The new generation of talented Greek footballers

By Stephen Kountourou

Opportunity, experience and faith. These are just some ingredients in progressing youth players to the senior level. Some leagues are great at producing, promoting and developing academy prospects for their future football careers. 

Of the big five leagues, La Liga, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga have been lorded as the best for producing young domestic talent. La Masia is the biggest example for Spain, PSG, who in more recent times has finally attempted to take advantage of their melting pot of young talent in Pairs and Germany with Borussia Dortmund, who not only produce youth from their academy but are excellent at identifying players from abroad. 

Other Leagues like the Dutch Eredivisie and the Belgian Pro League have also been great gateway leagues for their youth and players from elsewhere, to hone their skills in exciting attacking competitions before attempting to take the next big step to the big leagues.

By contrast, Greece has not been good at developing future players, consistently ranking as one of the worst in Europe. But is the tide starting to turn? All of a sudden, players, domestically and on the continent, have been cropping up who are not just decent prospects but could potentially go on to play at the top of the game based on their trajectory. 

Also to be clear before diving in, the main focus will be on players aged 23 and under.

Who are they?

In the Greek Super League, the likes of Christos Mouzakitis and Charalmpos Kostoulas are not only featuring for Olympiakos, they have cemented themselves as key players for the Conference League champions. Staying in Piraeus, Konstantinos Tzolakis, who finally won his place as the starting goalkeeper under Jose Luis Mendilibar, has been nothing short of outstanding. 

Alexios Kalogeropoulos, despite playing for a Volos side that has struggled this season, has stood out as still one of the big talents in Greek football at centre back, is still highly throughout the continent, and is expected to be part of the Olympiakos first team when he returns from his loan spell in summer 2025.

Across Athens, to the Piraeus side eternal rivals Panathinaikos, Georgios Vagiannidis has made the starting right-back spot his own and is making great claims with his good form to do the same for the national team. There was interest from Brazilian side Botafogo and Dutch giants Ajax, both of whom were after the Greek international in the summer and in January respectively.

Moving up to Thessaloniki and Greek champions PAOK, Giannis Konstantelias is one of the highest-rated Greek youngsters to break through in recent times. The attacking midfielder is also a hugely important cog in the machine under Razvan Lusescu and was one of the key players in PAOK’s impressive title win in 2023/24. The 21-year-old is also on the cusps of a starting place with the Ethniki and seems very much in manager Ivan Jovanovic’s plans.

Even on the continent, plenty of names have caught the attention of the giants of European football. Christos Tzolis, since his move to Belgian champions Club Brugge, has proven the doubters wrong after his ill-fated move to Norwich City did not go to plan a few years ago. The 22-year-old winger has also now become a regular for the national team.

Also in Belgium, you have Konstantinos Karetsas. While at the time of writing the 17-year-old has not yet committed his international allegiance to either Greece or Belgium, the latter being where he was born, for now, Karetsas is also included. Touted as one of the biggest talents to ever come out of Genk, the midfielder is already a starter for the Pro League side with suitors including, Chelsea and Arsenal, while Ivan Jovanovic has made it very clear that he would like Karetsas to represent the Ethniki.

Moving to Germany now and the level of these young Greeks only gets bigger. Konstantinos Koulierakis, who moved from PAOK to Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga, is already a key part of Ralph Hasenhüttl’s plans to push for a European place. The centre-back has received praise for his performances this season and could be on course to follow in the footsteps of compatriot Konstantinos Mavropanos, as the latest Greek defender to be named in the Bundesliga team of the season.

In the division below, Stefanos Tzimas has taken the 2. Bundesliga by storm. Ten goals so far this season led to Brighton and Hove Albion, who have an excellent record at developing and giving opportunities to young players, signing the striker from PAOK and keeping him at Nurnburg until the end of the season.

