Salva Maldonado · Biography

On 25 February 1996, at the Palacio de los Deportes in Murcia, TDK Manresa beat FC Barcelona 94-92 in overtime to win the 1996 Copa del Rey, the first trophy the club ever won. Their coach was Salvador Maldonado Ruiz, known as Salva Maldonado, a basketball coach born in Barcelona on 13 April 1959. A buzzer-beating three-pointer from Joan Creus settled the final. It was the start of more than two decades coaching in Spanish basketball, split between the Liga ACB and the LEB, with clubs including Joventut, Gran Canaria, Fuenlabrada and Estudiantes.

Early years in Badalona and Manresa

Maldonado started out coaching youth teams at several Catalan clubs and in the Joventut Badalona academy. In 1990-91 he ran Joventut's under-16 side and assisted Pedro Martínez with the under-18 team, the start of a working relationship that shaped his early career. In 1991 he followed Martínez to TDK Manresa and spent three seasons as his assistant. In 1994 he became head coach and stayed in charge until 1997. The Cup win in Murcia came in his second season in the job. Joan Creus scored 25 points in the final and was named the tournament's most valuable player.

Seville, Vitoria and the LEB years

In 1997 he joined Caja San Fernando of Seville in the ACB but did not see out the season: the club dismissed him on 12 March 1998 and brought in José Alberto Pesquera. He took over Tau Cerámica for 1999-2000, but his time in Vitoria was also short. He was sacked on 27 November 1999 and Julio Lamas replaced him. Several seasons in the LEB, the Spanish second division, came next. He coached Minorisa.net Manresa in 2000-01 and Club Ourense Baloncesto from 2001 to 2003. On 2 January 2004 he replaced Pep Claros at CB Tarragona and stayed on for the 2004-05 season.

Gran Canaria and Fuenlabrada

He returned to the ACB in 2005 with Kalise Gran Canaria. He coached the Canary Islands side for four straight seasons until 2009, his longest spell as a head coach at one club up to that point. In 2009-10 he joined Baloncesto Fuenlabrada with the season already under way. His first game in charge was on matchday 16, and he stayed with the Madrid-area club until 2011.

Five seasons at Joventut

In 2011 he went back to the club where his coaching career had begun. He coached Joventut Badalona's first team in the ACB for five seasons, from 2011 to 2016, the longest spell of his career at one club. In 2016 the club announced that he was leaving his post as coach of Divina Seguros Joventut, the team's sponsored name at the time.

Estudiantes and a return to Gran Canaria

In 2016 he took over Movistar Estudiantes and coached them for two seasons, until 2018. During the 2017-18 season he reached 600 games as a Liga ACB head coach. Only Aito García Reneses, Pedro Martínez, Manel Comas and Luis Casimiro had coached more. In June 2018, nine years after his first spell there, Herbalife Gran Canaria hired him to replace Casimiro. The team played in the EuroLeague that season, and poor results in Europe and in the ACB led the club to terminate his contract in December 2018.

Burgos and a return to Manresa

He went almost three years without coaching at the top level before Hereda San Pablo Burgos appointed him head coach on 29 November 2021, replacing Zan Tabak. The job did not last long. Burgos won one and lost three in the ACB, and won two of three in the Basketball Champions League. That defeat cost them direct qualification for the next round. On 10 January 2022, with the play-in tie against Darussafaka still to be played, the club let him go and brought in Paco Olmos. In July 2023 BAXI Manresa hired him as Pedro Martínez's assistant for the 2023-24 season, alongside Marc Estany. By then he had more than 600 ACB games behind him. It was a return to Manresa almost thirty years after his first spell as Martínez's assistant, from 1991 to 1994.