One of the deals that went 'under the radar' last January was the signing of 19-year-old Greek goalkeeper Nikos Botis from Inter. José Luis Medibár took over Olympic Last January and since then he has given more air to the team as a whole with his selections.
One of them is the inclusion of the youngster Botis in the goalkeeper trio, as the youngster from Larissa is now firmly established, along with Alexandros Paschalakis and Konstantinos Tzoulakis, in the Olympiacos squad for the team's matches.
In fact, the inclusion of Botis in the first team's goalkeeper trio is not the only change for the Basque technician. Since the rematch with Maccabi Tel Aviv in Serbia and the heavy defeat for Pirios in the qualifiers, Mendilibar has given Tzoulakis a starting shirt, in place of Paschalakis, who is suffering from shoulder problems. An example of how the Olympiacos coach does not look at… the ages of the “ace” of his team.
Flight to Piraeus
Botis has been with PAOK's academies since he was 10 years old and was 'spotted' at Ajax Larissas' academy in his hometown. In 2020, at the age of 16, the young goalkeeper attracted the attention of Inter and forced them to invest 350,000 euros to include him from the Thessaloniki team, until they offered him a professional contract.
He stayed in the Milan senior team for about 2.5 years. He played 64 matches with the Academy and Team B teams, while last season he sat on the first team’s bench twice, in the two matches against Barcelona, in the Champions League groups.
From his coaches at PAOK's academies, to his Inter teammate, main goalkeeper and team legend Samir Hdanovic, everyone is talking about Botti's abilities. His physical attributes are impressive (he is 1.96 tall), and at the same time he is also very good with the ball at his feet.
All this, combined with his overall outlook, has not gone unnoticed by Menitelibar, who has slowly but surely made him a member of the first team, with former third-choice goalkeeper Papadoudis, who plays more for the reserve team.
Botis, who is already 19 years old, has offers from abroad, while he is also an international with the K19 and K18 squad for our national team, making 8 appearances in total. Now he will have the opportunity to continue working at a high level at Olympiacos. Today (3/4) Confrontation with Mars on mission again He continues to work with the first team staff with the aim of obtaining opportunities in the future.
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