Cecilia Zandalasini


Cecilia Zandalasini is an Italian basketball player for the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA, Fenerbahçe and the Italian national team. She was the MVP of 2016 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship for Women.

Early life

Zandalasini was born on March 16, 1996 in Broni, Italy. She is the daughter of Roberto Zandalasini and Paola Lombardi. While playing with Geas Basket, she won six Italian youth club championships.

Professional career

Geas Basket (2013–14)

At the age of 17, Zandalasini played as a guard under Geas Basket for the 2013–14 season. She led the team in points with a total of 314 across 20 games.

PF Schio (2014–2018)

Zandalasini has played with PF Schio since 2014. In Zandalasini's third season with the team in 2016–17, the team won the Coppa Italia and reached the Serie A1 playoff finals. The team continued to the EuroLeague postseason, where Zandalasini had a team high 13.5 PPG.

EuroBasket

At EuroBasket Women 2017 she averaged 19.0 points and 9.6 rebounds and earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team. Jeff Taylor of FIBA.com called her performance "the greatest FIBA EuroBasket Women debut of all time".

Minnesota Lynx (2017–present)

With only three games left in their 2017 regular season, the Minnesota Lynx signed Zandalasini as an unrestricted free agent on August 28, 2017. Zandalasini was only able to play 18:37 of the remainder of the regular season and 11 during the playoffs, which the Lynx won.
On February 7, 2018, it was announced that the Lynx would re-sign Zandalasini for the 2018 season. Zandalasini became a breakout player during the season after a buzzer-beating play against the New York Liberty in their June 16 game. She has subsequently seen more minutes of play, establishing herself as a fit for the sixth woman role.
Zandalasini did not play with the Lynx during their 2019 season due to her international team commitments and an ankle injury.
On February 29, 2020, the Lynx announced that would re-signed Zandalasini for the 2020 season in a non-disclosed deal.

Fenerbahçe (2018–present)

On July 4, 2018, she had signed a two year deal with the Turkish women's basketball club, Fenerbahçe.