Fouad named BAL Coach of the Year ahead of Final
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Reading Time: 2min | Sat. 14.06.25. | 11:30
H e led his side to the Final where they fce defending champions Petro de Luanda
Italian-Lebanese coach Abou Chacra Fouad, who has had a stellar season leading Al Ahli Tripoli to the 2025 final, has been named the 2025 Basketball Africa League (BAL) Coach of the Year.
Under his leadership, the Libyan champions won all seven games in the 2024 Road to BAL qualifiers and closed the 2025 BAL Nile Conference undefeated in six games.
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To complete their remarkable season, coach Fouad’s Al Ahli Tripoli reached the 2025 BAL Finals with an 8-1 record.
They will face the BAL reigning champions, Petro de Luanda, on Saturday, 14 June, at the Sunbet Arena in Pretoria.
The 58-year-old led Libya to a successful 2025 AfroBasket Qualifiers campaign, where they finished 4-2 and secured their place at the African Championship for the first time since 2009. The 2025 AfroBasket will take place in Angola from 12-24 August.
Since the BAL Coach of the Year award was created in 2022, the following four coaches have won the prestigious award: 2022: José Neto (Brazilian), with Petro de Luanda, 2023: Paby Gueye (Senegalese), with AS Douanes, 2024: Ogoh Odaudu (Nigerian), with Rivers Hoopers while Fouad got the fourth award.
In the final, Fouad will hope to complete his side’s comeback and crown a season of firsts for the Libyan champions, who lost their seeding game against Al Ittihad in a matchup that was billed as a potential 2025 BAL final.
They face the defending champions, Petro de Luanda. The Angolan champions also started on the losing end in the seeding game, suffering an embarrassing 18-point loss to a Playoffs debutant and eventual bronze medalists, APR. They regrouped in time to relaunch their title defense.
🏆 𝑩𝑹𝑨𝑪𝑲𝑬𝑻 𝑼𝑷𝑫𝑨𝑻𝑬!!!
— Basketball Africa League (@theBAL) June 11, 2025
Only 2 teams remain: Alahli SC 🇱🇾 vs Petro de Luanda 🇦🇴
One game to make history. Who’s taking the #BAL5 crown? 👑 pic.twitter.com/mSSknvwdjQ
The Angolan side not only knocked out title contender US Monastir in the quarterfinals, but also upset Al Ittihad Alexandria, who reached the semifinals with an impressive 8-0 record.
Petro de Luanda made history by becoming the first team to reach the BAL final three times in the league’s five years of existence, improving from a 3-3 mark in the Sahara Conference to 5-4 ahead of Saturday’s 2025 BAL Final against Al Ahli Tripoli.
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