Road to BAL 2027: Every BAL Veteran on the Rosters

Kriol Star never made it onto the floor for their opener. The Cape Verdean champions reached Tripoli too late for Wednesday's game against Stade Malien, and the scoreboard went into the record as 20-0.

The detail that stings is elsewhere. Ivan Almeida, born in Praia, 37 years old and the man who carried Kriol Star through their first BAL season, is in Tripoli too. In 2025 he averaged 17.3 points, 10.1 rebounds and 5.4 assists for the Cape Verdeans and made both the All-BAL Second Team and the All-Defensive Second Team. This week he wears the colours of Al Ittihad, and Al Ittihad's schedule puts him opposite Kriol Star on Thursday.

That is the 2027 Road to BAL in miniature. The rosters confirmed by FIBA list 146 players across the 12 clubs with a final squad. Add the box scores of the opening games, and at least 30 players in the field have played a BAL game. Between them they hold three BAL titles, an MVP award, a Defensive Player of the Year award and the league's all-time rebounding and shot-blocking records. And 25 of those 30 are wearing a different jersey from the one they wore in the BAL.

Group D, Hoima: the MVP, the rebound king and the Blazers' seven

Start in Uganda, because that is where the story is.

Ater Majok is 39. He was born in Khartoum, played college basketball at UConn and was the 58th pick of the 2011 NBA Draft, by the Los Angeles Lakers. Then he became the BAL's great constant. He has played in all six BAL seasons, one of only five players who have, and his 43 BAL games are tied for third all-time, behind only Childe Dundão (49) and Solo Diabate (46).

No one in league history has more rebounds (327) or more blocks (72). He reached the final with US Monastir in 2021, won it in 2022 and was named Defensive Player of the Year that season, with an All-BAL First Team selection on top. He has three All-Defensive selections and 13 BAL playoff games.

And on Patriot Basketball Club, he has company he knows. Michael Dixon was the 2022 BAL MVP, the guard who averaged 16.5 points and 4.1 assists for that Monastir title team. The MVP and the Defensive Player of the Year of the 2022 champions are together again, four years on, in a qualifier group in western Uganda. Add Nyang Wek, who played the BAL with Cobra Sports in 2022 and Bangui Sporting Club in 2024, and the South Sudanese club carry 62 BAL games and six BAL awards.

Their problem is Namuwongo Blazers. No club in the field has more BAL players: seven, with 67 BAL games between them. The core is a group of City Oilers alumni from the 2023 and 2024 BAL, Jimmy Enabu (38), James Okello (34), Ivan Muhwezi and Tonny Drileba, who won the BAL's Ubuntu Award in 2023 for his community work, including youth clinics at the Nakivale Refugee Camp in western Uganda.

Around them the Blazers have added three more:

• Peter Olisemeka, a 34-year-old centre from Lagos and the third-leading rebounder in BAL history (245). He has averaged double-digit rebounds in each of his three BAL seasons; his best night was 17 points, 18 rebounds and 4 blocks against APR in 2024.
• Makhtar Gueye, a 2.08 m small forward from Rufisque who has played four BAL seasons for four clubs in four countries: Mozambique, Burundi, Senegal and Tunisia.
• Richaud Pack, who scored 18.0 points per game in his two appearances for Kriol Star in 2025.

The Blazers opened by beating Ushindzi de Ouani 109-45. Majok and Olisemeka, the BAL's first and third all-time rebounders, meet on Saturday.

Urunani BBC have experience that came in from elsewhere. Mahamane Coulibaly is a 25-year-old, 2.06 m shooting guard who scored 14.7 points per game for Stade Malien in the 2025 BAL, with a high of 26. Cheikh Diallo has two BAL seasons, with AS Douanes and DUC, and a 30-point game on his record. Clément Karabona and Romis Bujeje were on Dynamo's 2024 BAL roster. Urunani beat COSPN 93-69.

COSPN have two survivors of the 2021 Gendarmerie Nationale team, Anthony Rasolomanana and Alpha Solondrainy. Ushindzi de Ouani, in their second Road to BAL, have none.

