The Kosovo men's national basketball team ( sq, Kombëtarja e basketbollit të meshkujve të Kosovës, sr, Кошаркашкa репрезентација Косова, translit=Košarkaška reprezentacija Kosova) represents

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

in international

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

. They are controlled by the Basketball Federation of Kosovo, the governing body for basketball in Kosovo. Kosovo has been a member of

FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. Originally known as the (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word ''amateur'' from its na ...

since 13 March 2015.

History

Pre-independence

The Basketball Federation of Kosovo was founded in 1991. During the Yugoslavian era, Kosovo had its own Superleague and lower divisions, in both genders. In the 1990s, Kosovo declared political and sports independence from the Yugoslav system, organising its own league, based on different teams from seven major cities of Kosovo. Some basketball players from Kosovo, especially

Kosovo Serbs Kosovo Serbs are one of the ethnic groups of Kosovo. There are around 100,000 Kosovo Serbs as of 2014 and about half of them live in North Kosovo. Other Serb communities live in southern Kosovo. After Albanians, they form the largest ethnic comm ...

and Gorani, participated as part of the

Serbia and Montenegro Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...

and

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

national teams.

After independence

Kosovo were not allowed to play international matches, not even friendlies by FIBA, until 2015, when the Basketball Federation of Kosovo became an official member of FIBA and

FIBA Europe FIBA Europe is the administrative body for basketball in Europe, within the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), which includes all 50 national European basketball federations. In reaction to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, FIBA Euro ...

. Kosovo took part in

EuroBasket EuroBasket, also commonly referred to as the European Basketball Championship, is the main international basketball competition that is contested quadrennially, by the senior men's national teams that are governed by FIBA Europe, which is the E ...

qualification for the first time in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

. On 31 August 2016, Kosovo played their first official international match against Slovenia during the EuroBasket 2017 qualifiers. A year later, the national team achieved their first ever win on 2 August 2017 by defeating Macedonia 72–68 in their

first match ''First Match'' is a 2018 American drama film written and directed by Olivia Newman, based on her 2010 short film of the same name. The film stars Elvire Emanuelle, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Colman Domingo, Jharrel Jerome, and Jared Kemp. The film pr ...

during the 2019 FIBA World Cup European Pre-Qualifiers. After the win, Kosovo would pick up one more victory during the Pre-Qualifiers, against

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

75–69 to finish with a (2–2) record to advance to the first round of World Cup qualifying. In the next round, Kosovo would eventually see their World Cup hopes vanish, as the team went winless before being eliminated. Despite all of that they maintain to reach the second qualifying round in their debut participation, reaching the round of 32 best Basketball teams in Europe. After missing out on reaching the 2019 FIBA World Cup, Kosovo went through pre-qualifiers in order to reach

EuroBasket 2022 The EuroBasket 2022 was the 41st edition of the EuroBasket championship organized by FIBA Europe. It was the first since it was agreed it would take place every four years, with a similar system of qualification as for the FIBA Basketball World C ...

. However, the team would only compile a (2–8) record during the pre-qualifying process to be unable to advance.

Competitive record

FIBA World Cup

Olympic Games

EuroBasket

Results and fixtures

2022

2023

Team

Current roster

The following is the Kosovo roster called up for the EuroBasket 2025 pre-qualifiers third round matches against

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

, held from 19 July–5 August 2023.

Depth chart

Head coach history

Retired numbers

References

External links

Official website

Kosovo FIBA profileKosovo National Team – Men
at Eurobasket.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Kosovo men's national basketball team

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

Men's national basketball teams

Senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...