Panathinaikos: This year’s transfers “carry” a winning mentality and 36 titles

While Panathinaikos has been winning the Greek Super League week after week since the start of this season and gradually building up this “9X9”, an “opinion” has been cultivated in the (outside the club) “atmosphere”. “…in the end it doesn’t last”.

Especially since the evening of September 4, when he was now alone at the top of the table (after PAOK’s draw at “Vikelidis”), but also after his 2-1 win over AEK a week later (9/11), all this started to be supplemented by the proverb “… let’s see how he lasts to the final because he wasn’t taught a ‘championship mentality’.”.

Every argument in this conversation is debatable. And in fact the Panathinaikos of the last 12-13 years, with few exceptions (2010/11 until the derby with the famous decision for Katsouranis’ goal, 2011/12 until Leto’s injury, 2014/15 until the -3 penalty, received after the derby with Olympiakos, 6 games before the final) he wasn’t as competitive as he needed to be to be able to win the national titles.

For many and different reasons, which have been analyzed many times over the past few years and have to do either with major wrong decisions and successive changes in the projects, or with the enormous financial problems that plagued the club, or with the (for many years ) Overall situation that had formed in Greek football.

All this changed under Ivan Jovanovic

However, it is true that this is gradually changing in the days of Ivan Jovanovic and Panathinaikos (again) building a winning character and mentality after years. The start was made at the end of last season with victories in all “big” games against Olympiakos, AEK, PAOK, Aris and with the conquest of the cup, the team’s first title after an 8-year “drought”.

But the most important thing is that Panathinaikos didn’t stop there, but a targeted, “strategic” direction took place last summer in order to further strengthen the squad of the team with the “ingredients” mentioned above.

And yes, the Panathinaikos of recent years may not be used to “championship conditions” as their competition claims, but they now have players who are used to that kind of pressure.

The “Clover” put a total of 9 young footballers (not counting Zonas Toro, who was loaned to Levadeako) in its “machine” until September 15 last year – when the transfer “window” closed – 6 – minus of young Cherin, Tsokai and Trouillet, who did not play on first-line teams – added Panathinaiko’s championship “feats”.

With the exception of the three 23-year-olds, the remaining six newly acquired players are more than “cooked” in championship terms, having won a total of 36 trophies in the sport in their careers to date!

And the transfers that will take place next January will ‘build’ on this logic, with Panathinaikos further enriching its potential with (at least two) players who will show championship ‘performances’ and a ‘winning mentality’.

Bernard of 11 major titles

At the top of this “unofficial” list is Bernard Duarte, who has won 11 titles to date: A Copa Libertadores (Latin America’s equivalent of the Champions League) in the 2012/13 season with Atlético Mineiro and teammates Ronaldinho and Gilberto Silva, with He played in 11 games, scoring 4 goals and 2 assists.

A confederations game with Brazil in 2013, beating world champions Spain 3-0 in the final. Three Ukrainian Championships with Shakhtar (2014, 2017, 2018), three Ukrainian Cups (2016, 2017, 2018) and three Ukrainian Supercups (2015, 2016, 2018). But also really great performances from the highest league in the world, the Premier League, where he played in an Everton jersey for three years, played 84 games, with 8 goals and 7 assists.

Sporar of 4 leagues in 4 countries

Slovenia’s ‘duo’ Andraz Sporar and Benjamin Verbic, who shot clean against Aris three days ago, have each won 9 titles in their careers. Sporar even has two more personal titles, as top scorer in the Slovenian Prva Liga with Olimpia Ljubljana (2016, 17 goals) and in the Slovakian Fortuna Liga with Slovan Bratislava (2019, 29 goals).

At the same time, he has another very impressive statistic element: he has been crowned champion in 4 different championships so far! In particular, he was awarded in Slovenia (2016 – first half-season, Olimpia Ljubljana), Switzerland (2016 – second half-season, 2017, Basel), Slovakia (2019, Slovan Bratislava) and Portugal (2021, Sporting Lisbon). He also took part in winning a Swiss Cup (2017), Slovak Cup (2018), Portuguese Cup (2021) and Portuguese League Cup (2021).

Sporar’s other great fact: In the 2020/21 season he took all the trophies and took all the medals in Portugal playing for two different teams! In the first half he played in the league and cup with winners of both competitions Sporting Lisbon and in the second half he was loaned out to Braga, with whom he won the Portuguese League Cup!

Verbich’s unique 9 titles

Benjamin Verbich’s trophy cabinet is also full, he has 9 titles! Concretely, it has: 2 Danish Championships (2016, 2017), 2 Danish Cups (2016, 2017), 1 Ukrainian Championship (2021), 2 Ukrainian Cups (2020, 2021) and 2 Ukrainian Super Cups (2019, 2020).

Lodingin and the 5 Cups with Zenith

Next up is Yuri Lodygin, who won 5 trophies in Russia with Zenit St. Petersburg. Notably, the Greek-Russian goalkeeper won 2 Russian Championships (2016, 2019), 2 Russian Super Cups (2016, 2017) and 1 Russian Cup (2016) and was the main goalkeeper of the Russian team and a permanent member of the Russian national team in most wins.

Gagne and Magnuson’s trophies

A championship, that of Romania in the 2016/17 season, also has Christian Ganea in his own trophy cabinet, who even caused the big surprise this year with Vitorul Costanza, whose key player he was. And in 2014 he helped Universitatea Craiova rise to the first division as champions.

As for Hordur Magnusson, he won an Italian youth championship (Primavera) with Juventus in 2013, but he also counts a Russian Super Cup with CSKA Moscow in 2019.