By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Georgios Papagiannis has made the decision to join Fenerbahce for the next two years, as Eurohoops previously reported.
Shortly after the news broke, the president of Panathinaikos, Dimitris Giannakopoulos, expressed his thoughts on Papagiannis’ departure and also mentioned Fenerbahce‘s head coach Dimitris Itoudis in a post on his personal Instagram account.
“I really don’t know what else to expect in my life. I’ve seen it all now, everything. His parents brought a 15-year-old child to our house and entrusted him to us, saying, ‘Please, president, we are handing him over to your care. Take care of him for us.’ We have never supported or cared for any athlete as much as we did for him during the 8-9 years he was here. Maybe only Nikos Pappas, to be honest. He was the first player we wanted to sign since last April. Despite not having a good season, we offered him €1.1, 1.2, 1.3 million because we wanted him here, because we loved him. He played the waiting game for 4-5 months and then asked for €1.3 and 1.7 million for two years, no less. In the end, I accepted it and told him okay.
And when I told him that, he said to me, ‘You know, even though I didn’t let you know, I’ve told Itoudis I would go to Fenerbahce. But since I didn’t inform, the right thing for me to do is stay here. Okay, I’ll stay here. Give me 5 minutes to call Itoudis and let him know.’
We sent him the contracts and waited. It was past 6 in the morning. Instead of receiving the contracts, they called us back and said, ‘You know, my mommy and daddy won’t let me stay in Panathinaikos. They want me to go to Itoudis because they’re offering me €200 thousand more.’ What can I say? Anyway, good luck, Georgios.
And because justice and truth are two fighters who never lose, you, Dimitris, who were here for 13 years and became a man, while the player has no offer larger than €700 thousand from anywhere in Europe, you’re partnering with Giorgos’ agent – everyone in Turkey and Greece knows it – offering €1.6 million just to share the agent’s fee,” wrote Giannakopoulos.
Giannakopoulos also indirectly suggested that Fenerbahce is reluctant to release Tyler Dorsey simply because he has an offer from Panathinaikos.
“One more thing. An athlete we want to sign, an athlete who has come to you and said he doesn’t want to play for you, you’re not letting him go because you heard that he’s going to Panathinaikos. What if he were to go somewhere else?” Giannakopoulos concluded.