Vildoza Explains His U-Turn on Signing With Partizan
The Argentine point guard breaks his silence on the reversal: last summer he called joining Partizan impossible, yet he opens the 2026/27 season in the club's jersey.
A question on Argentine network DSports had nothing to do with Partizan, but Luka Vildoza’s answer ended up there anyway. The host wanted to know something else entirely: whether the Argentine point guard could one day wear the jersey of Penarol, the fiercest rival of Quilmes, the club where he grew up. Instead of a simple yes or no, Vildoza pulled an example from his own career, one that sounded unworkable just a year ago.
“I don’t know. Last year I said it was impossible for me to sign with Partizan, and now I’m here. That’s why I will never close the door on any club.”
The statement came out on August 8, by which point Vildoza was already a Partizan player. He signed a two-year contract with the black and whites, arriving in Belgrade from Virtus Bologna. A year earlier, while he was still weighing a return to the region, he had publicly ruled out that very same move.
From Quilmes to Partizan
Vildoza began his career where he first learned to play. He joined Quilmes at eight, came up through every youth category and signed his first professional contract there. From there he moved to Europe, where his time at Baskonia earned him a path to the NBA.
His return to the Old Continent brought him his first Belgrade jersey. He played for Red Star, then moved to Panathinaikos and won the EuroLeague with the Greek club. After that came Olympiacos, and then Virtus. The list stands out for one thing rarely seen: he has worn the colors on both sides of the Belgrade and Athens rivalries, within a few seasons of each other.
That is exactly why the question about Penarol made sense. The host was not fishing for a headline, he was testing a line the player had already crossed once before.
Why did he change his mind?
Vildoza did not get into the negotiations or the money. Instead, he turned his shift in stance into a rule. What he once called impossible turned out to be a matter of circumstance, so he concluded that he will not rule out any club in advance. It is the kind of answer that holds up in professional sports, because his own path backs it up.
He did name one exception.
“Quilmes is the club that gave me everything. I started playing there when I was eight. They helped me grow, surrounded me with good people, and I don’t think I could do that to them.”
So the door is open to everyone except the club where he came up. For Partizan, that line carries a practical message too: a player who was willing to walk back his own words is unlikely to struggle with the pressure waiting for him in Belgrade.
What Partizan gains
Partizan brought in a point guard with a EuroLeague title and NBA experience, a combination few players in the ABA League region can match. Vildoza also knows the environment, since he has already played in Belgrade, and he knows what a season looks like when a EuroLeague double week collides with the regional schedule.
There is also a part of this that no statistic captures. His arrival is already colored by the fact that he once wore the city rival’s jersey, so every derby he plays in will be viewed through that lens as well. Vildoza clearly factored that in, since he was the one who brought up the topic first, rather than waiting for someone to raise it at a press conference in Belgrade.
What comes next is straightforward. The Argentine enters preseason as a reinforcement expected to run the offense, and the real test arrives in the 2026/27 season, once Partizan starts its EuroLeague campaign. Until then, his line from Argentina stands as the shortest possible description of the transfer market: in this business, the word never has a shelf life of about one summer.
