PAOK Sports Center (also known as Nea Mesimvria sports center) is the
training ground
A training ground is an area where professional association football teams prepare for matches, with activities primarily concentrating on skills and fitness. They also sometimes form part of a club's youth system, as clubs consider it important t ...
and
academy
An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...
headquarters of Greek
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
club
PAOK FC
P.A.O.K. FC ( el, ΠΑΕ ΠΑΟΚ, Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινουπολιτών, '' Panthessaloníkios Athlitikós Ómilos Konstadinoupolitón'', "Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of ...
, located in
Nea Mesimvria Nea Mesimvria ( el, Νέα Μεσημβρία) is a village in the west suburbs of Thessaloniki, Greece. It is part of the municipality Chalkidona
Chalkidona ( gr, Χαλκηδόνα) is a municipality in the Thessaloniki regional unit, Greece. ...
,
Chalkidona
Chalkidona ( gr, Χαλκηδόνα) is a municipality in the Thessaloniki regional unit, Greece. The seat of the municipality is Koufalia. The town is a hub for trucking traffic around the Thessaloniki area.
Municipality
The municipality Chalk ...
,
Thessaloniki regional unit,
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 ...
. It is the first training center owned by the club. Before that, PAOK first team and the academies were renting several training centers in Thessaloniki. Construction on the Nea Mesimvria area began in February 2009, and was opened in September 2011 where the first coaching session took place. Since then, there have been major additions at the center, including a bigger medical centre, larger physiotherapy room, diagnostic ultrasound, hyperbaric chamber for recovery, cryotherapy room, pool and hydrotherapy room.
Overview
The idea of a training center, which would belong to the club existed for many years. Under the presidency of
Theodoros Zagorakis
Theodoros Zagorakis ( el, Θεόδωρος Ζαγοράκης ; born 27 October 1971) is a Greek politician and former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He was the captain of Greece that won UEFA Euro 2004, and was also presid ...
the dream became a reality. In June 2008 it was decided to construct PAOK's new sports centre at Nea Mesimvria, a suburb of the city of Thessaloniki. The centre covers an area of 70
stremma
The stremma ( stremmata; el, στρέμμα, ''strémma'') is a Greek unit of land area equal to 1,000 square metres. Historically, stremmata were not standardized, and may have been anywhere from .
History
The Ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek ...
(17,3
acres
The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ya ...
). There are seven pitches, one of them with artificial turf. Six of them have floodlights. Initially, the training center was incomplete, mainly on medical and technical issues of player rehabilitation. Today is a modern and integrated training center, which includes:
* The central building stages the dressing rooms, the gym and the coach's office.
* The second building houses the dressing rooms of the youth sections.
* There are also auxiliary buildings for the senior team, the recreation building, the guard-house, restaurant, bar, indoor pool, sauna, spa pool, recreation hall, play rooms, storage areas and conference room.
* There is also a medical centre, physiotherapy room, diagnostic ultrasound, hyperbaric chamber, cryotherapy room, hydrotherapy room, underwater treadmills.
* Six floodlit football fields with natural grass turf, and 1 football field with synthetic turf.
See also
*
Toumba Stadium
Toumba Stadium ( el, Στάδιο Τούμπας) is a football stadium in Thessaloniki, Greece. It is property of AC PAOK. The official name of the stadium is simply PAOK Stadium ( el, Στάδιο ΠΑΟΚ), but through the years it has become ...
*
PAOK Academy
PAOK Academy is the football academy system of Greek professional football club PAOK consisting of eleven official youth teams (Under-6/7, Under-8, Under-9, Under-10, Under-11, Under-12, Under-13, Under-14, Under-15, Under-17 and Under-20), base ...
References
{{PAOK FC
PAOK FC
PAOK sport center