Christos Tzolis ( el, Χρήστος Τζόλης; born 30 January 2002) is a Greek professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a winger for club

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

and the Greece national team.

Club career

Early career

Tzolis started his first football steps in the academy of his village team, Doxa Pentalofos. He played there from 2006 until 2010, before joining PAOK. In 2015, the then 13-year-old impressed at the Lennart-Johansson-Cup, a tournament for 13 to 14-year-olds. The right-footed winger scored 11 goals in five games and guided his team to the final. Despite losing the final he won the golden boot and was voted the best player of the tournament. In 2018, he returned to PAOK and scored 29 goals in 25 games for the PAOK U17 side, including two goals against Panathinaikos in the championship semi-final.

PAOK

On 20 June 2020, in only his second senior appearance, the 18-year-old displaying excellent technique to net a crucial equaliser. It’s worth noting that Tzolis managed to score 19 goals in just 23 Super League U19 matches this season. Tzolis became the youngest player to score a Super League goal during the 2019–20 season. On 25 August 2020, Tzolis scored a brace for

2020–21 UEFA Champions League qualifying phase and play-off round The 2020–21 UEFA Champions League qualifying phase and play-off round began on 8 August and ended on 30 September 2020. A total of 53 teams competed in the qualifying system of the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League, which includes the qualifying ph ...

against

Beşiktaş J.K. Beşiktaş Jimnastik Kulübü (), also known simply as Beşiktaş (), is a Turkish sports club founded in 1903 that is based in the Beşiktaş district of Istanbul. The club's football team is one of the Big Three in Turkey and one of the most ...

Tzolis also added an assist for

Dimitris Pelkas Dimitrios Pelkas ( el, Δημήτριος Πέλκας; born 26 October 1993) is a Greek professional Association football, footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for English Championship club Hull City A.F.C., Hull City on loan from Fe ...

. On 11 September 2020, he scored the only goal against AEL in the 2020–21 season opener, named MVP of the game. On 17 September 2020, Tzolis renew his contract with the club until 2024 without a buy out clause. On 5 November 2020, he scored in a 4–1 home win

2020–21 UEFA Europa League group stage The 2020–21 UEFA Europa League group stage began on 22 October 2020 and ended on 10 December 2020. A total of 48 teams competed in the group stage to decide 24 of the 32 places in the knockout phase of the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League. Antwerp, G ...

game against

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, whi ...

helping PAOK to increase the possibility of qualifying for the next phase of the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

Norwich City

On 12 August 2021, Tzolis left PAOK to join

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

on a five-year deal for an undisclosed fee. He made an impressive debut for the Canaries on 24 August, as he scored a brace and assisted a further two goals, to help his team seal an emphatic 6–0 win over

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

and progress to the third round of the

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

. He was voted

man of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

for his performance. On 22 July 2022, he joined

Twente Twente ( nl, Twente , Tweants dialect: ''Tweante'') is a region in the eastern Netherlands. It encompasses the most urbanised and easternmost part of the province of Overijssel. Twente is most likely named after the Tuihanti or Tvihanti, a Germ ...

in the Netherlands on a season-long loan. He returned from his loan spell on 31 January 2023, after a mutual agreement was reached to cut short his loan spell. During his time at Twente, the left winger scored three goals in 15 appearances. He scored his first goal for Norwich since his return from loan, and his first goal for Norwich in the league, in a 3-1 win against

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

on 21 February 2023.

International career

Tzolis has represented Greece at the under-17 level and under-19 level. At the under-17 level, he appeared in 9 matches and scored 6 goals. On 7 October 2020, Tzolis made his debut for the senior national team in a 2–1 loss to

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

after being substituted on in the 82nd minute for

Dimitris Limnios Dimitris Limnios ( gr, Δημήτρης Λημνιός; born 27 May 1998) is a Greek professional Association football, footballer who plays as a winger (association football), winger for Super League Greece, Super League club Panathinaikos F.C. ...

. At the time of his debut, Tzolis became the 7th youngest player in the history of the Greece national team. On 11 November 2020, Tzolis scored his first international goal in a 2–1 victory against

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

Personal life

His parents, hail from

Dropull Dropull ( sq-definite, Dropulli; el, Δρόπολη or Δερόπολη ''Dropoli'' or ''Deropoli'') is a municipality in Gjirokastër County, in southern Albania. The region stretches from south of the city of Gjirokastër to the Greek–Albani ...

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Greece's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Tzolis goal''

Honours

Club

PAOK *

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup ( el, Κύπελλο Ελλάδος Ποδοσφαίρου), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Kypello Elladas is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second most im ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Individual

* PAOK MVP of the Season: 2020–21 * Super League Greece Young Footballer of the Season:

* Greek Cup top scorer:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tzolis, Christos 2002 births Living people Footballers from Thessaloniki Greek footballers Greece youth international footballers Greece international footballers Association football forwards PAOK FC players Norwich City F.C. players FC Twente players Super League Greece players Premier League players Greek expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Greek expatriate sportspeople in England Greek expatriate sportspeople in Germany Greek expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands