Podence move to Wolves tops list of all-time Greek club sales

Daniel Podence’s move to Wolves at the end of the January transfer window was the biggest sale ever of a player from a Greek club to a team abroad. AGONAsport takes a look at the recent history of big selling moves involving Greek teams.

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Podence’s €21 million move to the English Premier League side beats out the previous record high which was set two and a half years ago with Panagiotis Retsos’ transfer to Bayer Leverkusen. Retsos’ move is actually still the highest amount at €22 million, but the direct payment to Olympiacos was for €17.5 million.

Olympiacos not only hold the top two slots on the list, but in fact dominate the entire top 20. The Piraeus club have eight of the top ten transfer sales of all-time and 16 out of the top 20. Only three other Greek clubs show up in the list. Iraklis, Panathinaikos, and PAOK are the only other teams featuring in the top 20, with PAOK the only one of those with more than one sale. 

The top 20 list spans over 20 years with the oldest transfer that remains being the €7 move of Grigoris Georgatos from Olympiacos to Inter Milan in 1999. Zlatko Zahovic’s transfer from Olympiacos to Valencia in 2000 and Michalis Konstantinou’s 2001 switch from Iraklis to Panathinaikos for €15 million are the next oldest sales on the list. 

When looking at the top ten transfers, eight have occurred in the last decade. Overall, 13 of the top 20 moves have taken place since 2010. The top destination for these big moves has been the English Premier League with five of the top 20 moves including three of the top four. Next up is Italy with three Serie A clubs on the list followed by two Portuguese clubs. Four of the top sales have been to clubs outside of Europe.

Below is the complete list involving the top player transfers from Greek clubs  (All amounts in EUR):

1. Daniel Podence (Olympiacos) - Wolves - 21 million (2019)

2. *Panagiotis Retsos (Olympiacos) - Bayer Leverkusen - 17.5 million (2017)

3. Kostas Mitroglou (Olympiacos) - Fulham - 15.2 million (2013)

4. Luka Milivojevic (Olympiacos) - Crystal Palace - 15.1 million (2016)

5. Neri Castillo (Olympiacos) - Shakhtar Donetsk - 15 million (2007)

-. Michalis Konstantinou (Iraklis) - Panathinaikos - 15 million (2001)

-. Kostas Manolas (Olympiacos) - Roma - 15 million (2014)

8. Brown Ideye (Olympiacos) - Tianjin Teda - 12 million (2016)

9. Andreas Samaris (Olympiacos) - Benfica- 10 million (2014)

-. Aleksandar Prijovic (PAOK) - Al-Ittihad - 10 million (2018)

11. Zlatko Zahovic (Olympiacos) - Valencia - 8 million (2000)

12. Kevin Mirallas (Olympiacos) - Everton - 7.5 million (2012)

13. Arthur Masuaku (Olympiacos) - West Ham - 7.1 million (2016) 

14. Grigoris Georgatos (Olympiacos) - Inter Milan - 7 million (1999)

15. Alan Pulido (Olympiacos) - Chivas - 6 million (2016)

16. Djibril Cisse (Panathinaikos) - Lazio - 5.8 million (2011)

17. Yaya Toure (Olympiacos) - Monaco - 5.5 million (2006)

18. Gary Rodrigues (PAOK) - Galatasaray - 5.3 million (2016)

-. Vladimir Weiss (Olympiacos) - Lekhwiya - 5.3 million (2013)

20. Fernando Belluschi (Olympiacos) - Porto - 5 million (2009)

*The cost of the deal reached 22 million EUR, however, Olympiacos received 17.5 million EUR.

**Nery Castillo was sold for 20 million EUR but five million EUR went to the player himself as a transfer-signing bonus.

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