Giorgos Koudas

Rise to prominence followed by a two-year absence

Koudas started playing as a right winger, wearing the No 7 jersey in several matches held between the clubs' youth teams and preceding the senior teams' encounter. His skills and technique quickly stood out and he soon became the talk of the town. Many fans attended these exhibition youth matches in order to watch this promising youngster who could dribble past the defenders with ease and score goals. Koudas gradually shifted to the position of the attacking midfielder and made his first-team debut in December 1963, aged 17. His talent immediately started to excel and he made his breakout season in 1965–66 scoring 13 goals in 29 league appearances. However, on 14 July 1966, PAOK fans were shocked by the news of Koudas' descent to Piraeus, accompanied by his father (who was enraged with PAOK administration for financial reasons) and determined to sign for Olympiacos, who tempted him by offering a much higher annual salary without going into a negotiation with his club. PAOK administrative leader Giorgos Pantelakis never gave his consent for the transfer to be completed and for the next two seasons, Koudas participated only in Olympiacos friendly games. Military junta's General Secretary of Sports Kostas Aslanidis suggested in 1968 that Koudas should return to PAOK for two years and then move to Olympiacos, but Pantelakis refused saying "I may go to Gyaros island (place of exile for leftist political dissidents), but…

Koudas had 43 caps for the Greece national team, scoring four goals, between 1967 and 1982. He participated in the UEFA Euro 1980 that was held in Italy, playing in the 0–0 group stage draw against West Germany. On 20 September 1995, eleven years after he had retired, a testimonial match in his honour was held at Toumba Stadium and Koudas made a final appearance for the national team facing Yugoslavia. That made him the oldest footballer (aged 48) to feature in a competitive international game until George Weah (aged 51) beat the record in September 2018. This also allowed him to set the record for the longest European international span between the first and last cap at 27 years and 10 months, surpassing the previous record set by Billy Meredith at nearly 25 years, as well as the second-longest span in the world, only behind Alderney's Billy Bohan with 27 years and 339 days. After the final whistle, his bust on Toumba Stadium's football pitch (next to the entrance of the players' tunnel) was unveiled and Koudas was brought into tears.

Regarded as one of the greatest Greek players of all-time (ranked 5th by the Hellenic Football Federation for the UEFA Jubilee Awards in 2003), Koudas rightfully earned the appreciation of all Greek football fans. The team orchestrator, Koudas was a creative playmaker with a gift for timing passes. He was known for his technical ability, dribbling and vision, possessing an awareness of his teammates' positions as an attack unfolded. Koudas has stated that winger Dimitris Paridis was his alter ego inside the football field. "My long ball passes found him with absolute precision. He knew when to start. I knew that he would meet the ball. Our thoughts were aligned perfectly". He has also admitted that he was able to focus more on the offense thanks to his teammate Christos Terzanidis who was a tireless defensive midfielder and always urged him to go forward. As for his cooperation in the midfield with PAOK record goalscorer Stavros Sarafis, Koudas has said: "Stavros was a big asset for the team. It was such his heading ability, that you only needed to deliver a decent cross inside the area and he would most likely find the net". One of Koudas' nicknames as a footballer was The Deer (Greek: Ζαρκάδι) due to his distinctive way of running with the ball keeping his head up and having a large stride. A versatile attacking midfielder and a capable goalscorer with a good right foot shot, Koudas was a team leader, always inspiring his teammates to give their best. He was also a role…

Koudas was born on 23 November 1946 in Agios Pavlos, Thessaloniki. He comes from a humble, working-class background. His father Giannis worked as a waiter and was a Greek refugee from Çorlu (Greek name: Tyroloi) of Eastern Thrace, while his mother Eleftheria was from Stavroupoli of Western Thrace. He has two siblings, an older brother and a younger sister. Koudas spent plenty of time as a youngster playing football at a sandlot near the Old Vegetable Market and also at a two-level marble square in front of Thessaloniki's Government House that does not exist nowadays. His talent was recognized by an elder neighbor named Prodromos who was a PAOK supporter and took him one day to the club's youth trials at the Toumba district where PAOK new stadium was under construction. About a hundred kids were involved and young Koudas went unnoticed on the first day. On the second day, Austrian manager Wilhelm (Willy) Sevcik asked Koudas to control the ball after he had thrown it high in the air. Koudas easily touched the ball to the ground on each throw made by the Austrian coach and participated in a half hour training game that followed. Vassilis Sidiropoulos, a PAOK administrative member at the time, took a picture of Koudas and asked him to sign a player's registration license. As a result, Koudas joined the club's youth ranks in 1958, aged 12. Because the youth team's training sessions were scheduled in the morning and in order to have some income that was much needed, Koudas…