Newly naturalized Filipino Angelo Kouame is at a turning point of his basketball career.
As the 6’10” Kouame looks forward to joining the practices of the Gilas Pilipinas national men’s basketball team, offers for him to join numerous club teams abroad are also coming his way.
And Kouame may just accept one of them when the time comes.
“Yeah, there are offers. I have a lot now especially Asia and in Europe. A couple of people have asked me to play in the G-League. But we will see what’s coming and what will happen in the coming two years,” said Kouame in a podcast.
Kouame talked about his plans and thoughts a few days after President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law the naturalization law which made the 23-year-old Ivorian cager Kouame a Filipino citizen.
The process to make Kouame a Filipino citizen started after Sen. Sonny Angara, who is also the chairman of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, sponsored Senate Bill 1892 on his naturalization two years ago.
This weekend, Kouame is expected to join Gilas, which will be reentering a training bubble at the INSPIRE Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna.
“I pretty like it (training bubble) because you can tell the difference between the first day of the bubble and the last day of the bubble. It really shows how being connected with one another can bring us to another step,” added Kouame.
The national squad is in the thick of preparations for the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers’ third window this June in Clark.
Kouame will join a group of young players who are part of the Gilas pool.
And many of them were his teammates during his collegiate days with the Ateneo Blue Eagles.
Among those who joined the bubble since the beginning are Gilas draftees Matt Nieto, Mike Nieto, Isaac Go, and Rey Suerte, along with newbies Jordan Heading, William Navarro, Tzaddy Rangel, Jaydee Tungcab, Kenmark Carino, Javi Gomez de Liano, Dave Ildefonso, SJ Belangel, RJ Abarrientos, Carl Tamayo, Justine Baltazar, Jason Credo, Geo Chiu and Lebron Lopez,
“I believe that with this group of young players, we can accomplish a lot because they really want to be a part of it, a new group, who wants to build something different about this country,” said Kouame.
