PANATHINAIKOS Memories--On this Centenial Year

[athinaios]

I found this short clip in my archive and I wanted to share it with you. (It's in Greek) Three very old PAO footballers share their memories.

I don't even remember how I got it or who appears on the video, but you can clearly see the emotions of those oldtimers.... when playing for the club was not for money but for the love of it.

PAO veterans

What are some of your personal memories of Panathinaikos? When did you become a Panatha?

PS. I uploaded this video so you can download it too if you want.

[XXX-18T]

I remember this like it was yesterday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF3k5z1qZrI

[cyberfish]

Ah, I am going to feel old now :P

As a very young teenager (either 12 or 13) I found myself living in the upper western parts of the country for a few years. A couple of friends and I hitchhiked about sixty kilometers to go to Ioannina to watch Panathinaikos who came to meet PAS Giannena. This was the year Alarez was playing for PAS and was amazing (before Panathinaikos bought him), so it was a big game.

We changed a couple of cars on the way, but the longer stretch of our hitchhiking was on the covered cargo area of an old red Datsun. We laid on top of the cargo for more than half hour on our way to the game. The cargo? Burlap sacks full of coal :LOL: We were a mess by the time we arrived. We made it to the stadium with lots of time to spare and went to work trying to get in even though we had no money for tickets (and no tickets of course).

We went to every gate and pleaded with the officials to let us in, playing the "we are just little kids" part, but it didn't work. Failing that, we roamed around the stadium in search of a weakness. We found it in an unfinished shell of an apartment building. It was standing across the street from the stadium with the cement parts and the exterior bricks completed but not much else. The street level was secured with boards and wire so there was no way of getting in through there.

We circled around, we went through some private yards, got chased by people and dogs, climbed over a couple of 2-meter fences, and used a tin roof of a shed to reach the balcony of the apartment building's first floor. I remember hanging there precariously between a fall and a climb with my heart pounding, but I made it to the roof to meet another fifty or so people that seemed to have found their way there.

My friends and I had a perfect view of the stadium from the edge of the roof. We enjoyed the game with our feet dangling over the edge. I don't remember much of the game. Just a large green patch, Alvarez' hair flowing in the air as he ran, and two goals for Panathinaikos that nearly send me over the edge :D

After the game, we spent our little money on the newly discovered delicacy called "toast" before we departed on three hours of hitchhiking again to reach our beds by two in the morning. The final seven kilometers we completed on foot in the pitch dark far from any villages (I'll save the dog chase part for another post).

It wasn't just the game, it was also the experience and the pilgrimage that made it special for me.

Ah, those were the days :tup: