Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv announced on Sunday the return of guard Gal Mekel to the club where he started his career. Mekel (1.92 meters, 27 years old) arrives from Crvena Zvezda Telekom Belgrade, where he played four Turkish Airlines Euroleague games this season, averaging 3.8 points and 2.8 assists, before he was sidelined by an ankle injury in mid-November. He had appeared in four Adriatic League games, too, with averages of 11.1 points and 5.7 assists. Mekel grew up in Maccabi's youth program before playing for two university years at Wichita State and one season with Israeli club Hapoel Gilbao Galil. He briefly returned to Maccabi, making his Euroleague debut with a 59-second appearance against CSKA Moscow in November of 2009, before returning to Gilbao Galil for the better part of two seasons and winning the Israeli League title in the first of those. His next stops were Benetton Treviso in Italy, Maccabi Haifa in Israel and NBA teams Dallas and New Orleans. He landed last season as a mid-season addition for Nizhny Novgorod of Russia, averaging 11.7 points in six Turkish Airlines Euroleague Top 16 games. Mekel will become eligible to play for Maccabi starting in Round 4 of the Last 32. His previous Eurocup experience consists of six games each with Gilbao Galil and Benetton, over which he averaged 6.7 points and 4 assists.