Arsenal’s new £2m signing Konstantinos Mavropanos has thanked the club for signing him from Greek side PAS Giannina and giving him the chance to play football at the top level.
Mavropanos completed his £2m move from PAS Giannina last week and joined Arsenal training for the first time on Friday.
While it’s expected that the 20-year-old defender will go out on loan to Werder Bremen soon, for the time being, the significance of the move isn’t lost on the Greece u21 international.
“From my heart I would like to thank the Arsenal officials for the great honour they’ve shown because they’ve placed me in the family of a huge club with millions of fans all over the world,” he told Nova Sports.
“I am very touched. I will give all my strength with my performances to repay this honour and trust in order to make the club and its supporters happy.
“I had the luck to make my first professional steps at PAS Giannina, a club that has a tradition to offer young players the opportunity for a big step in their careers.
“Mr [Giorgios] Christovasilis [PAS owner], Mr [Giannis] Petrakis [PAS coach], my team-mates and the entire city of Ioannina stood by my side. I’m grateful and thank you to all.
“I’d also like to publicly thank my agent Mr Konstantinos Farras for all of his actions over the last few months which have brought today’s outcome. From now I am a Gunner!”
Mavropanos was at PAS Giannina since 2016 and made 16 appearances in the Super League while there, scoring three goals.
Although Arsenal do need a new centre-back,, with Per Mertesacker is taking over the academy at the end of the season, we never replaced Gabriel and Laurent Koscielny’s Achilles seems to have given up the ghost. I doubt Mavropanos is the first team solution we currently need. Especially given all the talk surrounding a loan move to Werder.
However, Sven ‘Diamond Eye’ Mislintat has brought him on board and the former Borussia Dortmund scout has been credited with unearthing such gems as Shinji Kagawa, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ousmane Dembele, Christian Pulisic and Mats Hummels. Therefore, I reckon we’re in good hands.
Regardless of whether we see Mavropanos play in red and white this season, he seems to have the right attitude.
Moving from the Greek league to Premiership is massive, financially as well as professionally.
The fact that he’s so thankful for the opportunity shows he’s humble enough to realise that.