TALLINN (FIBA U16 European Championship 2017) - Kaspar Kitsing originally wanted to be a football star. But after watching his older brother Kristian Kitsing play basketball, Kaspar decided to switch sports. Now, he will be a major leader for Estonia at the FIBA U16 European Championship 2017 after impressing people with his showings in Italy.

Kaspar Kitsing will make his FIBA national team debut in Montenegro, where Estonia will be taking on France, Italy and Russia in Group B. The 6ft 4in (1.95m) Kitsing is only three years removed from taking on the game full time.

"My dream was to be a football player, but after I saw my brother's games at European Championships, I started falling in love with basketball," said Kitsing of his brother, who played at the FIBA U18 European Championships in 2007 and 2008 and the FIBA EuroBasket 2011 qualifiers. "Year by year basketball became a bigger part of my life and around the age of 12, I stopped doing other sports to focus on basketball."

He says he picked basketball because he understood that he could become a good player with his size and potential. Kitsing, who turns 16 on July 25, said he has so much for which to thank his brother Kristjan, who is 26 years old.

"He put a basketball in my hands. He gave me my first knowledge of the sport, and I am thankful for it," the younger brother said. "He is probably the reason I fell in love with the game. I would say we've learned a lot from each other through many years."

Kaspar decided when he was 14 to move to Italy to play for Trento and to improve his level of the game.

"I've become a better person on and off the court. I am less arrogant when playing and more social outside the world of basketball," he said. "The first thing that everyone noticed was that I started playing defense. I've also improved my shooting and dribbling." Despite being 15 years old, Kitsing played in this season's U18 Italian Championship and reached the finals before losing to Virtus Bologna.

"That was an amazing experience because we didn't even expect to be in the top eight," Kitsing said. "I think my age doesn't matter so much. Yes, I was probably one of the youngest players at the tournament, but I felt I didn't have any problems playing with opponents older and bigger than me."

Podgorica will be the first time wearing the Estonia national team jersey for Kitsing in a FIBA competition. He was so thrilled last summer when, even though he couldn't play due to some health problems at the end of the season, Estonia's 2000 generation was able to beat the 2015 U16 European champions Bosnia and Herzegovina in relegation action to stay in the Division A.

"It's a new challenge for me and especially my teammates. The first thing I thought was that I will have the possibility to play against the best teams and players of my age," Kitsing said. "It will be difficult, but it will be interesting to see what happens."

The goal is clear for Kitsing and the team.

"The main objective is to stay in Division A. We'll see how it goes, but honestly this is the only thing on our mind at the moment. We must think one game at a time."

Kitsing sees the team's biggest strength as being shooting. But he also said Estonia could pull off a surprise."People probably see us as one of the weakest teams at the tournament, but in my opinion we are really uncomfortable to play against," he said. "Our team chemistry is great and we have a lot of interesting players. We could surprise some teams for sure. There is a lot of potential."

As far as his role on the team, Kitsing said: "My role will probably be very major. I can rebound, defend, score, pass, make plays for others and so on. I am the only one from the 2001 generation playing outside Estonia with a contract, so I think people will look at me as a leader. I can promise you, I will give 110 percent every single second I am on the court."

Just like Kitsing's older brother would expect of him.

FIBA