Kostas Katsouranis

Konstantinos Katsouranis was born on the 21st of June 1979 and plays as a defensive midfielder. Katsouranis can play in various positions, characteristic shared with Ruud Gullit as a result of the combination of his technique, speed and strength. He has been described as “a reasonable goal threat despite being notionally a Midfielder”. A fine passer of the ball, Katsouranis is also strong in the air and has excellent positioning defensively. However, it is his natural attacking instinct that makes him such a valuable footballer, able to ghost into the box with regularity despite usually playing in a deep-lying midfield role. Over his club career and at times for the national team, he has proved to be a natural finisher, scoring a variety of goals and crucial ones at that. His ability to offer an attacking threat without compromising his defensive duties means he is the embodiment of a box-to-box midfielder. He was not even 17 years old when he debuted in the 1996–97 season for the Patras-based club Panachaiki. He spent six seasons there and, by the third, he was a regular starter. When his contract with Panachaiki expired, Katsouranis decided that it was time to move forward to a bigger club. He opened negotiations with Panathinaikos, but the coach, Fernando Santos, decided to sign Portuguese Carlos Chaínho, a player he knew when at FC Porto, which meant Katsouranis’ transfer would not be finalized. Olympiacos then approached him. The talks with the vice-president of the club, Giorgos Louvaris, seemed final, but Louvaris asked Katsouranis to wait until the president, Sokratis Kokkalis, returned from a business trip to the United States for the final negotiations. But former AEK Athens president Chrysostomos Psomiadis took advantage of the situation and convinced the promising midfielder to sign a three-year contract with AEK Athens. Coming off the bench and making an impressive debut for the club, Katsouranis immediately became an integral part of the club. His continuing progress in the top-level rapidly made him the team’s best player and a first team regular with great performances, both domestically and in European competition. He was used mainly as a central midlfielder but also can be used in the wings. When the 2004/05 season began, Katsouranis was still at AEK despite several attractive offers, having agreed a new three-year contract while most of his team-mates from the previous campaign had acted on their frustration and left. In the fevered atmosphere that saw AEK’s gates quadruple as fans flocked to support the club under new owner Demis Nikolaidis, Katsouranis – who joined in 2002 from Panachaiki- adopted a special place in supporters’ hearts. The 2004–05 season would prove to be one of Katsouranis’ finest seasons with the club, as he scored 10 times in 28 appearances from the defensive midfielder spot, leading the club in a hard battle for the title. AEK managed to finish third when many had expected a mid-table performance. Werder Bremen expressed strong interest for the Greek international but Katsouranis together with president Demis Nikolaidis decided to reject the offer. Despite radical changes to the squad in the first season under Nikolaidis, players, fans and club staff came together to create a carnival atmosphere at every AEK game. Led by captain Katsouranis, the team responded with some heroic performances, only missing the championship on the final day of the campaign. Everyone connected with the club was united for one purpose: the team, said Katsouranis. First we had to make the club financially healthy, and then to make sure everything was well organised. In the 2005–06 season, Katsouranis led the club to a second place finish in the league, which brought them into the UEFA Champions League. At the end of the season, manager Fernando Santos was sacked and Katsouranis followed him to Portugal at Benfica FC, where he stayed for 3 years. In june of 2009 he returned back in Greece to play for Panathinaikos. In his first year he won the double, being one of the most important players. In October 2012 he finished his contract with Panthinaikos and in January 2013 he signed a new contract with P.A.O.K. where he stayed for 1,5 years having played 48 games and scored 6 goals. At 1st of October 2014 he went to India to play for Pune City FC, being the second Greek player to try his luck there after Alexander Tzorvas. In December 2014 he returned back to Greece to play for Atromitos and in the summer of 2015 he decided to finish his career. In the Greek National team, Katsouranis was one of the main protagonists in the triumph of Greece in the 2004 European Championships, participating in all six games of the Greek team. Then he took part in the qualifiers of the 2006 World Cup, during which he scored the first goal, in the match against Kazakhstan. He has also taken part in the Confederations Cup 2005, the 2008 European Championship, World Cup 2010 and the 2012 European Championship, as a major competitor in all matches of the final phase. He was a member of team in the World Cup 2014 in Brazil, where he played three times. He became the fourth player who reached 100 innings with the “blue and white” after Giorgos Karagounis, Theodoros Zagorakis and Angelos Basinas, and is now in third place in the relevant table with 114 appearances. Kostas, immediately responded to our challenge and decided to give his sports memorabilia to support the FLAME organization for children with neoplastic disease in Patras