Félix Bañobre Carballo (born 5 July 1970) is a Spanish

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 (appro ...

coach and former player. He currently serves as head coach of the VfL AstroStars Bochum. He also holds British citizenship.

Early life

Even though Bañobre was born in London, his home town is

A Coruña A Coruña (; ; also informally called just Coruña; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality in Galicia, Spain. It is Galicia's second largest city, behind Vigo. The city is the provincial capital of the province ...

. Bañobre returned to his home country at the age of 15. Because of his height, he was approached by a scout from first division club

CB OAR Ferrol Club Baloncesto OAR Ferrol was a professional basketball club based in Ferrol, Spain. History OAR Ferrol was founded in 1951, but didn't promote to the top league until 1980. During 13 years played on Primera División or Liga ACB and qualified ...

.Der spanische Steuermann ist nun an Bord
Frederik Büll (

Hamburger Abendblatt ''Hamburger Abendblatt'' () is a German daily newspaper in Hamburg belonging to the Funke Mediengruppe, publishing Monday to Saturday. The paper focuses on news in Hamburg and its surrounds, and produces regional supplements with news from Norde ...

), 6 August 2016. Accessed 12 December 2023.

Playing career

Bañobre played as

Swingman A swingman is an athlete capable of playing multiple positions in their sport. Basketball In basketball, the term "swingman" (a.k.a. "wing" or "guard-forward") denotes a player who can play both the shooting guard (2) and small forward (3) positi ...

. In 2016, he recalled that as a player, he had been a good shooter who once scored 56 points in a game.

Coaching career

Bañobre started coaching children and young people during his playing career. He also coached the professionals at his first station and a second division club. In Spain, he once had the later

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

players Ricky Rubio and

Pau Gasol Pau Gasol Sáez (, ; born July 6, 1980) is a Spanish former professional basketball player. He was a six-time NBA All-Star Game, NBA All-Star and a four-time All-NBA team selection, twice on the second team and twice on the third team. Gasol ...

under his wing at an elite camp for the country's best talents. Later, he wanted to get out of Spain and was active in Denmark, coaching

Team FOG Næstved Team FOG Næstved is a professional basketball team from Næstved, Denmark, playing in the best Danish basketball league, Basketligaen. The team won its first title in 2017, where they won the Danish Basketball Cup. Their current head coach is A ...

in the first half of the 2013-14 season. Then, he managed the German regional league club BC Erfurt in 2015-16. In 2016, Bañobre already had 27 years of experience in the coaching sector. In August 2016, he moved from BC Erfurt to

SC Rist Wedel Sportclub Rist Wedel e.V., more commonly known as Rist Wedel, is a German basketball club based in Wedel. The men's team currently plays in the ProB, the third-tier national division. The women's team plays in the 2. Damen-Basketball-Bundesliga. ...

, cooperation partner of

Hamburg Towers Hamburg Towers, for sponsorship reasons named Veolia Towers Hamburg, is a professional basketball team, based in Hamburg, Germany. After promotion from the ProA in 2019, the Towers are currently playing in the Basketball Bundesliga, the top tier ...

. In 2017-18, Bañobre simultaneously coached two teams (SC Rist Wedel in the ProB league and Hamburg's Under-19-side). He later left Wedel and joined Bochum for the 2019-20 season.Felix Banobre bleibt Trainer der Sparkassen Stars Bochum
Markus Rensinghoff (

Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung'' (''WAZ'') is a commercial newspaper from Essen, Germany, published by Funke Mediengruppe. History and profile ''Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung'' was founded by Erich Brost and first published 3 April ...

), 27 April 2023. Accessed 12 December 2023. In his first year, he and the team qualified for the

ProB The ProB is the German basketball league system, third-tier level Sports league, league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 24 teams, separated into a Northern and a Southern Division. Officially, the ProB is part of ...

playoffs. In the following season, Bochum was promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga

ProA The ProA is the German basketball league system, second-tier Sports league, league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 16 teams. Officially the ProA is part of the ''2. Basketball Bundesliga'', which consists of the t ...

. In their first year in ProA, they managed to stay in the league. In the 2022-23 season, the team barely missed the ProA play-offs, finishing the regular season in ninth place. In late April 2023, he extended his contract there until 2026. In 2024, Bañobre's Bochum side suffered relegation from the ProA, but remained in the league, because no teams were promoted from the ProB. In the 2024-25 season, Bañobre led Bochum to its first ProA playoff appearance in team history. They fell to regular season champions

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

(0-3) in the opening round (quarter finals).

Coaching style

In mid-2016, Bañobre stated that he follows the “Spanish style of basketball,” meaning much freedom for the players while taking away pressure from them.

Personal

He plays chess in his free time, collects exclusive wristwatches.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bañobre, Félix Living people 1970 births Basketball players from London Spanish men's basketball players English men's basketball players Spanish basketball coaches English basketball coaches Shooting guards Small forwards Spanish expatriate basketball people in Germany Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Sportspeople from A Coruña