on-loan-from-partizan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/luca-illes-joins-cluj-napoca-on-loan-from-partizan\/","title":{"rendered":"Luca Illes joins Cluj-Napoca on loan from Partizan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"PDq2pG_selectionAnchorContainer\" data-start=\"2972\" data-end=\"3090\"><strong data-start=\"2972\" data-end=\"2992\">U-BT Cluj-Napoca<\/strong> have signed <strong data-start=\"3005\" data-end=\"3019\">Luca Illes<\/strong> on loan from <strong data-start=\"3033\" data-end=\"3066\">Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade<\/strong> for the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"3092\" data-end=\"3300\">The 19-year-old guard, who stands 1.95m tall, spent last season with <strong data-start=\"3161\" data-end=\"3183\">KK Metalac Valjevo<\/strong>, averaging <strong data-start=\"3195\" data-end=\"3239\">6.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists<\/strong> in 18 minutes per game across 30 Serbian League appearances.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"ro\">Unul dintre cei mai promi\u021b\u0103tori tineri din baschetul rom\u00e2nesc \u2764\ufe0f\u200d\ud83d\udd25 Crescut la Partizan Belgrad \u0219i chemat de \u017deljko Obradovi\u0107 la antrenamentele primei echipe \u00eenc\u0103 de la 17 ani.<\/p>\n<p>Luca Ille\u0219 vine la Cluj! \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\ud83c\udff4 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/oDnTwYwVPw\">pic.twitter.com\/oDnTwYwVPw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 U-BT Cluj-Napoca (@UBTCluj) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/UBTCluj\/status\/2088961968296120579?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 16, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2 data-section-id=\"fftbcn\" data-start=\"3302\" data-end=\"3345\"><span role=\"text\"><strong data-start=\"3305\" data-end=\"3345\">Growing through the Partizan academy<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p data-start=\"3347\" data-end=\"3495\">Illes began his career in Romania with <strong data-start=\"3386\" data-end=\"3429\">CSS Bega Timisoara and ACS Transilvania<\/strong> before joining the Partizan academy in 2021 at just 14 years old.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"3497\" data-end=\"3628\">He spent three and a half years in Partizan&#8217;s youth system and captained the club&#8217;s U17 team to the <strong data-start=\"3597\" data-end=\"3627\">2024 national championship<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"3630\" data-end=\"3733\">Illes was named <strong data-start=\"3646\" data-end=\"3682\">MVP and top scorer of the finals<\/strong>, averaging an impressive <strong data-start=\"3708\" data-end=\"3732\">23.7 points per game<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2 data-section-id=\"h9wfsk\" data-start=\"3735\" data-end=\"3787\"><span role=\"text\"><strong data-start=\"3738\" data-end=\"3787\">Obradovic gave him his first-team opportunity<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p data-start=\"3789\" data-end=\"3885\">In the 2024-25 season, <strong data-start=\"3812\" data-end=\"3832\">Zeljko Obradovic<\/strong> called Illes up to train with Partizan&#8217;s first team.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"3887\" data-end=\"3970\">He subsequently signed a <strong data-start=\"3912\" data-end=\"3947\">four-year professional contract<\/strong> with the Serbian club.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"3972\" data-end=\"4133\">In January 2025, Illes joined <strong data-start=\"4002\" data-end=\"4025\">Mega Basket on loan<\/strong> for the remainder of the season and also competed in the <strong data-start=\"4083\" data-end=\"4119\">adidas NextGen EuroLeague Finals<\/strong> in Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n<h2 data-section-id=\"uwqqyj\" data-start=\"4135\" data-end=\"4175\"><span role=\"text\"><strong data-start=\"4138\" data-end=\"4175\">A key contributor for Romania U20<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p data-start=\"4177\" data-end=\"4238\">Illes has represented Romania at both the U16 and U20 levels.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"4240\" data-end=\"4452\">Most recently, he played at the <strong data-start=\"4272\" data-end=\"4313\">U20 European Championship in Slovenia<\/strong>, where he led Romania in rebounding with <strong data-start=\"4355\" data-end=\"4380\">6.6 rebounds per game<\/strong> and finished second on the team in scoring at <strong data-start=\"4427\" data-end=\"4451\">10.6 points per game<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2 data-section-id=\"535zmr\" data-start=\"4454\" data-end=\"4514\"><span role=\"text\"><strong data-start=\"4457\" data-end=\"4514\">Silvasan: &#8220;He is a talented player and a hard worker&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p data-start=\"4516\" data-end=\"4601\">Cluj-Napoca head coach <strong data-start=\"4539\" data-end=\"4557\">Mihai Silvasan<\/strong> welcomed the arrival of the young Romanian:<\/p>\n<blockquote data-start=\"4603\" data-end=\"4791\">\n<p data-start=\"4605\" data-end=\"4791\"><strong data-start=\"4605\" data-end=\"4791\">&#8220;He is a talented Romanian player who has spent the last few years in Serbia. Essentially, he grew up at Partizan Belgrade and is their player. I&#8217;m happy that he decided to join us.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p data-start=\"4793\" data-end=\"4866\">Silvasan also stressed the importance of the move for Illes&#8217; development:<\/p>\n<blockquote data-start=\"4868\" data-end=\"5019\">\n<p data-start=\"4870\" data-end=\"5019\"><strong data-start=\"4870\" data-end=\"5019\">&#8220;He is a player who must establish himself first and foremost, but from everything I know about him, he is a very good person and a hard worker.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p data-start=\"5021\" data-end=\"5062\">Regarding his new roster, Silvasan added:<\/p>\n<blockquote data-start=\"5064\" data-end=\"5202\">\n<p data-start=\"5066\" data-end=\"5202\"><strong data-start=\"5066\" data-end=\"5202\">&#8220;I am very pleased with the roster we have assembled, and we can&#8217;t wait to truly get started with the work and begin playing games.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p data-start=\"5204\" data-end=\"5235\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\"><em data-start=\"5204\" data-end=\"5235\" data-is-last-node=\"\">Source: EuroLeague Basketball<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 19-year-old Romanian prospect joins U-BT Cluj-Napoca for the 2026-27 season after playing in Serbia&#8217;s top division and representing Romania at the U20 European Championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":510340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[197,293],"tags":[],"rumors":[407],"typology":[185,15727],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-510341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eurocup","category-romania","rumors-basket-rumors","typology-official","typology-press-release-en"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-17-alle-10.24.50.png","digistream_id":0,"digistream":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510341"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=510341"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=510341"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=510341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}