Maria Palama (born 14 June 2000) is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

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 ...

currently playing as a defender for

MTK Hungária Magyar Testgyakorlók Köre Budapest Futball Club or shortly MTK is a Hungarian football club based in Józsefváros, Budapest. The team currently plays in the Nemzeti Bajnokság II. The club's colours are blue and white. As one of the most su ...

in the

Női NB I The Női NB I ( hu, Női Nemzeti Bajnokság, for "Women's National Championship") is the top level women's football league in Hungary. Organized by the Hungarian Football Federation, it features eight teams. The champion qualifies for a spot in t ...

and the Greek national team.

Club career

;Pierides Mouses Maria Palama started her career at second division club Pierides Mouses. In 2013, the club was relegated to the third division, where it remained for the next two seasons. She left in the summer of 2015 after 2.5 years. ;Sepoliakos At the age of 15, she moved to

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

to play for newly-promoted A Division side Sepoliakos. After losing the first 7 games of the 2015/16 season, the club withdrew from the league. Palama decided to leave in December, only 6 months after she joined the team. ;Odysseas Glyfadas In the second half of the 2015/16 season, she joined fellow A Division side Glyfada. They finished 9th in the league, but due to a last-minute point deduction from

Chania Chania ( el, Χανιά ; vec, La Canea), also spelled Hania, is a city in Greece and the capital of the Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast of the island Crete, about west of Rethymno and west of Heraklion. The muni ...

, they moved up to 7th place, thereby avoiding relegation. ;Elpides Karditsas In the summer of 2016, she signed for A Division runners-up

Elpides Karditsas Elpides Karditsas is a Greek women's football club from the city of Karditsa Karditsa ( el, Καρδίτσα ) is a city in western Thessaly in mainland Greece. The city of Karditsa is the capital of Karditsa regional unit of region of Thess ...

. After a season-long battle for top spot, Elpides finished second behind PAOK. ;PAOK In 2017, she joined 12-time league champions PAOK. In her first and only season, she made 22 appearances and scored 4 goals, helping the team win their 4th consecutive championship. In August 2017, she made her

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. The ...

debut in a

qualifying round Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

match against

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

, when she came on as a substitute in the 81st minute for Elena Dimitrijević. PAOK qualified for the

knockout phase A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

, where Palama started both games as they lost 8–0 on aggregate to

Sparta Praha ) but refer to Spartans as "''Rudí''" ( en, The Dark Reds/The Maroons).'' Letenští'' , ground = Generali Česká pojišťovna Arena , capacity = 19,416 , clubname = Sparta Prague , image = Sparta Praha logo.png , image_size = 160px , fu ...

. ;Empoli In the summer of 2018, she made her first move abroad, joining

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

club

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The comm ...

, who competed in

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

. In her first season she only made 6 appearances as her team finished second in the league and won promotion for the

2019–20 Serie A The 2019–20 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 118th season of top-tier Italian football, the 88th in a round-robin tournament, and the 10th since its organization under an own league committee, the Lega Serie ...

. She picked up an

ACL injury An anterior cruciate ligament injury occurs when the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is either stretched, partially torn, or completely torn. The most common injury is a complete tear. Symptoms include pain, an audible cracking sound during inju ...

during international duty. She also made 15 appearances for the U19 team, including 3 in the 2019 Viareggio Cup, and scored 2 goals. ;Diósgyőr In 2020, she moved to

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

and

side

Diósgyőri VTK Diósgyőr-Vasgyári Testgyakorlók Köre, more commonly Diósgyőri VTK () is a Hungarian sports club from Diósgyőr district of Miskolc best known for its football team. Founded in 1910 by the local working class youth, the team plays in the ...

. During her 2 seasons at the club, she played 42 times and scored 6 goals. In the 2020/21 season, they finished 4th after losing to Astra Hungary in a match for 3rd place. In the 2021/22 season, they finished 5th and failed to qualify for the playoffs round. In the 2021

Hungarian Cup The Hungarian Cup ( hu, Magyar Kupa) is the Hungarian cup competition for football clubs. It was started by the Hungarian Football Association, the ''Magyar Labdarúgó Szövetség,'' in 1909, eight years after the commencement of the Hungarian ...

, they reached the semifinals where they lost to Astra Hungary. ;MTK In 2022, she joined

club

. In the 2022/23 season, she made 25 appearances and scored 4 goals. MTK finished 3rd in the league after beating Puskás Akadémia in the third-place match.

International career

Maria Palama made her debut for the Greek U17 team on 6 October 2016 against

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

in the

2017 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification The 2017 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualifying competition was a women's under-17 football competition that determined the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Czech Republic in the 2017 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship ...

. She scored her first international goal in a 2–0 win over

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. In total, she made 6 appearances and scored 1 goal for Greece U17. She made her debut for the Greek U19 team on 12 September 2017 against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

in the

2018 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship qualification The 2018 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship qualifying competition was a women's under-19 football competition that determined the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Switzerland in the 2018 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship fin ...

. She also played in the

of the 2019 edition. In total, she made 9 appearances for Greece U19. She made her senior debut for

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

on 17 September 2021 against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in the

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification process determines 30 of the 32 teams which will play in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, with the co-hosts Australia and New Zealand qualifying automatically. It is the ninth FIFA Women's World Cup, ...

. In total, she has represented

14 times.

Honours

;Elpides Karditsas * A Division; runner-up: 2016/17 ;PAOK * A Division (1): 2017/18 ;Empoli *

; runner-up: 2018/19

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Palama, Maria 2000 births Living people Footballers from Central Macedonia Women's association football goalkeepers Greek women's footballers Greece women's international footballers People from Pieria (regional unit)