Friday, August 2, 2013

Olympiakos and now Panathinaikos are interested in Papapetrou

Just as I promised you the war is on.


It seems that Olympiakos and Panathinaikos the hunt for the next prospect is far from over for the 2 wealthy rivals of the Greek league. They both got money to spend but it seems that the team that will splash out the most cash will win this one.

Ioannis Papapetrou(2.03-F) is the new Kostas Papanikolaou in a way. Surely they're not the same type of player. Papanikolaou is more athletic but Papapetrou is a better scorer. Papapetrou much like Papanikolaou came off from a great season with Greek U20 National Team averaging 15.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 10 games in Estonia. Greece didn't win a medal but the Texas Longhorns freshman got a prime chance to showcase his talent being the top scorer of the team alongside Greek draft sensation Giannis Antetokounmpo and fellow hot prospect Lefteris Bochoridis.

Olympiakos made an offer for Papapetrou already according to Greek media for 1 million euros and 5 seasons. According unconfirmed rumors by Olympiakos affiliated media the offer was increased to 1.2 millions euros for 5 seasons. If you ask me that's a ridiculous first pro contract for a player that hasn't played a single minute as a pro nor has he had a stellar year as a freshman. He hasn't done bad with 8.3 points and 4.4 rebounds last season but still it's a bit extreme.

But it gets even more extreme if the rumors are true about the offer of Panathinaikos that is for 4 seasons and a total of 1.5 million euros. If this averages at 375,000 euros per season then we're talking about a ridiculous amount of money for a 19 year old untested player so this makes me think that it's probably not true. Players like Vladimir Jankovic or Nikos Pappas surely don't have contracts this size and they actually got medals from their National Team excursions and they're tested through and through in the Greek league. So they might have made an offer or got an agent to "spread" the rumor but I seriously doubt the offer is that big.

Personally I don't believe that makes sense but whatever team sign Papapetrou they'll win the transfers war of this summer. Unless of course the other team sign Vezenkov that is probably a much safer investment and a much better prospect. I guess we'll wait and see.

P.S. I keep reading that the agent of Papapetrou said this and the agent of Papapetrou relayed that offer etc. How does an NCAA player have an agent?

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