PAOK FC wish all the best, good health and success to the team captain, Dimitris Salpingidis who turns 33 on Monday. Most of these 33 years have been spent at Toumba and he is considered by now one of PAOK’s all-time greatest players.

Dimitris Salpingidis, son of Apostolis and Kyriaki, was born on 18 August 1981 in West Thessaloniki. As a child he engaged in Greco-Roman wrestling – his body type and temperament attest to that. In 1995, he joined the football academy of Giorgos Koudas, after spending some time at Zachos Academy and Asteras Ampelokipi Thessaloniki. At the age of 16, he was recruited by PAOK youth sections and two years later he penned his first professional contract.

It was unavoidable that such a player would score on the day of his senior debut with PAOK. On 30 September 1999, under the guidance of Dutch head coach Arie Haan, 18-year old Salpingidis came off the bench in the 88th minute and scored PAOK’s second goal in their 2-0 victory over Lokomotivi Tbilisi (UEFA Cup 1st round). Later, he went on loan at Larissa and Kavala in order to gain playing time. In the summer of 2002, head coach Angelos Anastassiadis requested Salpingidis’ return to the squad. His first after-loan season ended with PAOK winning the Greek Cup at the expense of Aris.

He netted his first top-flight league goal for PAOK in September 2002, at Iraklio, against OFI.

He has dedicated 26 years in sports and high-level competition and has featured in more than 1.000 matches (official and friendly) of the clubs he’s played for.

Numbers shouldn’t be indicative of a player’s career, but who can ignore such staggering stats… For example, the fact that Salpingidis is now the third all-time league scorer of PAOK with 87 goals, trailing two greats of the “Double-Headed Eagle”, Stavros Sarafis and Giorgos Koudas. He also tops the appearances’ and scoring charts of PAOK in their European history, while also having scored two-digit number of goals in 11 consecutive seasons!