Kostas Katsouranis

Kostas Katsouranis

Katsouranis with PAOK in 2013
Personal information
Date of birth	(1979-06-21) 21 June 1979 (age 37)
Place of birth	Patras, Greece
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Playing position	Midfielder / Defender
Youth career
	Doxa Chalandritsa
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1996–2002	Panachaiki	123	(14)
2002–2006	AEK Athens	110	(29)
2006–2009	Benfica	80	(10)
2009–2012	Panathinaikos	88	(18)
2012–2014	PAOK	47	(6)
2014	Pune City	14	(4)
2014–2015	Atromitos	22	(3)
2015	Heidelberg United	0	(0)
Total		485	(84)
National team‡
2000–2002	Greece U21	22	(1)
2002–2015	Greece	116	(10)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 3 October 2015. ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 17 June 2015

Konstantinos "Kostas" Katsouranis (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος "Κώστας" Κατσουράνης; born 21 June 1979) is a former Greek professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder.

Internationally, Katsouranis represented the Greece national team between 2002 and 2015. He was a member of the Euro 2004 winning squad, and also represented Greece in Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup, Euro 2012 and the 2014 World Cup. With 116 appearances, he is a member of a closed club with players that had more than 100 caps in the history of the Greek national team.

Katsouranis can play in various positions, characteristic shared with Ruud Gullit as a result of the combination of his technique, speed and strength. He has been described as "a reasonable goal threat despite being notionally a Midfielder". A fine passer of the ball, Katsouranis is also strong in the air and has excellent positioning defensively. However, it is his natural attacking instinct that makes him such a valuable footballer, able to ghost into the box with regularity despite usually playing in a deep-lying midfield role. Over his club career and at times for the national team, he has proved to be a natural finisher, scoring a variety of goals and crucial ones at that. His ability to offer an attacking threat without compromising his defensive duties means he is the embodiment of a box-to-box midfielder.

He was not even 17 years old when he debuted in the 1996–97 season for the Patras-based club Panachaiki. He spent six seasons there and, by the third, was a regular starter.

When his contract with Panachaiki expired, Katsouranis decided that it was time to move forward to a bigger club. He opened negotiations with Panathinaikos, but the coach, Fernando Santos, decided to sign Portuguese Carlos Chaínho, a player he knew when at FC Porto, which meant Katsouranis' transfer would not be finalized.