PAOK fans occupy stadium in protest at sale of Giannis Konstantelias

Giannis Konstantelias’ transfer from PAOK Thessaloniki to Borussia Dortmund has been a saga.

It provoked a furious response from the fans of the Greek Super League club, led the ultras to occupy the team’s offices and stadium, and has the potential to ratchet up the intensity of an ownership squabble.

It’s a complicated story with a gifted homegrown player at its heart.

Skilful, technical and ambitious with the ball at his feet, Konstantelias, a 23-year-old attacking midfielder, is among the finest players Greece has produced. His move to Dortmund was completed on Monday and could eventually be worth more than €30million (£25.6m, $34.7m), making it the second-most valuable deal in the history of Greek football.

He could have been sold last summer. In July 2025, PAOK agreed a deal with Stuttgart, another Bundesliga side. Ultimately, the response to that news in Thessaloniki was so negative that the deal was cancelled at the last minute.

Konstantelias had said goodbye to his team-mates and was scheduled to undergo a medical in Germany. But he never arrived. Nobody has ever confirmed what happened, but the transfer collapsed and shortly after, Konstantelias signed a new four-year contract.

Twelve months on, the response to this agreement with Dortmund has been no better.

On Saturday, thousands of fans gathered outside Toumba Stadium, PAOK’s home, burning flares under a banner that read “occupation”. Protests entered a second day on Sunday, during which some supporters infiltrated the club’s offices and demanded an audience with the owner, Ivan Savvidis. 

In March 2018, Russian-born billionaire Savvidis received global attention for storming the pitch at the end of a game against AEK Athens. With the score 0-0, a late PAOK goal was disallowed. Savvidis ordered his team’s players back to the dressing room before confronting the officials with a holstered revolver strapped to his hip.

As reported by the BBC, Savvidis received a suspended prison sentence, a €100,000 fine, and a three-year stadium ban, later reduced to eight months on appeal. He later apologised. “I am very sorry. I clearly had no right to enter the field of play in this fashion,” Savvidis said in a lengthy statement.

The portrait is of an owner unlikely to be responsive to supporter pressure. On social media, one of the ultra groups — “Gate 4” — released a strong statement, making its position on the sale of Konstantelias clear.

Ivan Savvidis, owner of PAOK, celebrates his team winning the Greek Super League football title in 2019 (Sakis Mitrolidis/AFP via Getty Images)

“Despite all the know-it-alls, bought-and-paid-for journalists, and doomsayers, PAOK fans have only one demand: that Giannis Konstantelias, the greatest footballer to have worn our club’s jersey since Giorgos Koudas, continues to wear the jersey with the double-headed eagle on his chest.”

When Konstantelias arrived in Dortmund for his medical, he was met at the local airport by a PAOK fan. The stranger engaged him in conversation and then, according to Dortmund daily newspaper Ruhr Nachrichten, which obtained and published footage of the exchange, he invited Konstantelias to speak with other PAOK supporters by video call. The clip shows the 23-year-old telling the supporters that the move was his decision and that he still loved the club.

PAOK have been approached for comment.

Konstantelias is not just an excellent player. He was their star. A Greek Player of the Year who joined the club’s academy at nine and made his first-team debut when he was only 17. Even at 23, he is among the best players in the team’s history.

Themis Kessaris is the editor-in-chief of Sport24, one of Greece’s largest sports websites.

“Konstantelias is seen by the fans of PAOK — and by every other club in the country — as the biggest Greek talent that has played for PAOK since the 1980s and the legendary club captain Giorgos Koudas,” he tells The Athletic.

“This season also marked the 100th anniversary of the club’s birth, and so this is supposed to be a year of celebration. On our website, we hosted a poll and invited fans of PAOK to vote for the biggest athletes in the history of PAOK — across all sports — and Giorgos Koudas was voted unanimous No 1.

“He’s the equivalent of Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool. So, you can understand that selling the best player since him, when the club is celebrating 100 years of life, is more than enough for these protests and the occupation of the club’s offices and stadium.”

In the same poll, Konstantelias finished fifth, which gives some indication as to how he’s viewed. But if the protests seem broader in scope, then it’s because there is more to them.

Savvidis has owned PAOK since 2012. The club have won four titles in their 100 years, and two of them, in 2018-19 and 2023-24, occurred during his tenure. In 2019, they became the second Greek side in history to win the domestic league undefeated.

“But it’s not only success in terms of leagues and cups,” says Kessaris. “Savvidis has done everything to make PAOK financially strong. He personally wiped off the club’s debts to the state (totalling roughly €11m).

“PAOK has also emerged during that time as one of the best producers of Greek talent, beyond just Konstantelias. Christos Tzolis, who was sold to Norwich City and has recently joined Arsenal. Stefanos Tzimas, who is about to play his second season for Brighton. And Konstantinos Koulierakis, who moved to Wolfsburg and now plays for Roma, and Dimitris Giannoulis, who returned to the club just a few weeks ago.”

New Arsenal winger Christos Tzolis used to play for PAOK (Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

Savvidis’ grip on PAOK has been challenged in recent years, particularly by rival billionaire Telis Mistakidis, a commodities trader born in Thessaloniki.

In 2025, Mistakidis attempted to fund the construction of a new stadium — an offer that Savvidis did not welcome — but is now the majority owner of PAOK’s basketball club, having acquired a 60.8 per cent share in November 2025.

He has been ambitious, signing new players and appointing the former coach of the Greek national team, and aims to restore PAOK’s basketball team to the national power it was in the 1980s and 1990s. Will it stop there? Kessaris thinks it’s unlikely.

“We can all assume Mistakidis will try to be involved in football at some point and so now, with the imminent sale of Giannis Konstantelias, we might say that the pressure is on Ivan Savvidis again.”

A record sale is compensation. Konstantelias also now has the opportunity to climb towards the top of the game and become another PAOK success story within a major European league.

“Yianni, we wholeheartedly wish you the best of luck and every success in this new chapter of your career,” read a post on the club’s official X account, confirming his sale. “It was inevitable that the time would come for you to spread your wings, to fly even higher, to chase all your dreams. We’ll always be watching you and rejoicing in every step you take, because when our own kids progress and soar high, it fills us with pride too.”

There will be pride, of course, but it will be tinged with regret that such a special player is departing so soon.

“Konstantelias had the opportunity — and maybe this was just a dream— to become someone like Francesco Totti at Roma”, says Kessaris. “This club has not won the most leagues or cups in the country, but it was a chance to be something great for the city.

“He was not someone who was chasing a move from a young age like other players, and his ambition was not just to go to the Premier League. That is his character and because I knew that, I always thought he would be like a Koudas or a Totti. A one-club player. It’s a pity that it has ended so soon.”