My biggest achievement was that I gave to PAOK fans what they wanted through football. I offered them spectacular plays and got so much love in return. It’s an incomparable feeling.

The first title was the most important moment in my career. Fans were longing for success. Unfortunately I didn’t get to celebrate as much as I wanted, because two days after the final I was scheduled to undergo surgery in London. So I missed the feast and the march from the airport to the club offices.

I am bitter about the titles they stole from us, despite having the best team, there was no denying about that. I don’t forgive myself for losing control sometimes, but you can’t help it. If one could describe what is happening today as misdemeanors, in the old days there were crimes happening at our expense.

When I was captain, my teammates urged me: “Go to the president and ask him to help us”. I would go to Mr. Pantelakis and would ask for protection. We were kicked in the shins without mercy back then, there was no fair play. “You have to win over the referee as well”, he would tell me. So we had no excuses at all.

I wouldn’t change anything in my journey and my history. Nor in my character. I tried to be consistent in everything I did. The principles I got from my father and my family dictated such a behaviour.

I may not be around in PAOK’s 100th anniversary, but I hope that the club will be strong. That they will play great football, that they will have built a big, modern stadium, that they will have fans educated to watch games without fanaticism and blinders. I believe that PAOK can offer such an image. Especially with a person like Mr. Savvidis as leader.

There are no “copies” in football. Every player has their own talent and brings their own personality on the pitch. My mould is broken, there are other more modern moulds. If I had in my disposal the means that modern players have, I would be a different player. If I were at the ranks of Ajax or Barcelona, my talent would have evolved further. I wouldn’t be just a talented player who featured in the Greek league. I could have become a world-wide sensation.

In time I realized that my advantage was having the right people by my side. A player must be like a sponge. Soak up everything, process it and keep the right stuff. You need talent in order to manage lots of different stuff. Especially at the age of 17. I was that young at the time, when I saw my picture covering half the front page of a newspaper. I got scared and ran away from the kiosque, because people were staring.

I had a specific routine before games. I didn’t want anybody calling me at the hotel, not even my wife. I had forbidden her to do that. Nowadays there are iPads and iPhones. I wanted to concentrate on each game, to be totally focused. In order to play football, I had to let out of the pitch everything that had happened on the previous week.

My biggest regret is that in our days we lacked the technology. There is no footage of our matches. I remember one goal at Serres and another one in Toumba Stadium, where I danced circles around the defenders. Amazing goals in terms of inspiration, creation and finishing. I keep them in my brain’s… video.

You never finish learning football. Until I was 38, until my retirement, I was trying to improve on a daily basis, to add things in my repertoire. I would watch a few highlights of Cruyff and Pelé offered on TV and I would try to pick up new moves. Talent is being processed step by step and it’s always up to the player how far he will go.

In order for the team to reclaim a title, the club shouldn’t build the present, but provide for the short-term and long-term future. They must issue a five-year plan and achieve a fruitful cooperation between the coach and the administration. Only then the decisions can lead to success.

I forbid myself to ask what PAOK means to me. How can I describe something that has been such a huge part of my life since I was a little child? It’s my family, my home, the church I went to every Sunday.

• Giorgos Koudas’s interview was published in the second issue of Toumba Magazine.

INFO

The fourth issue of Toumba Magazine is available in:

• PAOK FC Official Stores
• more than 1.000 selling points in Northern Greece from Thursday.
• and in store.paokfc.gr with no shipping cost.

OFFERS

Toumba Magazine brings you to Toumba permanently. Win 10 season tickets of 2016-17 season, and 5 kits of PAOK’s 90th anniversary. In the fourth issue, you can find the second of three coupons that you need to collect in order to join the big draw. The first coupon can be found on the 3rd issue.

Purchasing Toumba Magazine earns you a 30% discount on PAOK products at PAOK FC Official Stores at store.paokfc.gr for all your e-purchases until 30 June.