{"id":795920,"date":"2026-07-12T17:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T17:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/795920\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T17:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T17:52:12","slug":"valencia-part-ways-with-key-forward-reportedly-set-for-move-to-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/795920\/","title":{"rendered":"Valencia part ways with key forward reportedly set for move to Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Valencia Basket officially announced the departure of Matt Costello after two seasons, with the American forward reportedly set to continue his career in Japan.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/teams\/677-valencia-basket.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Valencia Basket<\/a> have announced the departure of one of their key frontcourt players.<\/p>\n<p>        <a class=\"article-widget__photo\" href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/players\/20035-matthew-costello.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-392344-plsm.jpg\" alt=\"Matthew  Costello\"\/><br \/>\n        <\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n                Position<br \/>\n                PF\n            <\/p>\n<p>\n                Age<br \/>\n                32\n            <\/p>\n<p>\n                Height<br \/>\n                206 cm\n            <\/p>\n<p>\n                Weight<br \/>\n                111 kg\n            <\/p>\n<p>\n                Birth place<br \/>\n                Michigan, United States of America\n            <\/p>\n<p>The club officially confirmed that American forward <a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/players\/20035-matthew-costello.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Matt Costello<\/a> is leaving Valencia after two seasons.<\/p>\n<p>The 32-year-old played an important role during the club\u2019s historic 2025-26 campaign, helping Valencia reach their first-ever EuroLeague Final Four and win the Spanish League title.<\/p>\n<p>Costello averaged 6.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 0.9 assists per game in the EuroLeague while shooting 61.5% from two-point range and 39.5% from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n<p>He produced similar numbers in the Spanish League, posting 7.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.0 assist per game while converting 66.7% of his two-pointers and 36.4% of his three-point attempts.<\/p>\n<p> Costello reportedly set to continue career in Japan <\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mundodeportivo.com\/baloncesto\/acb\/20260711\/1004205422\/matt-costello-firma-contrato-record-japon.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mundo Deportivo<\/a>, Costello has already decided on his next destination.<\/p>\n<p>The American big man is reportedly set to join the Chiba Jets of Japan&#8217;s B.League, where he would reunite with head coach Adrian Kovacs.<\/p>\n<p>As previously reported by<a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/news-250544-euroleague-coach-heading-to-japan-to-take-over-bleague-powerhouse.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> BasketNews\u2019 Donatas Urbonas<\/a>, Kovacs took over the Jets after spending the last couple of seasons as an assistant coach with Valencia.<\/p>\n<p>Chiba reached the B.League semifinals last season, extending their streak to three consecutive semifinal appearances. The club previously won the league title in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>The Japanese powerhouse also features a star-studded roster that includes former NBA players Yuta Watanabe, Nassir Little, D.J. Hogg, and John Mooney, as well as Japanese star Yuki Togashi.<\/p>\n<p>                                                    <a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/plus?utm_source=basketnews_com&amp;utm_medium=bn_plus&amp;utm_id=UA-259273-31&amp;utm_campaign=banners_free_content_for_not_members_bottom_2\" class=\"banners_paid_content_info_block_white banners-paid-content-info-block-white\" data-google-interstitial=\"false\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>                                                <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bn-plus-img img-fluid\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/bn-plus.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                            Subscribe to BN+ and get access to exclusive content.<\/p>\n<p>                                                            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                                If you like our content, please <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=basketnews.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a> and add us as your preferred source. It helps us a lot, and we are committed to delivering you the very latest basketball news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Valencia Basket officially announced the departure of Matt Costello after two seasons, with the American forward reportedly set&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-795920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}