Panathinaikos has signed three Greek players in an effort to strengthen its Greek core.
Specifically, the Greens state
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“As part of its long-term plan to strengthen its Greek core, Panathinaikos AKTOR Basketball Club announces the signing of Giorgos Makaratzis, Manolis Moutafis, and Andreas Panagiotopoulos. These are three talented young athletes, for whom our team will develop a plan for their growth and improvement through loan assignments to other teams.
Giorgos Makaratzis (19 years old, 1.88 m) was a key player on the national youth and junior teams and, in fact, at the 2025 EuroBasket for Juniors in Belgrade, he was named the tournament’s top passer with an average of 7.2 assists. During the 2025–2026 season, he played in the A2 league with Lavrio, where he was transferred from the DEKA Academy (2023–25), with which he won the Greek Junior Championship. He began playing basketball for Asteras Kavala before moving to Thessaloniki to play for PAOK (2021–23).
Manolis Moutafis (19 years old, 1.96 m) was also a key player on the junior national teams, and during the 2025–26 season he played for Lavrio, having come up through the DEKA Academy. During the 2024–2025 season, he won the Greek Junior Championship with DEKA and was even was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the final tournament held in Naxos. His first team was Herodotos, followed by Heraklion OAA, from which he moved to Thessaloniki to join DEKA in the summer of 2022.
Andreas Panagiotopoulos (19 years old, 1.92 m) is a product of K.A.O. Chalkidiki, with which he reached the final stages of the Panhellenic Championships with the Boys’ and Juniors’ teams, as well as the national team preliminary selection after two very successful seasons in National League 1. In fact, during the 2024–25 season, he was the leading scorer in Group 3. The first half of last season (2025–26) found him playing for Lavrio, while he finished the season with KAOCH.”
*photo source: KYPE
