Dubai Basketball Appoint Xavi Pascual as New Head Coach

It is official! Dubai Basketball have appointed Xavi Pascual as new head coach.

The experienced tactician will serve as Dubai Basketball’s head coach for the next three seasons, through 2029. Pascual arrives from FC Barcelona, where he spent the 2025/26 season, leading the team to the ACB Finals.

The new Dubai Basketball head coach is widely regarded as one of the greatest coaching minds in European basketball. Pascual’s teams have always had a clear identity and a style of play that reflects his philosophy, discipline, and attention to detail.

Pascual spent eight and a half years at FC Barcelona, from 2008 to 2016, becoming one of the most successful coaches in the club’s history. After his first spell with Barcelona, he coached Panathinaikos Athens for two seasons, from 2016 to 2018.

From 2020 to 2025, he served as head coach of Zenit Saint Petersburg, leading the Russian club to its first-ever EuroLeague Playoff appearance. In November 2025, he returned to FC Barcelona until the end of the season.

Pascual has coached 385 EuroLeague games and owns the third-highest winning percentage in the competition’s history among coaches with at least 100 games, at 66.5%. He won 175 of his 241 EuroLeague games with FC Barcelona (73%), while recording 37 wins in 66 games with Zenit and 44 wins in 78 games with Panathinaikos.

In the Spanish League, he has coached more than 406 games, winning 312 of them for a 77% winning percentage.

Xavi Pascual led FC Barcelona to the EuroLeague title in 2010 in Paris. He has also won seven domestic league titles: four in Spain (2009, 2011, 2012, 2014), two in Greece (2017 and 2018) and one in Russia (2022).

In addition, he has won three Spanish Cups, four Spanish Super Cups, seven Catalan League titles, two VTB Super Cups, one Greek Cup and one Russian Cup.

Pascual has been named EuroLeague Coach of the Year once (2010), Spanish League Coach of the Year four times (2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014), Greek League Coach of the Year twice (2017 and 2018) and Russian League Coach of the Year once (2021).