“A bad manager took me to the worst team”: Lemari wrote about what he went through at Panileiakos!

“A middleman who found my number and texted me, which I only saw when I finished training. He was so impatient that he had already sent me ten more messages and added another mediator to the conversation, saying that I was not serious because I had not responded. He hadn’t even introduced himself, but he wanted me to send him my passport details.

I didn’t have a good feeling but the contract offer from Panileiakos was good, the salary was quite good and I was happy to go to Greece because I was looking for something new after three years in the third division of Finland.

I asked another to consider the proposal. The latter made two comments to him, the mediator managed to adjust the contract, including an advance of 2,000 euros. We were amazed that everything went so smoothly.

I also checked his social media account. He published many deals. I finally realized that these posts were false. I had already announced my membership in Panileiakos, although no agreement had yet been reached. I didn’t know the club. I looked for information online but never had direct contact with them.

I thought: I don’t like this guy, but if all goes according to plan, I just have to pay him a commission. Then out of the blue he mentioned that I had to pay for the flight because the club refused to do it and he didn’t want to pay because another player had cheated him by not going. It was all very strange but I took the risk.

After a five-hour bus ride from Athens airport – he could have informed me before that – the athletic director met me and took me to my apartment. It was already night. When I woke up the next morning I realized how dirty everything was: there were cockroaches in the drawers, the shower had no hot water and part of the wall fell on me.

According to my contract, food was included, but the club only offered me one meal that day. My apartment also didn’t have a kitchen so I could prepare my own food. The training facilities were amateur-level: holes in the grass, broken lights. We trained at dusk, something dangerous.

But the worst thing was that some of my new teammates immediately told me that they were not paid and that many foreign players had already left. The Greek players also had problems. On my second day one of the Brazilian players left.

Although I hadn’t received the €2,000 deposit they promised me, they wanted me to play the game on Sunday, four days after I arrived. I thought: I’m not going to play until I get paid. But I changed my mind when I noticed the atmosphere in the stadium and they said everything will be fixed the next day. I played 70 minutes.

At half time I saw something extraordinary: the other Brazilian player was attacked by the president and his bodyguard. The player was shocked and gathered his things. Too much had happened to him in the four months he was there: he hadn’t been paid, his passport had been held by the club, he was only returned when his manager threatened to call the police. And then the president attacked him,” added the 27-year-old Frenchman.

“I understood too. This was already too much. Money no longer mattered. On Tuesday I told the president and the athletic director that I wanted to leave. The president wanted to give me some money, although much less than the 2,000 euros he owed me, but I did not accept it. I just asked him to allow me to go on a free transfer.

They lied to me again, stating that I had to wait because they didn’t have my documents yet. They also said that I had played the game with another player’s permission. I went to the office of the Hellenic Football Federation, got my documents and made an appointment to sign the papers.

They wanted to come to the apartment to collect the keys, but I waited outside, not wanting to join them inside. You never know what can happen there. The president arrived first, I showed him the paper and asked for his signature. He became furious.

Then we waited until the sports director came, who spoke English. They didn’t want to sign. The president lost his temper. He pushed me against the fence, grabbed me by the neck and fished in my pockets for the keys. Then her bodyguard appeared. The situation was becoming very dangerous. I handed over the keys and resigned from the company.

I packed my belongings and left Athens as soon as possible. I had recorded the incident with my phone without them realizing it. It seems that the president said to me, in Greek: “I will hang you by your feet” and “I will beat you”. They reported my case on social networks and it was picked up by the media”

I got a little paranoid because I didn’t know how far these people’s power went and I still had to wait a day for my flight home. In the end, this adventure cost me money: the club hadn’t paid me and I paid for the tickets and the extra night I stayed in Athens myself.

I heard that the Panileiako players refused to train after I left and that they had a long discussion with the coach. They also spoke to fans, who had come to the stadium to ask if my case was true. Apparently, the fans said they would try to change things. It would be great if that happened. I wouldn’t have gone through all this for nothing.

I still hope to find a new club. I can play anywhere except Greece because the president did not sign the documents. I have received messages from other players, telling me that they too have been cheated by the middleman and had to pay him money. I was lucky that I only agreed to pay him after I would have signed with the club: he took nothing from me.

Every week I get messages from people on LinkedIn and other social media platforms, with offers or contracts after a trial, but you have to be very careful and know who you trust.

Next time I’ll trust my gut. I immediately suspected that the middleman was a fraud, that he was treating me like a piece of meat. My brother even advised me not to go to Greece, because of all the strange things that happened before I went. I should have noticed the red flags.