PAOK FC wish all the best to the team’s skipper Stefanos Athanasiadis, who celebrates today his 26th birthday.

Stefanos Athanasiadis has been a part of PAOK family since 1996, when he joined the junior teams as an 8-year old. At the age of 10, he was monitored by Italian side Trieste, after his stellar performance in an international junior tournament. He also spent a few months at the ranks of Hertha Berlin youth teams.

At that time, he was playing in the centre of defence! However, when he returned to PAOK youth teams, Kostas Malioufas spotted his finishing skills and moved him to spear-head the attack. Athanasiadis became an integral member of all youth levels of PAOK. In 2006-2007, he was the U20 team top scorer, having netted 24 goals. During that season he penned his first professional contract and made his Superleague debut in the home 3-1 loss to AE Larissa.

In the summer of 2008 he extended his contract with PAOK and, a year later, it was decided that he would move on loan to Panserraikos, in order to enjoy more playing time in the 2nd Division.

He returned to Thessaloniki in the summer of 2010 and, with Makis Chavos as head coach, he started working his way up to the starting eleven. He was PAOK top scorer in 2011-2012, with 17 goals scored in a total of 45 encounters in Greece and Europe. In a span of two seasons, he managed to net 8 goals in 15 European competition matches.

He made his Greece U19 debut in a 2-1 victory over Ukraine on 25 October 2006. He earned his first cap with the senior Greek team in June 2011, in a friendly encounter against Ecuador in New York.

By now Klaus has played more than 200 matches for PAOK and he is their all-time top scorer in European competitions.