UP's Juan Gomez De Liaño Is the First Homegrown Filipino in European Basketball History

While some basketball fans are still feeling the sting of disappointment with Kai Sotto’s failure to make it to the NBA at this year’s drafts, another Filipino player is making basketball history elsewhere. 

Lithuanian ball club BC Wolves announced late last week that it has signed Juan Gomez De Liaño to play until the end of the current season. That makes the 22-year-old guard the first-ever Filipino basketball player to play not just in the Lithuanian Basketball League, but in Europe.

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>pJuan GDL first turned heads when he played for the University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons at the UAAP. He won Rookie of the Year in 2017 and went on to take home trophies for MVP and Playmaker of the Season.>pAfter college, Juan GDL played in the PBA D-League for Marinerong Pilipino, where he helped the team make it to the Finals in 2022. He averaged 18.4 points, 8.4 rebounds, 6.3 assists, and 1.2 steals. >pThe player then suited up for the Gilas National Team before signing with ball clubs in Indonesia and Japan.>p“We aim to grow our fan community abroad, and we hope Juan will help us achieve that. Filipinos love basketball, the same as we do here in Lithuania,” said Rimantas Kaukenas, the President of BC Wolves in a statement. “Juan is a young, ambitious, and very talented player. He is motivated to learn and improve. We hope to be a good place for him to grow as a player, and he will use this chance.”>pJuan GDL is the third of six siblings, five of whom are also into basketball. He holds dual nationality: Filipino and Spanish.>pAlthough he is the first male homegrown player to compete in a European league, he is not the first player with Filipino blood to play there. According to Spin.ph, that honor belongs to Jack Danielle Animam, who plays for the team Radnicki Kragujevac of the First Women’s Basketball League of Serbia.>p