Nando De Colo Announces Final Season in EuroLeague
Nando De Colo has never chased the spotlight. It has always found him.
Now, one of European basketball’s great craftsmen has drawn his own finish line.
The Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul guard, 38 years old and still running offenses with the calm of a grandmaster, has confirmed that the 2025-26 campaign will be his final season as a professional. No conditions. No “if we win” clauses. Just a clear decision from a player who has spent more than a decade shaping the EuroLeague in his image.
“I didn't say I would retire if we won the EuroLeague. But to be transparent, this will be my last season,” De Colo told BeBasket, adding that the thought has been with him “since the beginning of the season.”
So the countdown has started. Quietly, but definitively.
A farewell tour for a giant
De Colo’s announcement doesn’t arrive as a sudden twist. It feels more like the last chapter of a story that has been meticulously written since his debut in Europe’s top competition.
Back in January, he returned to Fenerbahce for a second stint, rejoining the club he first represented from 2019 to 2022. The reunion carried more than nostalgia. It brought back a player who had already left his fingerprints all over the EuroLeague and who still offers the same blend of poise, efficiency, and ruthless decision-making.
Before coming back to Istanbul, De Colo spent two seasons with ASVEL. Even in those years, with the miles piling up, his game barely frayed. He remained what he has always been: a model of control, a guard who wastes neither dribble nor possession.
A record book written in his name
The numbers tell their own story, and De Colo’s are brutal in their clarity.
He is the EuroLeague’s all-time leader in free-throw accuracy at 93.5%. No one has been more reliable at the line. He tops the charts in career PIR with 5,835 and in free throws made with 1,272. Only one player in history has scored more than his 5,157 points.
Those aren’t just records; they’re a map of influence. Every possession, every trip to the stripe, every carefully chosen shot has built a body of work that places him among the elite guards the continent has ever seen.
Thirteen EuroLeague seasons. Four clubs. The same standard everywhere.
CSKA years: dominance at the highest level
If there is a period that defines De Colo’s peak, it is his time at CSKA.
Across five seasons in Moscow, CSKA reached the Final Four every single year. That kind of consistency doesn’t happen by accident. De Colo sat at the center of it, earning All-EuroLeague honors in each of those campaigns, with three First Team selections.
The 2015-16 season stands apart. It was not just his best year; it was one of the most complete individual seasons the competition has ever seen. De Colo swept the major awards: EuroLeague MVP, Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy, and Final Four MVP, while driving CSKA to the title. Three trophies, one champion, one conductor.
He lifted a second EuroLeague crown with CSKA in 2019, cementing his legacy as a two-time champion and a player whose presence almost guaranteed a run deep into May.
A winner across Europe and beyond
De Colo’s impact has never been confined to a single jersey.
Before conquering the EuroLeague, he had already tasted European glory with Valencia, winning the EuroCup in 2010. That early success hinted at what was coming: a career built on winning, not just on numbers.
On the international stage, he became a pillar of the French national team’s golden era. EuroBasket gold in 2013. Two Olympic silver medals. Six medals overall at major international tournaments. Whenever France lined up for a big game, De Colo was there — steady, composed, and often decisive.
The last dance approaches
So what does a “last season” look like for a player like this?
It won’t be a farewell soaked in sentiment from tip-off to buzzer. De Colo has never carried himself that way. Expect the same thing he has always offered: control, efficiency, and the quiet authority of someone who has seen every defensive scheme and solved most of them.
But every arena he steps into over the next two years will know the context now. Every trip to the line, every mid-range pull-up, every surgical pick-and-roll will carry a little extra weight. Opponents will try to stop him. Crowds will pause to appreciate him.
One of the great guards of European basketball has given his notice. There is time left, but not much.
The EuroLeague will soon discover what it looks like without Nando De Colo.
