PAOK’s «babies» set for first Super League Final Four challenge
With the eagerness that characterizes their age, our “babies” of the Super League look to claim their first championship. Today 11.05, at 19:30 at the Panthessaliko Stadium, PAOK Under-15s face Panathinaikos in the second semi-final of the final phase of the championship. In the first semi-final (4:30 p.m.) Olympiacos will face the rookies of AEL. The final that will decide the champion of the 2022-23 season will be held on Sunday 14.05 at 13:30.
PAOK easily won first place in their group with 48 points from 18 games, an with an unbeaten record no less, i.e. 15 wins and three draws. They scored 75 times, conceding only three goals. Their biggest victory came against Doxa Drama with an incredible 10-0 scoreline. The team also has the fourth lowest average age (14.63) of the teams in both groups (380 players).
They are all youngsters born in 2008, with the exception of «little» Nikolaos Mitrousis (2009), while it should also be noted that according to their usual methods, the Double-headed Eagle chose to pit the Under-14s in a league match. Savvas Konstantinidis’ and Kosmas Vakoufaris’ Under-15s have been training together for many years, with young players in the squad who, for a number of years, chose to put in hundreds of kilometers on a weekly basis just to train. This year, of course, the vast majority of them live in the Academy House, along with children who were signed on this season and quickly acclimatized to the team environment. Let’s also say that this season, as PAOK usually does, the Under-15 side also competed in the Macedonian Football League championship in the Under-17 category. Finally, we should also note that Toursounidis and Sidiropoulos participated with last year’s Under-15s in the Final Four in Agrinio.
Numbers and statistics
In the overall list of the category for the most goals in a match by one player, PAOK appears four times. Three goals were scored by Karagiozis at PAOK – Aris (6-0), three by Sidiropoulos at PAOK – Panaitolikos (6-0) and three more at PAOK – Doxa Drama (10-0) and finally, three times by Krommidas at Panaitolikos – PAOK (0-7). In the table of scorers of the group, Sidiropoulos is the leader with 13 goals, while Krommidas has scored nine and Toursounidis seven. Kanios, Karasavvidis and Karagiozis count five goals apiece, Berdos, Bakalidis have four and Meggidis and Georgiadis have three goals. Mavros Minasidis, Telo, Tasioulas, and Anastasopoulos have scored twice and Mokris once.
For PAOK in particular, Berdos leads with 14 assists followed by: Telo (10), Krommidas (8), Karagiozis (6), Minasidis (5), Sidiropoulos (4) and Koval (3). Karasavvidis, Kanios, Tasioulas, and Tsombanopoulos have had two assists each and Kyriazidis, Tsemalidis and Mokris one each. As for appearances, Kanios has 16, Berdos and Tasioulas 14, Karagiozis and Megidis 13, Krommidas, Mokris and Telo 12.
Under-15s profile
For the 2022-23 season, the Under-15s are made up of:
Goalkeepers: Nikolaos Mitrousis, Michael Bellis, Georgios Mazaris
Defenders: Alexandros Meggidis, Traianos Mokris, Charalambos Augitidis, Theodoros Tsemalides, Efthimis Lyratzis, Arseniy Koval, Ioannis Loutzianiotis, Dimitrios Kyriazidis, Evangelos Gioka
Midfielders: Andreas Telo, Dimitrios Kanios, Konstantinos Tassiolas, Vasilios Bakalidis, Konstantinos Toursounidis, Grigorios Minasidis, Philippos Tsachouridis, Vasilios Tsombanopoulos, Georgios Mavros, Georgios Tzengos
Forwards: Georgios Georgiadis, Ilias Karagiozis, Georgios Krommidas, Manolis Anastasopoulos, Dimitrios Berdos, Antonios Karasavvidis, Anastasios Sidiropoulos
The technical team consists of:
Coach: Savvas Konstantinidis
Assistant Coach: Kosmas Vakoufaris
Fitness Coach: Vasilios Billis
Goalkeeping Coach: Nikolaos Bogdanos
Doctor: Iraklis Giannaros
Physiotherapist: Michael Kostidis
Minder: Stavros Sahinidis
- Ten years have passed since the Under-15 championship has been established, as the first champinship was held in the 2013-14 season, while due to the pandemic there was no championship in the 2020-21 season.
- From 2013 to 2018, after all, the Super League only organized a final between the first of the two groups. We had our first Final Four in the 2018-19 season. Olympiacos has four titles, PAOK three and Panathinaikos one.
- Each half lasts 40 minutes and in the event of a penalty there is no overtime, but a penalty shootout.
- The matches will be broadcast by the Novasports channels, on WEB TV via Novasports.gr as well as the Novasports channel on YouTube. The matches will also be streamed live on the official Super League website and the official Super League Twitter account.