Marko Kešelj ( sr-Cyrl, Марко Кешељ, born 2 January 1988) is a Serbian politician and retired professional

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 ...

player serving as the state secretary in the Ministry of Sports since 4 November 2022. He previously served as a member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

from 1 August 2022 until his resignation on 10 November 2022. He is also a presidency member of Crvena zvezda. He represented the Serbia national team in the international competitions. He is a tall

small forward The small forward (SF), also known as the three, is one of the five Basketball position, positions in a regulation basketball game. Small forwards are typically shorter, quicker, and leaner than Power forward (basketball), power forwards and Cent ...

Professional career

Kešelj started his career in his hometown with a club called Mega Ishrana. Despite his young age, Kešelj already has the experience of playing for two top-quality foreign clubs, the Spanish ACB League club Akasvayu Girona and the German League club

Köln 99ers Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and over 3.1 million people in the Cologne Bonn urba ...

. During the summer of 2006, his talents were spotted by Serbian coach

Svetislav Pešić Svetislav "Kari" Pešić ( sr-Cyrl, Светислав "Кари" Пешић; born 28 August 1949) is a Serbian professional basketball coach who is currently the head coach of the Serbia men's national team. Playing career During his club ...

, who brought him to

Girona Girona (; ) is the capital city of the Province of Girona in the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 106,476 in 2024, but the p ...

in the Spanish ACB League at the age of 18. However, Kešelj could not establish himself in the squad and got very little playing time. In the summer of 2007, he transferred to the German League to the

, which were led by another Serbian coach, Saša Obradović. Following a so-so season, Obradović left to coach

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, and Kešelj also started looking for a transfer. Upon rumors that Pešić, his mentor from his Girona days, might be taking over Crvena zvezda, Keselj decided to sign with the club during the summer of 2008, even before Pešić's arrival had become official. In 2010, he signed a 3-year contract with the Greek League club

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (, Olympic Association of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in football, ...

. With Olympiacos, he won the

EuroLeague The EuroLeague is a European men's professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognised as the top-tier and the most prestigious men's basketball league in Europe. The league consists of 20 teams, of which 16 are given lon ...

and Greek League championships in 2012. On 14 August 2012 Kešelj signed one-year contract with

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

. On 5 February 2013 he left Valencia and signed with

Le Mans Sarthe Basket Le Mans Sarthe Basket, commonly known as MSB or Le Mans, is a professional basketball club that is from the city of Le Mans, France. The team plays in the French League and internationally in the Basketball Champions League. Established in 19 ...

for the rest of the season. On 8 August 2013 he signed a one-year contract with

ASVEL Basket ASVEL Basket, currently known as LDLC ASVEL for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional basketball team located in the commune of Villeurbanne, a suburb of Lyon, France. The club, which is the basketball section of the ASVEL multi-sports ...

. On 14 October 2014 he signed an open contract with the Serbian team Mega Vizura. On 17 June 2015 it was confirmed that Kešelj would play with the

Portland Trail Blazers The Portland Trail Blazers (colloquially known as the Blazers) are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (N ...

at the

2015 NBA Summer League The 2015 NBA Summer League consisted of three professional sports, pro basketball sports league, leagues organized by the National Basketball Association, NBA: the Orlando Magic, Orlando Pro Summer League, Utah Jazz Summer League, and Las Vegas S ...

. On 6 January 2016 Kešelj signed with the Greek club Lavrio for the rest of the 2015–16 Greek Basket League season. On 18 September 2016 Kešelj signed with Belgian club Telenet Oostende. On 28 July 2017 Kešelj returned to Crvena zvezda, signing a two-year deal. On 4 January 2019 he scored 20 points for the night and his 1,000th point for the Zvezda.

National team career

Kešelj was a member of the Serbian junior national teams, and he played at the 2007 FIBA Under-19 World Championship in Novi Sad and at the 2008 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship. Kešelj was also a member of the senior Serbia national team at the

2010 FIBA World Championship The 2010 FIBA World Championship was the 16th FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship contested by the List of men's national basketball teams, men's national teams. The tournament ran from 28 August to 12 Septem ...

, where Serbia was defeated by

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

, in the game for the bronze medal. He was also capped for the national team of Serbia at the EuroBasket 2011, in Lithuania, where Serbia finished in 8th place.

Career statistics

EuroLeague

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2010–11 , style="text-align:left;" rowspan="2",

, 12 , , 3 , , 12.3 , , .476 , , .435 , , .500 , , 1.0 , , .2 , , .3 , , .3 , , 3.8 , , 2.1 , - , style="text-align:left;background:#AFE6BA;", 2011–12† , 14 , , 8 , , 15.6 , , .396 , , .270 , , .600 , , 2.0 , , .3 , , .4 , , , , 3.9 , , 2.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;", Crvena zvezda , 6 , , 0 , , 6.0 , , .000 , , .000 , , , , 1.0 , , .5 , , , , , , 0.0 , , -0.3 , - class="sortbottom" , colspan=2 style="text-align:center;", Career , 32 , , 11 , , 12.6 , , .398 , , .308 , , .538 , , 1.4 , , .3 , , .3 , , .1 , , 3.2 , , 1.8

Post-playing career

In August 2020, Kešelj was appointed as a presidency member of Crvena zvezda in charge of the sport issues. He was re-elected for 5-year term on 27 December 2021. Following the resignation of

Predrag Danilović Predrag "Saša" Danilović ( sr-Cyrl, Предраг "Саша" Даниловић, ; born February 26, 1970), usually referred to in English as Sasha Danilović, is a Serbian professional basketball executive and former player, considered one o ...

as the president of the Basketball Federation of Serbia (KSS), Sport Klub mentioned Kešelj as one of the main contenders for the position.

Political career

Kešelj appeared on the

Serbian Progressive Party The Serbian Progressive Party (, SNS) is a major populist, catch-all party, catch-all List of political parties in Serbia, political party in Serbia. It has been the Ruling party, ruling party since 2012. Miloš Vučević, the former prime mi ...

(SNS)-led Together We Can Do Everything ballot list for the 2022 general election, as an independent candidate. Following the election, Kešelj was elected to the

as MP. Kešelj was appointed state secretary in the Ministry of Sports on 4 November 2022. On 10 November, he resigned as MP. Kešelj is a member of the main board of SNS.

Personal life

Kešelj owns and operates a

blueberry Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section ''Cyanococcus'' with the genus ''Vaccinium''. Commercial blueberries—both wild (lowbush) ...

orchard.

References

External links

Marko Kešelj
at aba-liga.com
Marko Kešelj
at euroleague.net

at fiba.com
Marko Kešelj
at nba.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Keselj, Marko 1988 births Living people ABA League players ASVEL Basket players Basketball League of Serbia players BC Oostende players CB Girona players Greek Basket League players KK Avala Ada players KK Crvena zvezda players KK Crvena Zvezda executives KK Mega Basket players Köln 99ers players Lavrio B.C. players Le Mans Sarthe Basket players Liga ACB players Olympiacos B.C. players Serbian basketball executives and administrators Serbia men's national basketball team players Serbian expatriate basketball people in Belgium Serbian expatriate basketball people in France Serbian expatriate basketball people in Germany Serbian expatriate basketball people in Greece Serbian expatriate basketball people in Spain Serbian men's basketball players Small forwards Valencia Basket players Summer World University Games medalists in basketball 2010 FIBA World Championship players FISU World University Games gold medalists for Serbia Medalists at the 2009 Summer Universiade Members of the National Assembly (Serbia) Basketball players from Belgrade Sportsperson-politicians Serbia and Montenegro men's basketball players Serbian Progressive Party politicians