Former Leicester Warriors product Kareem Queeley has just won the Junior Basketball Euroleague Competition with Spanish Giants – Real Madrid Basketball, and at just 18 years-old, is the only English player to do so.
The Adidas Next Generation Tournament, Junior Euroleague Competition is the highest level of competition in Junior European Basketball, featuring some of the top young European players in the world. The Under 18 Finals saw Queeley and Real Madrid face Mega Bemax Belgrade at the Fernando Buesa Arena, in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain where Madrid came away with 95-76 victory.
The win was the climax after a very successful European season for Queeley, as earlier in the year he helped Real Madrid win the Liga Endesa, the top league in Spanish Basketball. In the Semi-finals versus Crvena Zvezda he was also the top scorer with 14 points and overall in the tournament Kareem had a shooting percentage of nearly 70% averaging 23 minutes per game.
Kareem started playing basketball with Leicester Warriors at the age of 10 and was nurtured in the program until he signed for Real Madrid at age 14. For an English player who has come through the National Basketball League and has participated in the Basketball England Final Fours as a junior, winning a Euroleague Basketball Championship at 18 years of age is an incredible achievement.
Here's an interview with Kareem from the tournament:
