As predicted, the media circus around the name of Kostas Papanikolaou(2.01-SF) is about to come to an end. The media in Greece were sure that Papanikolaou was going to be sold to Olympiakos to begin with and there was even a bold statement from one website that he had already been sold.. Almost a week later and Papanikolaou is still a player of Aris.
Media affiliated to Olympiakos are backtracking now, saying that the demands of Aris were too great (1.2 million euros) and so Panathinaikos is the team that is ahead in the game. The media that are affiliated to Panathinaikos are only speculating that the president of Aris will discuss this with the administration of Panathinaikos upon his next visit to Athens but they are saying that Aris is asking 1 million euros to release the player. They're also saying that Papanikolaou will stay in Aris unless the president of Aris changes his mind..
Athlitikanea.gr published today an extract of statements that the player's agent made in the newspaper "Thessaloniki" saying that there was official interest in the player from Caja Laboral, Real Madrid and Barcelona. When he was asked about Olympiakos and Panathinaikos he said that there was NO official interest from either of the teams.
Papanikolaou is expected to be excluded from the final roster of the National Team of Greece and Dimitris Tsaldaris(1.95-SG) is expected to be excluded as well. Both of them are rumored to be heading back to Aris and Tsaldaris might accept the offer that was made to him back in July.
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