Maccabi Ashdod are adding a serious dose of European pedigree to their frontcourt. Augustine Rubit, a 37-year-old power forward with five EuroLeague seasons on his résumé, is due to land in Israel on Sunday afternoon and complete a move to the Winner League club, ONE reports.
It is a significant statement signing for a club that has spent the summer quietly building. Rubit arrives having logged 143 EuroLeague appearances for four different clubs, starting in roughly half of them, and posting career averages of 9.2 points and 4.2 rebounds in Europe's top competition.
His path to the continent's elite level ran through Germany, where he first made his name at Walter Tigers Tübingen and ratiopharm Ulm before a move to Brose Bamberg established him as a EuroLeague-calibre big man. From there he went to Olympiacos Piraeus, then Zalgiris Kaunas, where he won the Lithuanian championship and cup double in 2020-21, and finally to Bayern Munich, with whom he lifted the German Cup in 2023.
This is not the first time Rubit has been linked with Israeli basketball. He has previously been in talks with both Maccabi Tel Aviv, earlier in his career, and Hapoel Jerusalem, as recently as last season, according to Israeli reporting, though neither move materialised. Ashdod have now got the deal over the line.
The signing comes as Maccabi Ashdod's professional director, Nati Cohen, has been stressing the club's development pipeline alongside its recruitment. In the same report, ONE said five academy graduates — Opal Bachar, Ilai Logsi, Uri Barnet, Eliah Naker and Rotem Gila — will train and compete with the senior squad this season.
"Our agenda is clear," Cohen said. "We are a club with a youth department that has a senior team, not a senior team that has a youth department."
Rubit's arrival fits a broader summer build-up for Ashdod, who have been assembling an experienced import roster for the new Winner League campaign as they look to push up the table.
