Sokratis Papastathopoulos

Sokratis Papastathopoulos (born on June 9 1988 in Kalamata, Greece) is a Greeks international Association football player currently playing as a Defender (association football) Centre back for Genoa C.F.C. in Serie A.

He is regarded as one of the biggest talents in years and the next big thing in Greek football. Comparisons are already being made between him and Tony Adams (footballer) while AEK Athens fans already consider him as the next Stelios Manolas.

Club career

AEK Athens

Papastathopoulos joined AEK Athens from Apollon Petalidiou for €30K. On October 26 2005 he made his debut for AEK Athens in a Greek Football Cup match against PAS Giannina F.C. scoring on the 7th minute of the game leading AEK Athens to a 3-0 win.

Niki Volou

On January 2006 he was loaned to Second Division (Greece) club Niki Volos F.C. for 6 months in order to gain first team football and gather valuable experience. He made a total of 11 appearances for Niki Volou.

Return to AEK Athens

During the Super League Greece 2006-07, Papastathopoulos managed to make 14 appearances whilst competing against the likes of Bruno Cirillo, Traianos Dellas and Vaggelis Moras. In AEK Athens' UEFA Champions League 2006-2007 campaign, Papastathopoulos managed to play in 3 out of the 6 group games. In these 3 games 3 AEK Athens managed 1 win (the famous 1-0 victory of A.C. Milan), 1 draw (the 2-2 away draw with R.S.C. Anderlecht) and one loss (the 3-1 away defeat to Lille OSC). During the Super League Greece 2007-08, he has been a mainstay in AEK's defence, keeping out competition from Geraldo Alves.

Genoa

On August 1, 2008, Sokratis Papastathopoulos agreed to transfer to Genoa C.F.C., a Serie A team, for a fee of €4 million .
He made his debut for Genoa on 27 September 2008 against ACF Fiorentina, followed by a start against Ravenna Calcio in the Coppa Italia a few days later. His first goal for Genoa came on the 5 October 2008 at home to S.S.C. Napoli. Genoa won the game 3-2, but Papastathopoulos was sent off in the 89th minute

International career

UEFA U-19 Championship 2007

At the 2007 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship in Austria, Papastathopoulos was captain of the Greece National Under 19 Football Team but controversially missed out on the final against Spain due to a suspension. Sokratis picked up his second yellow card of the tournament against Germany in the semi-final, following up on his first yellow card against Austria in the group stage. The Hellenic Football Federation tried to appeal the yellow card to UEFA but were rejected. The match referee of the Germany game, Kevin Blom, apologized to Papastathopoulos for giving him the yellow, as it was later shown on video that it was not a booking. Papastathopoulos was a key figure of Greece's defensive line and was sorely missed the final.

Greece

He was called up on February 1 2008 and made his debut on February 5 2008 in the 1-0 friendly victory against Czech national football team. The Greece squad for Euro 2008 was announced by Otto Rehhagel on May 27 2008, and Papastathopoulos was the unfortunate player to be cut from the provisional squad of 24 to the final 23-man selection.