Everything seemed ideal. An offer from abroad to get footballing and general education away from Greece, a dream for a big career. At the age of 16, Panagiotis Deligiannidis was packing his bags to travel to Austria in the summer of 2012.

Fate would kick in however. A few days before the youngster’s departure, burglars broke into the home of Deligiannidis’ family and left nothing. Young Panagiotis considered it a bad omen ahead of the new chapter in his life and decided to stay at Thessaloniki. “I didn’t want to leave my family”, he says.

His decision proved a good one. Instead of Austria, he landed at PAOK, after winning the league with Bebides and becoming a regular for Thessaloniki Mixed Team and Greece U19. The “Double-Headed Eagle” appreciated the young attacking midfielder’s talent and promoted him early to the senior team in order to train with the big guys. He participated in preseason friendlies and then returned to the youth squads, landing titles with the U17s and U20s.

Winning the league title with the U17s is to this day one of his happiest memories. Along with his first call to the youth national squads and the qualification to the UEFA U19 elite round.

His international duties however do not mess with his focus: “My main aim is to become a regular with PAOK and to play football for as many years as possible”.

In order to achieve that, he takes care of himself and works hard. Since signing for PAOK –much to the disappointment of his mother who is a fan of Aris- he hasn’t missed a training, despite his heavy schedule of morning school classes and evening training sessions. “I work hard, even in the mornings I work out at home”, he says and acknowledges that his tutors at school are quite understanding: “Especially with the international trips, I have neglected school work”.

Football became a part of his life as a child’s whim. His father wanted to register him for tennis lessons, but he didn’t like the idea and, in order to vex him, he told him he wanted to become a footballer. As every father would do, Deligiannidis senior surrendered to his son’s wish. Panagiotis first joined Kermanidis Academy, then went to Bebides and, finally, landed at PAOK with a few stops in-between for training at 1. FC Kaiserslautern.

Football is no longer a whim for Panagiotis, nor a profession. It’s just his life. He has devoted himself to it, without spending time in other activities. Except for girls. It’s no fluke that an affair gone bad is listed among his biggest disappointments. Also in that list, the elimination from the next round of the UEFA European Championship U19.

The 18-year old player of PAOK has his future ahead of him. He wants to become like his idol Vieirinha and ressemble to Dimitris Salpingidis, who has been his mentor ever since the youngster joined the seniors.