On the day of their 92nd anniversary, PAOK had the honour of landing an important cultural distinction. In front of more than 400 distinguished guests, they demonstrated that the club is moving to a higher level and beyond football boundaries.

PAOK created their official magazine, “Toumba Magazine”, as a quality guide of extroversion. As the means to enhance PAOK’s image and the club’s relation with the world. As an ‘instructive’ tool for the younger generation of fans and as an example of PAOK’s philosophy regarding football and non-football culture.

Toumba Magazine Cup Issue Special Edition landed first prize in the EVGE awards, in the “magazine” category, ahead of 15 magazines nominated – among them the outstanding and internationally acknowledged Nomas.

It’s the third award won by PAOK magazine in their three years of existence, adding to the commendation in the EVGE awards of 2016 and the Silver Award in the European Design Awards ceremony held in Vienna.

“It’s an honour for PAOK to be here, in the Onassis Cultural Centre, on their anniversary day and landing an award in such a prestigious event as the EVGE”, was the initial reaction of PAOK New Media Director and Toumba Magazine editor-in-chief Panagiotis Aroniadis. He then added: “PAOK lead the way in Greece, proving that football can indeed embrace art and culture. We thank the jury for this prize and our Creative Director Dimitris Papazoglou. He is a world-renowned creator, a valuable collaborator and friend, with whom we bicker non-stop in order to reach the desired result”.

«Toumba Magazine is an important cultural event»

In the honour roll of EVGE, the text accompanying Toumba Magazine’s award reads as follows: “To be honest, the first experience of an unsuspecting reader with Toumba Magazine would be full of surprises and familiar connotations. Football fans would of course recognize faces and topics, but in the first instance the environment of the info would be rather unexpected.

Upon closer inspection, older readers or a more informed public would get connotations from iconic moments of the past, where modern design crossed paths with sports and especially football. The remaining –not intested in football- public would perhaps find the coffee-table format of the magazine familiar, but the topics might still be rather exotic. Or not? Perhaps the language used in the magazine typography, though not usual, could indeed prove a solution? Just like the sounds of enthusiasm, disappointment, acclamation or booing in a stadium.

The approach of Toumba Magazine is by itself an important cultural event, because it achieves what often is considered utopic: communicate not with a special public, but with everyone. With fans, supporters, hooligans or readers indifferent to football. The magazine uses a friendly narration tempo bringing pauses, emphasis and explanation remarks into printable space.

The approach of Toumba Magazine is an important cultural event in a specific area, at a specific time. Because, when football is facing attacks from within, resulting to the society questioning it or rejecting it altogether, initiatives like this edition can prove a necessary and worthy counterpoint”.