Giorgos Koudas (Greek: Γιώργος Κούδας; born 23 November 1946) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He spent his entire career at PAOK. Due to his fierce competitiveness and his Macedonian heritage, he was nicknamed Alexander the Great.
Playing career
Club
Born in Agios Pavlos, Thessaloniki, Koudas began playing football for PAOK where he made his first-team debut in December 1963, aged 17.[1] Koudas, nicknamed Alexander the Great, spent his entire football career with PAOK, making 504 appearances in the Alpha Ethniki from 1963 to 1984, and 607 appearances in all competitions (PAOK all-time records).[2] Koudas won two out of nine Greek Cup finals he appeared in and in the 1972 Cup final, he scored both goals as PAOK defeated Panathinaikos 2–1 and earned their first domestic title in the club's history.[3]
During the summer of 1966, Olympiacos legally acquired Koudas from PAOK, approaching him directly without going into a negotiation with his club. PAOK president Giorgos Pantelakis never gave his consent for the transfer to be completed and for the next two seasons, Koudas participated only in Olympiacos friendly games. In the summer of 1968, after the intervention of the military junta of Athens, he returned to PAOK and led the great team of the 1970s to glorious days. Fueled by this incident, Olympiacos–PAOK rivalry is considered nowadays the fiercest intercity football rivalry in Greece.
He retired in 1984, aged 37, serving for over 20 years at PAOK.[4]
Koudas became the inspiration for a popular song by the Greek songwriter and PAOK supporter Nikos Papazoglou and lyricist Manolis Rasoulis.[5]
After he had retired, Koudas made a final appearance for the national team in a friendly against Yugoslavia on 20 September 1995.[8][9] That made him the oldest international player (at age 48) until George Weah (at age 51) beat the record in September 2018.[10]
