PAOK’s Under-19 side begin their journey in Slovakia, with the draw that took place in Nyon, Switzerland pairing them with MSK Zilina as threir first opponents. The games will take place on September 29 and October 20. If PAOK qualify, they will face the winner of the tie between APOEL (Cyprus) and FC Kairat Almaty (Kazakhstan) in matches that will take place on November 3 and 24.

Competition format

UEFA has been holding the Youth League since 2013. Now the format is changing with 64 teams being divided into two groups as follows: The 32 clubs competing in the Champions League Path are those whose senior men’s teams are taking part in the group stage of the elite tournament. In addition, there are the 32 domestic youth champions (Domestic Champions Path), such as PAOK.

For the first 32 teams, the groups are the same as for the men’s group stage. The winners of the groups will qualify directly to the «Round of 16» phase, with the runners-up each entering the play offs. The other 32 (Domestic Champions Path) compete in two, two-legged  knockout rounds with the eight winners advancing to the play offs after the second round.

Therefore, in the play offs phase (16 teams), the eight runners-up of the groups face the eight who qualified from the Domestic Champions Path. Single games are then played in the Domestic Path (February 8 and 9). Then, the eight clubs that will qualify from the play offs will form the final phase of the «Round of 16», along with the top eight from the Champions League Path groups (March 1 and 2).

The «Round of 8» phase is scheduled for March 15-16, the knockout semi-finals will take place on April 22, and the final on April 25, 2022. The semi-finals and final, as always, will be held at the Colovray Stadium in Nyon, Switzerland. The winners will be awarded the «Lennart Johansson Trophy» in honor of the former UEFA president.

Each team submit a list of 40 players. Those born after January 1, 2003, plus five players born in 2002 are eligible, three of which are eligible to participate. The condition is that the player has belonged to the team for the last three years and has played for the team for two consecutive years.

Previous history

PAOK participated for the first time in the Youth League in the 2016-2017 season. They eliminated the Puskas Academy were then knocked out by Ajax. In the 2018-19 season, PAOK faced AEL Limassol (2-1 in Cyprus and 2-0 in Thessaloniki), Minsk (1-0 in Belarus and 2-1 in Thessaloniki) and were were eliminated by Tottenham at the Toumba (0- 1) in an unforgettable match in front of 12,000 spectators when the team was just a whisker away from reaching the «Round of 16» of the tournament. In the 2019-20 season, PAOK faced FC Bohemian (1-1 in Ireland and 1-0 in Thessaloniki) and were eliminated by Dynamo Kiev, as they lost 3-0 in the Ukraine, and despite the titanic attempt to qualify at the Toumba, the match ended in a draw ( 2-2).