Blackhawk

NAME: Abdul Baba RAHMAN POSITION: Left Back JERSEY NUMBER: BIRTHDAY: 02-July-1994 BIRTH PLACE: Tamale, Ghana HEIGHT: 1.80 m PAOK DEBUT: 21-Feb-2021 (PAOK - Lamia 4:0 with Baba scoring one goal) NT DEBUT: 10-Sep-2014 (Togo-Ghana 2:3) PREVIOUS TEAMS: Readding (loan), PAOK Thessaloniki (loan), Chelsea London, Real Mallorca (loan), Stade Reims (loan), Schalke 04 (loan), Chelsea London, Schalke 04 (loan), Chelsea London, FC Augsburg, Greuther Furth, Asante Kotoko (loan), Dreams FC, Young Meteors Tamale CONTRACT ENDS: 30-June-2026, Chelsea retains 10% resale option SALARY: €

Baba Rahman announced officially by PAE PAOK. Signed until June 30, 2026. Chelsea maintains a 10% resale option.

NAME: William Troost-Ekong POSITION: Centre Back JERSEY NUMBER: 15 BIRTHDAY: 01-September-1993 BIRTH PLACE: Haarlem, Holland HEIGHT 1.91 m PAOK DEBUT: PAOK – Go Ahead Eagles 1:2 (08-Jul-2023) – Pre-Season Friendly NT DEBUT: 13-June-2015 (Nigeria - Chad 2:0 AFCON Qualifying) PREVIOUS TEAMS: Salernitana (loan), FC Watford, Udinese Calcio, Bursaspor, Haugesund (loan), KAA Gent, Dordrecht (loan), FC Groningen, Tottenham Hotspur youth team, FC Fulham youth team CONTRACT ENDS: 30-Jun-2026 SALARY: € per season

I never read anything into the pre-season friendlies. They are worthless in predicting the outcome of the season. I think we will be fine. Finishing 2 - 4 in the league gets you the same benefits: 2nd qualifying round of Conference League. There is no way we can contest for the title. If we get lucky we might get into the cup final (it has become a habit lately) and maybe even win it. I just hope we have a good run in Europe (group stage at a minimum), but as we saw last season nothing is guaranteed. If things get rough, maybe both sides can come to a mutual agreement to end the ties and hopefully we can bring someone mid-season to start building a team for next season. Ivic would be an ideal choice, but that would imply that some of the front office bureaucrats would need to be fired.

Ivan is at his ranch in Rostov and soon to be vacationing in Porto Karras in Halkidiki. Don't think there will be a fire sale, but I expect at least one more player sale to happen. Ingason was no. 7 on my "sale" list. I think the next sale will be one of Zivkovic, Konstantelias or Kotarski. Will probably happen after our European games. Baba Rahman is in Thessaloniki so expect an official signing soon.

1:1 final score Lineup for 2nd half: Talichmanidis, Lyratzis, Panagiotou (56. Koulierakis), Nasberg, Tsaousis, Augusto, Giaxis, Ricardo (69. Zivkovic A.), Vrakas, Kanis (69. Konstantelias), Gordeziani

1:1 with Gordeziani.

It's geo locked. You need to set your VPN for Greece or Cyprus.

0:1 for Steaua

Well deserved for Adelino to play his final season for PAOK.

Last season on first day we sold over 750 season tickets, so it's quite big drop. If we manage to sell over 8,000 this season it will be a miracle.

I don't have any contact for tickets. However I will be in Prague Sep 25 - Sep 30, so we might run into each other.

Starting lineup against FCSB: Game available here:

- Never liked Toskitsis. He was behind InPAOK originally. Now somebody else took over. From that PAOK Today YouTube podcast by far I prefer Antoni Tsakalea. - Yiankos still lives in Miami, Florida. we exchange messages once in a while - we are thinking of signing Kedziora despite the fact that we announced his departure. This is probably due to the upcoming sale of Ingason. - Vieirinha will sign a 1-year contract extension and will travel with the team to Holland. - "the secret CF" is supposedly Bwana Samatta a forward from Tanzania who plays for Fenerbahce

Sorry I made a mistake. The Steaua game is on July 5th.

And I just learned that the four pre-season games will be televised on PAOK TV's YouTube channel.

Can't really judge a player by one play in a game where the result was already decided. Ingason is our best defenseman by far. If we are going to sell him we will need to bring in somebody that in his class or better to replace him.

The games against Steaua and Genk will take place at MFA Kerberos in Swolgen. The Go Ahead game will be played at Zuthpen. The final game against Westerlo will take place at the home of Westerlo. Here is the schedule: 05-JUL-23, 19:30 EEST: PAOK - Steaua Bukurest (MFA Kerberos, Swolgen) 08-JUL-23, 17:00 EEST: PAOK - Go Ahead Eagles Deventer (Sportcentrum Hansapark, Zuthpen) 12-JUL-23, 19:00 EEST: PAOK KRC Genk (MFA Kerberos, Swolgen) 16-JUL-23, 17:00 EEST: KVC Wsterlo - PAOK (Het Kuipje Stadium, Westerlo) Still no word if they will be televised. If we don't have a TV contract by the kick-off I think PAOK TV might show them on their Youtube channel.

Well in good old conspiracy theories there are posts on social media that Kargas was bribed to get the red card in that game with AEK. Kargas is not a bad player, but he did not fit to the style that PAOK plays. That's why he was better when he was playing for Platanias and Giannina. The reason PAOK got him was to be a backup until the injured Michailidis returned to action. And all of a sudden he became a starter in a European game and we know what happened there. I would really hate to see Ingason go, but if he brings in the 4 mil as rumored + plus his 1 mil salary it is a good chunk of money to be used to bring good players to the team.

Why am I slowly getting the feeling that the front office is trying hard not to make any acquisitions in order for Lucescu and Boto to quit on their own so they won't have to pay them to leave?

In the end we managed to stay in the top division, but it was close. With few exception most of our athletes under performed. We could have done much better.

Transfer period has not even started officially...

Two keepers that will sadly never get a chance to play for the senior team.

The performance of Pavlidis was nothing but major failure on his part. He was almost 20 meters behind his best mark. Karydi was poor all season and we should have sent somebody who was consistently jumping over 13 meters this year. As for Stefanidi, she is at the end of her career and it's understandable that she can't perform any more like she used to. The problem is that there is nobody to replace her right now. Even with 4.40m she is the best we have right now. Same goes for Douvalidis. Nobody to take his place. Gnafaki did ok. She was only slightly off from her PB. Going to the 3rd and deciding day, I think we have a decent chance to remain in the top division. All the athletes will have to achieve marks close or above their seasonal best. I just hope it does not come down to the last race, the 4x400m mixed relay. We really have some weak 400 meter athletes this season, specially on the men's side.

Brandon Thomas was officially announced as signing a new contract with PAOK. The new contract is for 1+1 year with slight salary increase in the range of 500K. The option year will depend on Thomas scoring over 10 goals in the season and playing a certain percentage of game.