Marked for Baba Rahman
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Aug 2027
PAOK refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 53 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Fedor Chalov in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market9 Aug 2027
Add another name to the list: Vegalta Sendai have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abdelhamid Sabiri. The answer from PAOK has not changed — yet.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Baba Rahman commits to PAOK for another 2 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market9 Aug 2027
The name of Soualiho Meïté keeps appearing in other people's back pages. PAOK say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Aug 2027
Jorge Sánchez wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at PAOK hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad2 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Baba Rahman commits to PAOK for another 2 years.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market2 Aug 2027
The name of Andrija Živković keeps appearing in other people's back pages. PAOK say nothing, which says plenty.
Market2 Aug 2027
Nobody at PAOK has picked up the phone to Baba Rahman
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what PAOK can pretend not to have heard.
Market28 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Tempers go at PAOK
Andrija Živković was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; PAOK are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Market28 Jun 2027
Add another name to the list: Panserraikos have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Anestis Mythou. The answer from PAOK has not changed — yet.
Loan watch28 Jun 2027
25 appearances away from home and 10 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom24 May 2027
Continental nights are coming to PAOK
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
Squad24 May 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and PAOK have had the benefit of it.
Squad24 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 May 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at PAOK heard it as anything else.
Squad10 May 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Apr 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad26 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and PAOK know it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Tempers go at PAOK
Giorgos Giakoumakis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Matheus Thuler asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” PAOK may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market1 Mar 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at PAOK heard it as anything else.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Tempers go at PAOK
Giorgos Giakoumakis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match30 Nov 2026
PAOK refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 26 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 204% of everything PAOK earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giorgos Giakoumakis, and the manager let it.
Match28 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Shots: 9. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Squad30 Nov 2026
4 goals and a season average of 7.24. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Shots: 6. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market26 Oct 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at PAOK, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match24 Oct 2026
8 unbeaten for PAOK
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation PAOK did not have in the autumn.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Tempers go at PAOK
Giannis Konstantelias was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A performance of 9.52 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match24 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Giorgos Giakoumakis. 2‑1 against OFI, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.58 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.49 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Loan watch26 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at PAOK, and 2 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market12 Oct 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at PAOK heard it as anything else.
Match10 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten PAOK
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.95 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Jiří Pavlenka
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A season average of 7.26 with 7 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match10 Oct 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match26 Sep 2026
Cup progress for PAOK
A 5‑1 win over Kifisia, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match23 Sep 2026
PAOK through in the cup
A 0‑0 win over Kifisia, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market28 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 25 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at PAOK
Andrija Živković was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 10.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.97, and no argument anywhere in the ground.