Group A, Tripoli: the most decorated backcourt in the field

Al Ittihad are playing the Road to BAL for the first time, and they have built a roster as if they knew it. Mohamed Sadi is the headline. The Libyan point guard won the 2025 BAL with Al Ahli Tripoli, made the All-BAL Second Team that season, and followed it in 2026 with a third-place finish for Al Ahly Ly, an All-Defensive First Team selection and the league's Sportsmanship award. He is 13th in BAL history in rebounds, rare company for a point guard, and his BAL career goes back to the first season, 2021, with AS Douanes.

Put Sadi next to Almeida and Al Ittihad have two All-BAL guards from the last two seasons. Add Angok Deng, a 2.06 m South Sudanese forward who finished fourth with Al Ittihad Alexandria in 2025, and the Libyans carry 46 BAL games and six individual BAL awards. They opened with a 93-69 win over Nadi Basket Staoueli.

Stade Malien have the best qualification record in the group: two Road to BAL entries, two BAL appearances. Their 2023 team finished third, and the guard who ran it is back. Kelvin Amayo, 34, from Riverside, New Jersey, left Bamako for Rivers Hoopers after that bronze, won another with them in 2024 and made the All-BAL Second Team and the All-Defensive Second Team that year. He is sixth in BAL history in assists and fifth in steals. His best BAL night came in the 2024 playoffs: 26 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists against Al Ahly Ly.

He has a scorer next to him. Rolly Fula Nganga, 33, from DR Congo, has averaged 19.4 points in his 11 BAL games, the fourth-highest career scoring average in BAL history (minimum ten games). He put up 18.4 per game for Espoir Fukash in 2022 and 20.2 for Bangui Sporting Club in 2024. Makan Keita was on the 2023 bronze team; Mamadou Doucoure, Abdrahamane Thiero and Gaoussou Fofana played in 2025.

Nadi Basket Staoueli are new here, but two of their forwards were there at the very beginning. Mohamed Harat (36) and Abdellah Hamdini (34) played in the inaugural BAL in Kigali in 2021, for GS Pétroliers. Harat played exactly one game and scored 28 points in it. Hamdini once scored 33 in a BAL game. Five years on, they are trying to get back.

Group B, Tripoli: continuity over pedigree

Group B is the least experienced group in the field: five players with BAL minutes across four rosters.

Nabaya Sofas have two. Mamadou Keita, 33, averaged 14.3 points for AS Police in the 2021 BAL and was on Stade Malien's 2023 bronze team; Alseny Bah appeared for SLAC in 2023. Energie BBC have Omar Thielemans, a 2.03 m forward born in Ghent, Belgium, who has played for a different club in each of the last two BAL seasons: Made By Ball in 2025, JCA Kings in 2026.

What Energie have instead is a qualifier core. Taofic Andebi, Tawadioun Mama and Monra Salim Kora Sero are former Elan Coton players; Andebi and Mama have each played in four Road to BAL editions. Energie opened by beating NPA Pythons 92-69.

Spintex Knights have one BAL veteran: Justin Uwitonze, a Rwandan guard who played seven games for APR in 2025, three of them in the playoffs, on the way to third place. Around him, eight players were on the 2025 or 2026 squad. This is the Ghanaians' third straight Road to BAL; they have not qualified yet. They beat Nabaya Sofas 96-90 in the opener. NPA Pythons have one, though FIBA's published list does not show him: Austin Akpejiori, a 2.06 m Nigerian centre who played five games for Kwara Falcons in the 2023 BAL, is in the box score of NPA's opener.

By the numbers

Games with recorded minutes across the six BAL seasons, 2021 to 2026; Road to BAL games are not counted. Awards are official BAL season awards and All-BAL and All-Defensive selections. Kriol Star's final roster had not been announced when this was published.

The question the week will answer

Two clubs in this field have BAL champions on the roster. Patriot have two of them, Al Ittihad one, and both clubs got them by recruiting. Stade Malien did it differently: they brought their bronze-medal guard home and found him a scorer. Namuwongo have gathered more BAL veterans than anyone, and the most grey hair.

Spintex and Energie are betting on the opposite: a group that has played the qualifiers together, year after year.

By Saturday night in Hoima, when Majok meets the Blazers' seven, we will know which bet is paying.

Rosters per FIBA. All statistics from The BAL Report database. Ages as of 22 October 2026.