Giannis Papanikolaou ( el, Γιάννης Παπανικολάου; born 18 November 1998) 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 defensive midfielder or central midfielder for Turkish Süper Lig club Çaykur Rizespor and the Greece national football team.

Club career

Platanias

On 23 April 2017, Papanikolaou made his official debut in a 3–1 home loss against PAOK. On 5 November 2017, he scored his first professional goal in a 5–1 away loss against

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number ...

Panionios

On 11 June 2019,

Panionios Panionios G.S.S. Football Club (Greek: ΠΑΕ Πανιώνιος Γ.Σ.Σ.), the ''Pan- Ionian Gymnastics Club of Smyrna'' (Πανιώνιος Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Σμύρνης, ''Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis'') ...

officially announced the signing of Papanikolaou on a free transfer. The young winger, who made 31 appearances during the 2018–19 season, scoring four goals and giving five assists, joined the club, following his refusal to renew his contract with

Platanias Platanias (Greek: Πλατανιάς) is a village and municipality on the Greek island of Crete. It is located about west from the city of Chania and east of Kissamos, on Chania Bay. The seat of the municipality is the village Gerani. Platania ...

Raków Częstochowa

On 11 August 2020, Papanikolaou joined Polish Ekstraklasa club

Raków Częstochowa Robotniczy Klub Sportowy Raków Częstochowa Spółka Akcyjna (commonly referred to as Raków Częstochowa, or simply Raków) is a Polish professional football club, based in Częstochowa, that competes in the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of na ...

, on a contract until the end of June 2021, and an available option of a four-years extension of the contract. On 8 February 2021, the club announced they have made use of the option and have extended his contract until the end of June 2025. On 12 February 2022, he opened the score with a kick in the left corner in an away 1–0 win game against

Radomiak Radom Radomiak Spółka Akcyjna (''Radomiak S.A.''), commonly known as Radomiak Radom, is a Polish football (soccer), football club based in Radom, Poland. The club was founded in 1910 and competes in the Ekstraklasa, the top level of Football in Poland ...

in the 20th second of the game. It was his first goal with the club in all competitions. During his four-year stay, Papanikolaou made 118 appearances for Raków across all competitions, and one for their reserve team, and contributed to their first-ever league title, two

national cup The English National Cup is an annual basketball knock-out competition held between professional, semi-professional and amateur teams from the various divisions of the National Basketball League. For most of the competition's history, the draw has ...

and two

Super Cup A super cup is a competition, usually but not exclusively in association football, which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competitions during the prev ...

wins.

Caykur Rizespor

On 13 June 2024, Turkish Süper Lig club Çaykur Rizespor announced they have reached an agreement with Raków to sign Papanikolaou on a three-year contract.

International career

Papanikolaou was called up by the senior Greece side for the

2022–23 UEFA Nations League The 2022–23 UEFA Nations League is the third season of the UEFA Nations League, an international association football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA in Europe. The competition is being held ...

matches against Northern Ireland on 2 June 2022, against Kosovo on 5 June 2022 and 12 June 2022 and against Cyprus on 9 June 2022.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Raków Częstochowa * Ekstraklasa:

2022–23 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 ...

* Polish Cup:

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 ...

, 2021–22 *

Polish Super Cup The Polish Super Cup (, ) is an annually held match between the champions of the Ekstraklasa and the Polish Cup winners or, if the Ekstraklasa champions also win the Polish Cup, the Cup's runners-up. As of 2021, the Polish Super Cup has been pl ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Raków Częstochowa II * IV liga Silesia I: 2021–22

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Papanikolaou, Giannis 1998 births Living people Footballers from Athens Greek men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Greece men's international footballers Greece men's youth international footballers Greece men's under-21 international footballers Super League Greece players Ekstraklasa players IV liga players Platanias F.C. players Panionios F.C. players Raków Częstochowa players Çaykur Rizespor footballers Greek expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Greek expatriate sportspeople in Poland Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Greek expatriate sportspeople in Turkey