Pau Gasol: 149 official matches, 2,544 points and 14 medals with the Spain jersey

With 216 registered, Pau Gasol is the sixth player with the highest number of caps in the history of the National Team. Of those 216, 117 belong to the official matches played in 15 championships. But his total official career with Spain reaches 149 games since his first international call-up, in 1997 in the junior category, and he shines with a total of 14 medals, 6 of them gold.

Pau Gasol has been on the podium with the Men’s National Team in the three major world basketball competitions: Olympic Games, World Cup and Eurobasket. And he is one of the not many players who can boast of having been world and European champion in two categories: junior (later converted into U18 and U19) and absolute. A milestone that he shares with his colleagues from so many battles with Spain Juan Carlos Navarro, Berni Rodríguez, Carlos Cabezas and Felipe Reyes.

He is also one of the only 7 players who have participated in 5 editions of the Olympic Games – along with Teófilo Cruz, Oscar Schmidt, Andrew Gaze, Juan Carlos Navarro, Rudy Fernández and Luis Scola – and in 2017 he became the top scorer of the history of the EuroBasket.

Pau wore the Spain jersey for the first time in 1997, in 5 qualifying matches for the U18 European Championship, in which months later the team won gold. It was the prelude to the historic world triumph of the Golden Juniors in 1999. Their journey through the training categories was completed in 2000 with a new medal, the European bronze with the U20 team.

A year later, he made the final leap to the National Team. The same year he was chosen in third position in the NBA draft and, before finally packing his bags to fly to the United States, he debuted with the Absolute with his first medal: bronze in the Eurobasket in Turkey. Since then, only injuries and physical demands prevented him from attending the National Team call. Like in the last World Cup in China 2019.

In the Eurobasket, it exhibits 7 medals: 3 gold (2009, 2011 and 2015), 2 silver (2003 and 2007) and another 2 bronze (2001 and 2017). In the World Cups, a gold one (2006). In the Olympic Games, 3 more medals, 2 silver (2008 and 2012) and one bronze (2016). They are his 11 medals as an absolute international, with 16 years of difference between the first and the last.

He shared all the successes with a large part of his teammates in the Juniors de Oro, especially Juan Carlos Navarro and Felipe Reyes.

In total, as an international U18, U19, U20 and absolute, Pau Gasol has signed with Spain in official matches 2,544 points, 1,062 rebounds, 239 assists, 100 balls recovered and 215 blocks. Some numbers for the history of Spanish basketball.

PAU GASOL OFFICIAL GAMES WITH SPAIN