His final tonight Pre-Olympic Tournament between the Men’s National Team and Croatia (21:00) at the Peace and Friendship Stadium is a milestone for the Kostas Papanikolaou. The leader of the “official sweetheart” completes 150 caps tonight at Men’s level and enters the first 15 in appearances equaling the performance of Takis Koronaios.
Already in the premiere of the event, “Pap” surpassed his coach and former teammate in appearances, Vasilis Spanoulis. The forward of Olympiakos is the first active player of the National team in appearances with Andron, while Nick Kalathis follows with 144 from the 19th position.
Kostas Papanikolaou counts 248 appearances with all national teams. He made his debut on August 20, 2005 with the Pampaion National Team in a Friendly Tournament against Italy and with the Men’s National Team on August 12, 2009 in a friendly against Romania. He won the silver medal with the Junior National Team at the 2007 European Championship, the gold medal with the Young Men’s National Team at the 2009 European Championship (where he was also named MVP), while in the same year he won the silver medal at the U19 World Championship.
The first 20 entries in detail:
1. Panagiotis Giannakis 351
2. Panagiotis Fasoulas 244
3. Fanis Christodoulou 220
4. Nikos Zisis 189
5. Giorgos Sigalas 185
6. Antonis Fotsis 184
7. Liveris Andritsos 182
8. Dimitris Kokolakis 178
9. Giannis Bourousis 174
10. Nikos Galis 168
11. Manthos Katsoulis 165
12. Kostas Patavoukas 162
13. George Kastrinakis 158
14. Francis Albertis 155
15. Takis Koroneios 150
16. Kostas Papanikolaou 149
17. Michalis Giannouzakos 147
18. Vasilis Spanoulis 146
19. Nick Kalathis 144
20. Giorgos Trontzos 136
Source: Sport Fm
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