American basketball player Kayla Hillsman received Bulgarian citizenship and will be able to play for the women's national team of our country, reports BTA. The center's naturalization process began months ago, but was completed in time for the upcoming EuroBasket 2025 qualifiers in November against Hungary and Finland.
"I am very happy that we will finally have a classy foreigner to help the women's national team," commented to basketball.bg the executive director of BF Basketball, Filip Videnov, who currently also serves as president.< /p>
"There were quite a few difficulties in issuing the passport which delayed us. The documents have been in motion for 7-8 months, but in the end we managed to cope with help from different places. In the end, everything is as it should be. In the last matches, it can be seen that the team is making progress and I hope that together with her we will go on the winning path again", he added.
Kayla Hillsman was born on August 1, 1996 in North Carolina. She is 196 cm tall and competes at position 5. She is the daughter of former NBA player Benoit Benjamin, who has 15 seasons in the league. After graduating high school, Kayla played four years in the NCAA for Texas A&M University.
The basketball player began her professional career in Poland for the local club Poznan, then spent two seasons in Israel – first at Maccabi Haifa and then at Maccabi Ironi Ramat Gan. This was followed by a one-year stay at the Russian Dynamo Moscow, after which in the summer of 2022 he also played in the Mexican championship for Fuerza Rehia Monterrey.
Hilsman continued her career in the Hungarian MTK Budapest, and then moved to the Turkish Antalya 07. Last season, the basketball player competed for another team from our southern neighbor, Izmit, where she was a teammate with Gergana Ivanova. Hillsman chose not to rest in the summer again this year, again participating in the Mexican championship with Fuerza Rehia Monterrey. Since the beginning of this season, he has been playing for Besiktas, the finalist in the Eurocup. In her career, the basketball player also played in the WNBA for the Chicago Sky, and she also participated in training camps of other league teams.
The selector of the women's national team of Bulgaria, Tanya Gateva, also commented to basketball.bg on the naturalization of Kayla Hillsman: "After a long wait, we finalized Kayla's documents. Thank you to everyone who supported us and contributed to the development of women's basketball.