Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Nickname: Papa) was born on 06\/09\/1988 in Kalamata. His height is 1,86 cm, his weight 85 kg, he is a defender and at the moment he plays in Germany with the shirt of Borussia Dortmund
\nTHE EARLY YEARS
\nFrom his first steps, everyone could see his love for sports. Socrates, was a child with energy and vigor. His childhood was great, having a family which gave him everything he needed to be happy. Everything indicated that both he and his brother would become worthy successors of their family businesses, but his love for sports changed their plans. But his time for football had not yet come.
\nHis relationship with sports started with athletics. There, his trainers, taught him the principles of sports and helped him form a correct body type. The hours of training rewarded him with nationwide distinctions in the decathlon and the heptathlon. But having an introverted character and looking for a different way out of the individualism, he begins to be involved with the sport that includes running, hard exercise, discipline and simultaneously game and teamwork. Football!
\nHIS CAREER
\nHe started his career with Aiantas Kalamata, participating in the second local championship in the position of the striker. That year he celebrates 24 personal goals. At the same time he participates to the team of the Joint Group of Messinia. Apollon Petalidiou does at that time the most important course of its establishment and participates in the Fourth National Championship, and on loan from Aiantas, they decide to add Socrates to the club. It is that year when, with his performances, he attracted the interest of the youth National Team. It is there that the coaches, because of the developed of his body shape, will try him for the first time in as a defender. \u00a0The following year, the interest of AEK’s Fernando Santos, will make him sign a contract with the club on 21 June 2005. His dream to play for a big club comes true. He knows he has to work even harder and prove to the coach that he deserves a place in the defense of AEK.
\nHis debut was on October 26th 2005, and came with his first ever goal! In January 2006, however, the coach decided that Sokratis needs to gain experience, so the club granted him on loan at Niki Volou for six months in the Second National Division. He could not hide his disappointment, but he did not give up. He played in 11 games, and in July 2006 he returned to AEK, by the new coach Lorenzo Serra Ferrer. With the Spanish coach, he worked even harder, and won his place in the defense. This year 2006-2007, he made 14 appearances in the league and played in important games of the Champions League.
\nThe next year, 2007-2008, was very important as it is the year of his establishment in the defense of AEK. He made 24 appearances in the league and 8 in Europe. On August 1st, 2008, the management of AEK and Sokratis will agree his transfer to the Italian club Genoa. It is the beginning of an international career. His debut at the Italian championship will be on September 27th 2008 with the shirt of Genoa. His name is very long and difficult, and thus the selection of SOKRATIS, appears on the jersey with the number 15. At Genova, in two seasons, he made 51 appearances in the demanding Campionato, 3 in Coppa Italia and 5 appearances in European games.
\nThe next stop in his career is the great AC Milan, one of the biggest European clubs. His first day at the training center of the group, the Milanelo will be etched in his mind. He trains alongside world-class players like Seedorf, Nesta, Inzaghi, Pirlo, Ibrahimovic, Ronaldinho and many others. His appearances with the shirt of AC Milan were not many, but the experience he gained as a person and a footballer was great. Knowing that between giants it is difficult to have continuous action, and after a great deal, he decided to continue his journey to a new team. Loaned by Italian Genoa, he moved to Germany, to play for Werder Bremen in the German league Bundesliga.
\nAfter one season with 30 appearances and one goal, Werder Bremen persuaded by his skills, offered him a new contract. The 2012-2013 season will end with 29 appearances at the German championship, 1 goal, and a lot of hard work. From 2013 he belongs to the team of Borussia Dortmund
\nGREEK NATIONAL TEAM
\nThe journey of his career with the colors of the Greek national team will start at a tournament in Nice, France in 2003, where he will participate with the team of U15. Switching to the National U17 will be a year later until called to strengthen the efforts of the national team U 19 by 2007. He participated in the U-19 European Championship 2007 in Austria, and with his teammates he celebrated the second place. After that it was time for the U21 National team, and then the first team. In the National Greek team he debuted in early 2008 at a friendly match against the Czech Republic, after being called by the coach Otto Rehhagel, while he still was an active member of the U21 until 2009. Two of the most important competitions in which he has taken part with the national team are the World Cups of 2010 in South Africa and 2014 in Brazil<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Nickname: Papa) was born on 06\/09\/1988 in Kalamata. His height is 1,86 cm, his weight 85 kg, he is a defender and at the moment he plays in Germany with the shirt of … Read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[21,37,60,105,42,119,47],"class_list":["post-597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-players-gr","tag-21","tag-37","tag-60","tag-105","tag-42","tag--sos-","tag-47","infinite-scroll-item","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50","resize-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}