Konstantinos Manolasknown as Kostas, played in Italy with the shirts of Rome, Naples And Salernitanabut it is certainly the city and the team that remained most in his heart is the first, the one in which he played from 2014 to 2019 after establishing himself in his homeland between Thrasyvoulos, AEK Athens And Olympiacos, winning the Greek championship twice and the Greek Cup twice. In the Giallorossi he boasted 206 matches and 8 goals, but he will be remembered above all for one goal in particular, the one that allowed his team to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League 34 years after the last time. And never mind if things don’t go as all the Italians hoped against Liverpool, those quarter-finals will remain in history forever. After the 4-1 at Camp Nou, a match in which the defender also scored an own goal, Barcelona felt confident and was certain of passing, but something unique happened at the Olimpico on 10 April 2018 and so, after Dzeko and De Rossi, it was he who condemned the Blaugrana with a header.
The Naples in the summer of 2019 he paid 36 million euros to buy him, a monstrous sum for a central defender, from whom great things were therefore expected. In the end there will be 75 matches played with the Azzurri and 4 goals scored, decidedly more, on average, than those he scored with Roma. However, he will only stay in Campania for two and a half years, long enough to win an Italian Cup, despite not playing in the final due to physical problems. A very fast defender, also gifted with a good ability to read situations in advance, he will say goodbye in January 2022 after losing his place due to a performance below his standards and, above all, various physical problems.
To relaunch himself he chooses to return to his homeland, toOlympiacos, where he is welcomed like a king, he feels the trust of the environment and sets himself a task: to become champion of Greece again. The class of ’91 took to the pitch 14 times in all competitions and got what he wanted. Another 8 appearances and a radical change of life with the transition to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. From 2022 to 2024 he made 41 appearances, no goals, but won a United Arab Emirates President’s Cup, a United Arab Emirates League Cup and a United Arab Emirates Super Cup. In January 2024 his cycle ends and his career apparently seems destined to end or continue away from the spotlight of football that matters. Instead he accepts a new challenge thrown at him by his old manager Walter Sabatini and signs with Salernitana: 8 appearances in Serie A and an almost inevitable relegation to Serie B. A disaster that someone who has a career like his, with 42 appearances and a goal for the national team, could have easily avoided. Kostas Manolas turns 33 today.