BOITUMELO RANTAO
EX-CONGOLESE international Eric Kibi has penned a deal with Moroccan club Association Sportive de Sale (AS Sale) ahead of the inaugural Basketball Africa League (BAL) season.
Kibi – born in Quebec City, Canada – currently plays for The Hague Royals in the Dutch Basketball League (DBL) where he averages 13 points per game (ppg) and 9.9 rebounds per game (rpg) which is good enough for second in the DBL.
The 6’6” (198cm) small forward represented the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at the 2017 edition of the African Basketball Championship (AfroBasket). Kibi averaged 3.5 ppg and 3.5 rpg in four matches with the DRC.
The 30-year old forward has travelled to nine different countries on four continents during the tenure of his professional career. Kibi has competed in Argentina (Libertad Sunchales and Tiro Federal), Denmark (Rangers), France (GET Voges), Germany (Hertener Loewen, BG Halstenbek/Pinneberg and Rendsburg), Iraq (Al Mina), Montenegro, Slovakia (Handlova), Spain (L’Hospitalet) and Canada (London Lightning, Ottoway SkyHawks and Saskatchewan).
AS de Sale have also added Moroccan international power forward Adam El Gazhi for his second stint with the club. El Gazhi was a member of the Morocco Senior National Team in 2018 and has previously spent his years competing professionally in France.
The 25-year old forward averaged 8.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg, and 1.2 assists per game (apg) in 13 games with AS Kayersberg Ammerschwir BCA in the French NM1. Before that, El Gazhi has had professional stints with STB Le Havre, SPO Rouen and Souffelweyersheim.
AS de Sale will fight against 11 other teams in the inaugural BAL tipping-off on May 16.. The teams competing are: Ferroviario de Maputo (Mozambique), GNBC (Madagascar), Rivers Hoopers (Nigeria), Petro de Luanda (Angola), AS Douanes (Senegal), AS Police (Mali), FAP (Cameroon), Union Sportive Monastir (Tunisia), GSP (Algeria), and Patriots (Rwanda), and Zamalek (Egypt).
