The best Bulgarian basketball player Alexander Vezenkov of Olympiacos won the Euroleague top scorer award for the 2025-26 season in the finals, averaging 19.4 points per game. He scored 661 points in 34 games, BTA reported.
The award is named after Alphonso Ford and is the only trophy that is awarded at the end of the season based solely on statistics. Vezenkov beat out last year's winner Kendrick Nunn of Panathinaikos and Nadir Ify of Paris Basketball, who led the scoring charts for much of the season. Nunn finished with an average of 19 points per game, and Ify - 18.9. Baskonia's Timothée Luvavu-Cabarot is fourth with 18.2, and Virtus Bologna's Carson Edwards is fifth with 17.3 points.
Vezenkov has scored double figures in 33 of 34 games, and in 19 cases he has scored 20 or more points. His strongest period was between the 19th and 23rd rounds, when he finished with 24 or more points in five consecutive games. He has a 62.5% success rate on two-point shooting, 39.6% on three-point shooting and 89.2% on free throws. The Bulgarian scored a record 29 points in the 13th round against Red Star Belgrade.
The Olympiacos star becomes the fourth player to win the award more than once, joining the prestigious company. Igor Rakojevic won it twice with Baskonia in 2007 and 2008, and then a third time with Anadolu Efes Istanbul in 2011. Kate Langford won it in 2015 with Emporio Armani Milano, and three years later with UNICS Kazan. Alexey Shved won it with Khimki Moscow in 2018 and 2021.
Vezenkov won the "Alphonso Ford" again in the 2022-23 season with an average of 17.6 points per game, when he was also named Most Valuable Player. The Bulgarian was selected to the EuroLeague All-Star Team three times (2021-22, 2022-23, 2024-25), was the MVP of the final tournament in 2025, and won the Player of the Month award five times, including in January 2026.
The award is named after Alfonso Ford, who died of leukemia in September 2024 after a brilliant career in which he was the leading scorer twice in 2000-01 and 2001-02 with Olympiacos before moving to Montepaschi Siena. Ford holds the record with an average of 22.2 points in 54 games.