Under-19 championship to kick-off
PAOK’s Under-19 side will begin their 2023-24 season in Crete against OFI on Friday, September 1st at 11:30, followed by a home game against Aris, after the international break, and then their third challenge will be against PAS in Ioannina.
Three generations of PAOK Academy youngsters make up the Under-19s this year. The «oldies» born in 2004, most of whom are also part of the PAOK B squad (three have the right to participate in matches), the «2005» generation who, as a rule, also made up last year’s Under-19s and the «2006» group (the finalists in the sensational Under-17s final last season). Most of them are internationals, with, among other things, participation in the EURO Under-19 Championship in Malta over the summer, performances from a multitude of European tournaments, and youngsters who have been training at the PAOK Academy from a very young age. It goes without saying that during this season as well some of them will come or go up and down from PAOK B.
The team is managed by Petros Tsiapakidis (coach and champion with the Under-17s among those born in 2005, coach since 2017 and finalists among those born in 2006) with assistants Thanos Hadjianathasiou and Ebe Hagan.
The profile of the Under-19s:
Goalkeepers: Vasilios Nikolakoulis, Evangelos Kiatos, Vasilios Tsintsolis, Evangelos Katsaros
Defenders: Nikolaos Deligiannis, Giorgos Koupenos, Panagiotis Tsitskas, Stathis Panikidis, Alkibiadis Avrampos, Taxiarchis Filon, Konstantinos Polykratis, Vasilios Pasakhidis, Konstantinos Kastidis.
Midfielders: Theodoros Kalogiros, Konstantinos Goumas, Marios Kalaitsidis, Loizos Papadimitriou, Vasilios Papageorgiou, Maksymilian Sznaucner, Georgios Sapanis, Konstantinos Karaioannou, Antonios Zoubi, Theodoros Papaefthymiou, Stelios Almasidis.
Forwards: Lampros Smyrlis, Ioannis Gitersos, Marios Babouras, Theodoros Spyridopoulos, Iordanis Kesidis, Dimitrios Hatsidis, Grigorios Politakis, Stefanos Tzimas, Nikolaos Tolios, Alexandros Adam, George Bakas, Christophoros Galtsev, Emmanuel Tsobanis, Konstantinos Bryzas.
The technical staff:
Team manager: Georgios Theodoridis
Coach: Petros Tsiapakidis
Assistant coaches: Thanos Hatziathanasiou, Ebe Hagan
Fitness coach: Vasilios Bilis
Goalkeeper coach: Michalis Psomiadis
Video analysis: Konstantinos Boukouvalas
Doctor: Iraklis Giannaros
Physiotherapist: Vaios Papathanasis
Minder: Thomas Tseos