Norwich City have announced the signing of left-back, Dimitris Giannoulis from Greek Super League side, PAOK Thessaloniki FC.
Giannoulis signs initially on a loan until the end of the season with the two clubs negotiating a deal for the transfer to become permanent at the end of the season, if the Canaries are promoted to the Premier league.
Talk on social media suggests that there is an initial 500k euro loan fee with a transfer fee of seven million euros due if the deal becomes permanent, although this is just speculation.
Our new boy has 11 caps for the Greek national side and he is described in various reports I’ve read as being PAOK’s “prized asset.” Whether he turns out to be that good, well, we’ll just have to wait and see but the signs are good.
He has made 12 appearances for PAOK this season in the league, with another 4 coming in the Champions League where he scored in a 2-1 win over Benfica and 4 coming in the Europa League. Last season, he made 34 league appearances for the Greek side with another 10 appearances coming in both the domestic cup and European competition.
He is 25-years-old and 5’10” tall, with an unerring ability to cross the ball. He loves to get forward and appears to be in the correct mould for a Daniel Farke attacking left-back, having played as a left winger in the early part of his career.
As you can see by the video, he is an excellent crosser of the ball. There’s not too much in the way of defensive highlights in this montage but I suppose in the Championship at least, that’s not what he’ll spend most of his time doing!
To sign such a decent looking player in January when signing players is traditionally very difficult and on-loan too, albeit with an obligation to buy, looks to be a good bit of business.
OTBC