Panayioti "Panos" Armenakas ( el, Παναγιώτης "Πάνος" Αρμενάκας; born 5 August 1998) is a professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who plays as a right winger for USL Championship club Loudoun United FC. Born in the United States, he has most recently represented Australia at youth level. Armenakas has played youth football for

Sydney Olympic Sydney Olympic Football Club is an Australian semi-professional association football, soccer club, based in Belmore, New South Wales, Belmore, Sydney, New South Wales, that plays in the National Premier Leagues NSW. The Club was founded as Pan- ...

, Watford and Udinese. Originally, Armenakas represented Greece internationally before switching to Australia.

Early life

Armenakas was born in

Newport Beach, California Newport Beach is a coastal city in South Orange County, California. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries however today, it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island, Newport ...

, United States, before moving to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, New South Wales, Australia at a young age. He is of Greek descent.

Club career

Youth

Armenakas started his youth career playing for

, after being scouted in a park by ex-Socceroo

Jim Patikas Dimitris "Jimmy" Patikas (Greek language, Greek: Δημήτρης "Τζίμης" Πατίκας) is a former Australian football (soccer), football player. Renowned for his exceptional speed and for being the first established Australian playe ...

. At the age of six, he was invited to spend three weeks training with FC Barcelona's elite juniors squad. While in Europe, he also spent time with

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

. Armenakas trained with the Milan Soccer School in Sydney under

Andrea Icardi Andrea Icardi (born 14 June 1963) is an Italian professional football coach and a former player, who played as a midfielder. Icardi played 6 seasons for A.C. Milan in the first half of the 1980s, when the club was yo-yoing between Serie A and ...

and Misha Radovic, before trialing with A.C. Milan in early 2010. In late 2010, he moved to Europe, initially joining Brescia before signing with Watford's Youth Academy.

Udinese

After spending two years with Watford, Armenakas signed a three-year deal with Udinese. By signing with the Italian club, Panos became the youngest Australian ever to sign a professional contract in any of the top five leagues in Europe. In November 2015, Armenakas signed a contract extension, keeping him at Udinese until 2018. He was released at the end of the 2017-18 season having made no appearances for the senior team and only featuring in one matchday squad.

Loan to Tubize

In July 2017, Armenakas joined Tubize in the

Belgian First Division B The Challenger Pro League (previously known as ''1B Pro League'') is the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian First Division A. It was created by the Royal Belgian Football Association in 201 ...

on a one-year loan to have a chance at first team football. He was mostly an unused substitute during his time in Belgium, making six appearances.

Panathinaikos

After a trial period of three weeks Armenakas signed a -year contract with the Greek club at the beginning of January 2019. He left the Greens in January 2020 after only three appearances.

Return to Belgium

Armenakas joined Roeselare in September 2020 but the club collapsed just ten days later. After this he trained for eight weeks with

Zulte Waregem Sportvereniging Zulte Waregem (), commonly known as Zulte Waregem or by their nickname Essevee (), is a Belgian professional football club based in Waregem, West Flanders. Zulte Waregem plays in the Belgian First Division A. Their highest finish a ...

, before signing a contract until the end of the season in November, with an option for a further year. He scored twice in ten games before leaving the club at the end of the season.

Vendsyssel FF

On 7 August 2021, Armenakas joined

Danish 1st Division The 1st Division (''1. Division'') is the second-highest football league in Denmark, also known as NordicBet Liga for sponsorship reasons. From 1945 to 1991 the 1. Division was the name of the highest level of football in Denmark. With the forma ...

club Vendsyssel FF, signing a deal until June 2024.

International career

He has triple nationality and he is eligible to play for Greece, the United States and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Armenakas initially represented Greece at under-17 level, playing in two friendly matches against Turkey in August 2014. In late 2014, Armenakas accepted a call up to the Australian under-17 squad to play in the 2014 Nike International Friendlies tournament in the United States, where he made his debut in a loss to Brazil in November 2014. In October 2015, he was selected in Australia's 21-man squad for the

2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the sixteenth tournament of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, held in Chile from 17 October to 8 November 2015. Host selection The following four countries bid to host the tournament: * * * * Venues Along with proposing ...

in Chile. During this time, he was also selected by The Guardian as one of the fifty best young talents in world football. He progressed onto the under-23 national team, where he was selected for friendly games on multiple occasions but was not included for the final squads for the

2018 AFC U-23 Championship The 2018 AFC U-23 Championship (also known as the 2018 AFC U-23 Asian Cup) was the third edition of the AFC U-23 Championship, the biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) ...

2020 AFC U-23 Championship The 2020 AFC U-23 Championship was the fourth edition of the AFC U-23 Championship, the biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-23 national teams of Asia. ...

or the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Armenakas, Panos 1998 births Living people Sportspeople from Newport Beach, California Australian soccer players Australian expatriate soccer players Australia youth international soccer players Greek footballers Greek expatriate footballers Greece youth international footballers American soccer players Greek emigrants to Australia American people of Greek descent American emigrants to Australia Association football midfielders Sydney Olympic FC players Brescia Calcio players Watford F.C. players Udinese Calcio players A.F.C. Tubize players Panathinaikos F.C. players K.S.V. Roeselare players S.V. Zulte Waregem players Vendsyssel FF players Challenger Pro League players Super League Greece players Belgian Pro League players Danish 1st Division players Greek expatriate sportspeople in England Greek expatriate sportspeople in Italy Greek expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Greek expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Australian expatriate sportspeople in England Australian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Australian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Australian expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Australian people of Greek descent