Mário Palma

Mário Leonel Faria Borges de Palma (born 27 June 1950) is a Portuguese basketball coach.

Mário Palma

Personal information
Born	(1950-06-27) 27 June 1950 Portuguese Guinea
Nationality	Portuguese
Coaching career	1980–present
Career history
As coach:
1980	Angola
1992–1996	Benfica
1997–1998	Estrelas da Avenida
1998–2006	Primeiro de Agosto Angola
2009–2011	Jordan
2011–2012	Primeiro de Agosto Portugal
2015–2016	Club Africain
2016–2019	Tunisia
2021	Al Ahly
2023–	Tunisia
Medals Men's basketball Representing Angola AfroBasket Luanda 1999 Casablanca 2001 Alexandria 2003 Algiers 2005 Representing Tunisia AfroBasket Rades 2017

Career

Palma was the coach of Angola at their first appearance at the FIBA Africa Championship, in 1980, finishing in seventh place.

He later would be the coach of Benfica, leading the Portuguese squad to a golden era, where they won five titles at the Portuguese Championship and the Cup of Portugal. They also reached the final group of the European Champions Cup for the first time in 1993/94.

Palma returned to the Angolan squad, where he won three titles in a row at the FIBA Africa Championship editions of 1999, 2001 and 2003. He was also the Angolan coach at the 2000 Summer Olympics and 2004 Summer Olympics.

After leaving the Angola side, he went to coach Clube Desportivo Primeiro de Agosto, where he won the national championship title, and Palma Aqua Mágica, in Spain. In his most recent position, he led the Jordan national basketball team to the bronze medal at the FIBA Asia Championship 2009, earning the nation its first FIBA World Championship berth.

In March 2011, he was nominated head coach of Portugal.

On 3 May 2021 Palma was appointed head coach of Egyptian club Al Ahly for the remainder of the season.

See also

• List of FIBA AfroBasket winning head coaches

External links

• [1] (in Portuguese)