Franco Nicolás Balbi (born August 21, 1989), is an Argentine professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player who currently plays for

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; ), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian multi sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea. It was founded and named after the Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Flamengo n ...

Novo Basquete Brasil Novo Basquete Brasil (NBB; English: New Basketball Brazil) is the Brazilian premier professional men's basketball league. It is organized by the Liga Nacional de Basquete (LNB; English: National Basketball League), in a new format of Brazil's pr ...

. At a height of tall, he plays at the

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the Basketball positions, five positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position and is usually the shortest player ...

position.

Professional career

Balbi started playing youth

club Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands and enterprises * ...

basketball with Club Villa Belgrano, in the city of Junín, when he was 5. He also played with Los Indios de Junín at the youth level, before arriving at Ciclista Juninense, where he made his debut in Argentina's top-level league, the

Liga Nacional de Básquet Liga (Spanish and Portuguese: ''League'') or LIGA may refer to: Sports Basketball * Liga ACB, men's professional basketball league in Spain * Liga Femenina de Baloncesto, women's professional basketball league in Spain Football Latin Amer ...

(LNB), on January 14, 2007, against

Regatas Corrientes Club de Regatas Corrientes, usually just Regatas Corrientes, is a sports club of Corrientes, Argentina, located on the river side of the Paraná river. Although Regatas was born as a rowing institution, the club is mostly recognized due to its bas ...

. The following season, Ciclista Juninense got

relegated Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

, and had to play in Argentina's second division, the Torneo Nacional de Ascenso (TNA). Balbi turned into a key player on the team, including playing more minutes and having good games, which made

Quimsa Asociación Atlética Quimsa, usually called simply Quimsa, is an Argentine sports club located in the city of Santiago del Estero in the homonymous province. The club's professional basketball team plays in the Liga Nacional de Básquet (LNB), t ...

from

Santiago del Estero Santiago del Estero (, Spanish for ''Saint-James-Upon-The-Lagoon'') is the capital of Santiago del Estero Province in northern Argentina. It has a population of 252,192 inhabitants, () making it the twelfth largest city in the country, with a sur ...

, sign him up for the 2009–10 LNB season, marking his return to the Argentine first division. That same season, he suffered a severe injury that made him lose minutes the following season, and that ultimately led Quimsa to terminate his contract. He quickly managed to find a new club, San Martín de Corrientes, which he helped achieve a league promotion to the Argentine first division, by finishing as runner-ups in the Torneo Nacional de Ascenso (TNA). In the following season, he returned to Ciclista Juninense, to play in the second division. After two good seasons, he signed with the club's local rivals, Argentino de Junín, for the 2013–14 LNB season, where he would return to play under his first professional

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

, Adrián Capelli. With Argentino de Junín, he played in both the 2013–14 season of the

, and the

Liga Sudamericana de Básquetbol The Liga Sudamericana de Baloncesto (LSB), or FIBA Liga Sudamericana de Baloncesto ( Portuguese: ''Liga Sul-Americana de Basquete'', English: ''South American Basketball League''), also commonly known as FIBA South American League, is the secon ...

(FIBA South American League). It was a great season, for both him and the club, with the team making the semifinals of both tournaments. In the 2014–15 LNB season, he became a regular starter for Argentino de Junín, and once again played in the

and the

. He became an established player in the top level Argentine league, and received noticeable coverage from the local press.

Ferro

On May 23, 2016, Balbi signed with Ferro, for the Argentine

2016–17 Liga Nacional de Básquet season The 2016–17 Liga Nacional de Básquet season was the 33rd season of the top professional basketball league in Argentina. The regular season started on 22 September 2016. San Lorenzo won their second title in a row, defeating Regatas Corrientes i ...

Flamengo

On June 21, 2018, Balbi signed with the Brazilian NBB club

, for the

2018–19 NBB season The 2018–19 Novo Basquete Brasil (NBB) season is the 11th season of this top-tier level Brazilian professional basketball league. This tournament is organized by the Liga Nacional de Basquete (LNB). The NBB will also qualify teams for internat ...

, which marked his first club playing experience outside of Argentina.

2018–2019

In his first year with

Balbi had a successful season winning the

Rio de Janeiro State Championship The Campeonato Carioca (Carioca Championship), officially known as Campeonato Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro State Championship), also commonly known as the Cariocão, is the top-flight professional state football league in the Br ...

, Brazilian Super 8 Cup and the NBB league. Besides that he was elected the league's Best Foreign Player and selected to the

All-NBB Team The Novo Basquete Brasil awards ( English: New Basketball Brazil awards) are the yearly individual awards that are given by Brazil's top-tier level men's professional club basketball league, the Novo Basquete Brasil (NBB) (New Basketball Brazil). ...

, averaging 10.8 ppg and 5.7 apg in 26 regular season games.

2019–2020

On June 19, 2019, Balbi re-signed with

for one more year.

National team career

After a good 2014–15 LNB season with Argentino de Junín, he was selected to the senior

Argentine national basketball team The Argentina men's national basketball team () represents Argentina in men's international basketball officially nicknamed ''The Argentine Soul'' (), and it is controlled by the Argentine Basketball Federation. Argentina's national basketbal ...

for the first time. He made his debut against

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

, in Olavarría.

Career statistics

LNB career statistics

NBB regular season

NBB playoffs

References

External links