by John Greece

Created on: July 02, 2010   Last Updated: July 03, 2010

Giorgos Koudas is a retired Greek veteran attacking midfielder who played for many years for PAOK FC. He was one of the greatest football players in Greece ever with near-perfect technical training. With his team PAOK wrote a glorious history winning two cups and a championship in Greece. Also notable in his glorious football career was the movement to Olympiakos which raised a storm of reactions from the part of the supporters of PAOK, which never completed mainly because of the attitude of George Pantelakis who was a very active factor of PAOK. Let's take things in order.

Giorgos Koudas born on November 23, 1946 in Agios Pavlos (St. Paul) in Thessaloniki. His first football steps made in 1958 starting from the junior teams of the club. In the team of PAOK FC played from 1963 until 1984 making excellent performances and writing golden history in a course that lasted over 25 years.

In the summer of 1966, Olympiakos wanted to get Giorgos Koudas but failed. Aquired him for two years but never played an official match because the administration of PAOK never give its consent. Those years were still quite difficult and the transfer of the players could not be easily completed because there weren't professional contracts. However, other than that, very important role in not completed the movement of George Koudas to Olympiakos played the extremely important determination of Giorgos Pantelakis, who was one of the most active factors of the club in such days. Thus, George Koudas stay in Thessaloniki and PAOK. This story also has caused a feud between supporters of both teams which in some cases lasts until our days.

On July 5, 1972, PAOK won the Greek Cup against Panathinaikos with 2-1 and Giorgos Koudas be scored both goals (1 'and 89'). After about two years ago, on June 16, 1974, PAOK won the Greek Cup again. This time the rival was Olympiakos. The two teams went into penalty kicks in order the winner to be highlighted because both the normal and the extra game ended in a tie 2-2. In the summer of 1976 and after mishaps and much effort, PAOK led by Giorgos Koudas won the first championship of its history, giving huge pleasure to hundreds of thousands of friends across Greece who have waited for a fact like this for many years. In 1985, PAOK won again the Greek championship with Giorgos Koudas be withdrawn from the action but offering his services to PAOK from the post of curator.

Giorgos Koudas was an excellent craftsman of the ball which when he had it to his feet knew exactly what to do. He also organized very well the offensive playing of PAOK. His elaborate actions on the football fields that excited everyone in every touch made him popular and extremely likeable in sporty Greece.

Statistically, Giorgos Koudas struggled in 504 championship matches and had 133 goals, while in the matches for the Greek cup had 70 entries scoring 27 goals. Overall, together with European and friendly matches he has played 780 times, all of them with the jersey of PAOK, scoring 220 times.

He also had football career with the national team of Greece. He played 43 international games from 1967 to 1982 and was a member of the team which participated in the final phase of the European Cup in 1980 in Italy. In September 1995 held in his honor the friendly match between the national teams of Yugoslavia and Greece at Tumba stadium, and Giorgos Koudas contestant in the first minutes of the match became the oldest footballer who played for the national team at the age of 49 years .

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