Trier (dpa) – The controversial basketball professional Joshiko Saibou played a competitive game in Germany for the first time since the Corona controversy in 2020. The 33-year-old is now under contract with second division team Medipolis SC Jena and made his season debut on Saturday evening in Jena’s 95:83 defeat at Römerstrom Gladiators Trier. Saibou contributed twelve points and five assists.
The development player played in the BBL for Alba Berlin and Würzburg, among others. In the summer of 2020, he was dismissed without notice by Telekom Baskets Bonn after taking part in a demonstration against the government’s Corona measures.
The club accused him of violating “the well-known protective rules” by taking part and thereby posing “a permanent risk of infection”. Saibou then moved to the French club Reims and six months later moved on to Dijon. He only returned to Germany in September 2023.
The home fans from Trier criticized the professional on Saturday with harsh words on a banner. Saibou was first a “role model to everyone” and only then did his “mask fall,” the followers wrote, among other things.
At the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Saibou was in the German squad, which sparked some criticism. The association defended the player, who “stands 100 percent by the values of the national team.”
“I don’t believe in conspiracy theories and I never have. I have a clear stance on discriminatory groups, no matter what kind,” said Saibou in an interview with the German Press Agency in June 2021. At no time did he spread a single conspiracy theory, neither in person nor on social media. “It’s a shame to have to justify something you absolutely didn’t do,” he said.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:231119-99-01042/2
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