Papanikolaou: “Olympiacos is a family for me, it’s practically half my life!”

With an original and beautiful action, the KAE Olympiacosputting its players through… interrogation about what their lives were like at the age of ten!

The first to participate in this interview was none other than the leader of the “red and whites”, Kostas Papanikolaouwith the 34-year-old forward talking about his life in Grevena, his habits, hobbies, his relationship with sports, but also about what exactly does Olympiacos mean to him!

In detail what he said:



I was 10 years old… “in Grevena”.

I lived together… “with my parents, my brother. Well, I had very nice, very carefree years. Beautiful city. I had my friends, nice, beautiful, game all day.”

The pets we had back then… “we had no pets.”

I went to school… “I was 10 years old in elementary school, yes. First primary school of Grevena. Honored!”.

My best friend’s name was… “Giorgos Blantos and he is my best man to this day. We’ve been together since kindergarten.”

People were calling me… “PapaNik and svolo were calling me at one point, but I don’t know why.”

The basketball team I played on… “I hadn’t started basketball yet at the age of 10, the truth is. I played volleyball at the Gymnastic Club of Grevena. And then I started playing basketball at Proteas Grevena Sports Club”.

My favorite player was… “At ten, to tell you the truth, I wasn’t watching basketball.”

My favorite program on TV was… “Look then, at that time we were watching Men and De. We also saw Intrepid with Tarousa!”.

For breakfast I ate at that age… “I drank a glass of milk and then ate a cheese pie during the first break.”

I was going on vacation… “Our vacations all those years were at New Resources Pieria, an amazing beach. We had a great time. We used to sit there for a week, mom would bring it from the village and we would bring meatballs, stuffed, stuff like that, it was a mess.”

In my wallet I had… “I didn’t have a 10 year old wallet guys. Any pocket money my dad gave me went straight to electronics.”

I was going to bed… “let’s say at 10”.

What I loved to do at the age of 10 was… “Okay game all day. Out. My brother and I played a lot at home, but we were kids who wanted company, we wanted to play with our friends. We played terribly then in Grevena, we played terrible games, chasing, with a ball I remember. The chaser had a ball and we set boundaries in the city and the chaser had to hit you with the ball. But the limits were big, we ran through the Grevena, through the Lagadia, through the like. We also played hide and seek and tin cans! Which was what? It was a pressed tin, which we used as a sign. There was the one guarding. It was like hide and seek but with this, so what was going on to free them all, if we were playing 5 people and they got 4, the last one left had to go kick that one before the other stepped on. Very nice game, it’s nicer than I can describe it to you.”

The dumbest thing I’ve ever done… “I had broken my arm! He had a big downhill there in Grevena. I had a friend’s bike. And I was going downhill. In Grevena, if you look on Google Maps, there are some big downhills that lead to the central square. And I was going down from there. And in front of me was a grandfather. The bike didn’t have brakes, I was yelling at grandpa to get out of the front, grandpa didn’t listen to me and in order not to fall on grandpa, I went to ride on the sidewalk, trying to avoid him, I went headfirst, I fell down with hand and I broke it.”

The man I was copying was… “Okay my brother, as an elder, I had him as a role model.”

My favorite place on earth was… “My village. The village of my father Dialecto Trikala and my mother Fotada Trikala. If I had to choose one of the two it would be the Dialect.”

My worst habit was… “My worst habit was biting my nails.”

My favorite game was… “besides my secret, favorite game back then was, you know, where we used to get together and play football, let’s say, with my friends in the square.”

I was looking forward to dinner being… “what we had, what do they call it, we had it as a special, it was made once in a while, it was the pizza”.

If I had 100 euros I would waste it… “It depends on the season. Back when panini cards were around, I would pay 100 euros for a panini. Otherwise, chocolates.”

But sports I liked were… “the volleyball I was playing at that time. I had also done high jump a little later which I also really enjoyed. Football always attracted me, but I never played, I never got involved, etc. To go to some group”.

Apart from sports, I liked… “when I was little, in my village, I liked to help in the church. I went to church because I liked to help. Because my friend I had from the village was a grandfather, so when I went either at Christmas or Easter or in the summer, I liked to go.”

What is Olympiacos for you: “Olympiacos, for me, is family. It’s my second home, it’s memories, it’s emotions, it’s beautiful moments, it’s difficult moments, it’s great moments. It’s basically half my life. It’s my whole life in sports. It’s something unique.”

?????????>? How was the life of Kostas Papanikolaou at 10? What sport did he like? What was the biggest… blunder he had ever made? You will find all the answers here…https://t.co/q4Kns6ESJU#OlympiacosBC #WeAreOlympiacos #TogetherWeFight

— Olympiacos BC (@Olympiacos_BC) January 6, 2025