His life story

Everything seemed ideal. An offer from abroad to get footballing and general education away from Greece, a dream for a big career. At the tender age of 16, Panagiotis Deligiannidis was packing his bags to travel to Austria in the summer of 2012.

Fate would kick in however… A few days before the youngster’s departure, burglars broke into the home of Deligiannidis’ family and left nothing. Young Panagiotis considered it a bad omen ahead of the new chapter in his life and decided to stay at Thessaloniki. “I didn’t want to leave my family”, he says.

His decision proved a good one. Instead of Austria, he landed at PAOK, after winning the league with Bebides and becoming a regular for Thessaloniki Mixed Team and Greece U19s. The “Double-Headed Eagle” people appreciated the young attacking midfielder’s talent and promoted him early to the senior team in order to train with the big guys. He participated and scored in preseason friendlies of the senior-team and then returned to the youth squads. He landed league titles with the U17s and U20s

The league title with the U17s is one of his happiest memories, along with his first call by Greece youth squads and the qualification to the UEFA European Under-19 Championship elite round.

These international engagements however are not enough to get him sidetracked from his main aspiration: “to establish myself at PAOK and be able to play football for as many years as possible”.

To achieve that, he takes good care of himself and is working hard. Since he signed for PAOK –much to the disappointed of his mother, an Aris fan-, he hasn’t missed a training session despite having to combine school and practice each day. “I work hard, even in the morning I train at home”, he says acknowledging of course that his teachers are very understanding as “especially the trips with the national team have been taking their toll on my studies”.
Football had become a part of his life as a child’s whim. His father wanted to register him for tennis lessons, but he didn’t like the idea and, in order to vex him, he told him he wanted to become a footballer. As every father would do, Deligiannidis senior surrendered to his son’s wish. At first he registered him at Kermanidis Academy, then to Bebides and now the player features at PAOK.

Football was no longer a whim for Panagiotis, nor does he consider it his profession. It is just his way of life. He has dedicated himself to it and doesn’t have time to pursuit other endeavours apart from… girl trouble. It’s no fluke that a love story holds first place in his list of major disappointments. Second in that list is Greece’s elimination from the UEFA European Under-19 Championship.

The future is bright for the 19-year old player of PAOK, who would like to resemble to his favourite player, Vieirinha and to Dimitris Salpingidis who became his mentor from the first day in the team.

Last season he made his debut for the “Double-Headed Eagle”, getting rewarded for his hard work in the senior team’s trainings. On Thursday 27 August, two days before his birthday, he made his European debut and is declaring himself ready for any opportunity that comes his way.