Elsewhere in Europe, the list continues. You have the likes of Christos Zafeiris, who is starting and starring for Slavia Praha in the Czech Republic. Georgios Koutsias who has recently got his career back in MLS with Chicago Fire and has started brightly on loan at Lugano in the Swiss Super League. Last but not least is Christos Mandas who, while not the starting keeper for Lazio, has fleetingly shown what is capable of and is still very much competing with Tzolakis to replace Odysessus Vlachodimos as the number one between the sticks for Greece.

Are clubs in Greece finally giving youth a chance?

In some respects, yes. PAOK, in recent times, has been the pioneer in producing and promoting Greek talent. Just on the list of players alone, you have Konstantelias, who is still at the club, Tzolis, Koulierakis, Tzimas and  Koutsias, all of which are some of the brightest talents to come out of Greece in recent years. A truly great example to the other members of the big four in the Super League. 

With that being said the current Greek champions, have sold three of the four aforementioned players in the past few seasons, Konstanetlias being the exception to that rule. They have not yet replicated that successful blend of exceptional Greek talent and experienced foreign players in their first team which led them to the title in 2023/24. But that could change very quickly.

Olympiakos, for numerous reasons, have finally started to take advantage of their excellent youth facilities. The biggest and most obvious was winning the 2023/24 UEFA Youth League with a talented crop of players, under then U19 head coach and now senior team assistant manager, Sotiris Silaidopoulos, is an achievement that could not be ignored, hence why Jose Luis Mendlilbar insisted on bringing a plethora of the U19 players to Preseason. 

From there, Mouzakitis and Kostoulas have become first-team regulars. Meanwhile, Antonis Papakanellos, Theofanis Bakoulas who is out on loan at Rio Ave in Portugal and even Stavros Pnevmonidis are all waiting in the wings for their opportunity to break into the senior squad. 

It is also worth mentioning, while not official, the frivolous spending of Thrylos over the past couple of seasons, meaning they were on the verge, up until recently of breaching financial fair play. Also, a major squad downsizing and the losses of key players like Kostas Fortounis and Daniel Podence possibly attributed to Mendilibar calling upon the riches of the Rentis academy.

So the long and short of it, is that some clubs in the Greek top flight are giving chances to their younger players. But there are still glaring issues facing the league as a whole. 

Panathinaikos and AEK, despite being famous for their youth academy and being the traditional producers of Greek talent in years gone by, have slowed in recent times. The exception to that rule is of course Fotis Ioannidis for Prasini, but being 25 years old now, he is closer to hitting his peak and is no longer considered a prospect.

The biggest culprits however are undoubtedly PAOK’s local rivals Aris. Kitrinomavroi at the time of writing only has three Greek players in their senior squad. One of whom is veteran winger Giannis Fetfatzidis, and the other two, Konstantinos Kyriazis and Michalis Panagidis, are both talented players but are nowhere near the first team currently.

Regarding Greek top-flight teams with the smallest pool of foreign players in their squad, Panetolikos comes top of that metric according to Transfermarkt, with only 41%. The next best are OFI at 42%, Panserraikos at 47% and Atromitos at 48%.

Is this a flash in the pan or just the beginning?

We as Greek football fans have spent years seeing young executing prospects fall by the wayside for numerous reasons and despite the glimmer of hope this new generation brings, there is still a lot to improve on when it comes to youth development in Greek football. This fruitful period of these wonderkids shining in Greece, in other leagues and on the European stage has proved that time and effort are needed to be put into the future and not just the quick fixes of the present. You reap what you sow as they say. 

It has been recently reported that former Greek international Ioannis Amanatidis, has been hired by the Greek Football Federation, to scout and identify talent in Germany elsewhere in Europe to find players in the diaspora that could represent the national team in the future. A real opportunity for the Ethniki to improve their pool of players, both for the here and now and in future.

With news of a training facility at Paiania earmarked for the national team and the emergence of this exciting generation of players, if handled correctly, this could lay the foundations for a golden period in Greek football.

@SteveKountourou

Hellas Football