October 6, 2024

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His last appearance was in Patras

His last appearance was in Patras

Giannis Ioannidis left for the big trip and Vassilis Sekondis goes back three and a half years and remembers his last public appearance…

The calendar shows today, October 4, 2023, and this is an auspicious day for Greek sports…

Xanthus is truly and honorably gone, and my mind cannot contain him!

The banking tycoon is now sailing the eternal seas, on a barge that started in Thessaloniki and ended up in Voula, with its last stop being the port of Patras…

What does Patra have to do with it? It happened and continues, because there was his last public appearance and it was recorded…

The clock stopped on the evening of February 1, 2020, when Ioannidis honored Kostas Petropoulos at the naming ceremony of the stadium located in the Kokoli area.

Clearly overwhelmed by the illness he was suffering from, Xanthos did not think of missing the event and graciously responded to the invitation of Petropoulos, who had coached him in the Challenge Round and the final stage of the 1981 EuroBasket in Istanbul, Bratislava and Prague accordingly and had liked him very much.

Giannis Ioannidis with Panagiotis Giannakis, Panagiotis Giannakis, Kostas Petropoulos and others
Vassilis Skondi Archive

He even said it publicly, and when I had the honor of presenting the event, I handed him the microphone…

“I really wanted it because it was elegant and luxurious, but I couldn’t take it to Ares. Fortunately it didn’t go to PAOK either.” He said with that sarcastic smile of his!

That night, Giannis Ioannidis enjoyed being surrounded by many of the players he had coached or played against, as well as coaches and agents.

No one could have imagined that he would never see him again…

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