Farewell after three years: top talent leaves BVB for Greece | OneFootball

Farewell after three years: Christos Kostoglou is leaving Borussia Dortmund and returning to his homeland. There, the 17-year-old midfielder will have big shoes to fill. In the long term, he is expected to fill the gap left by a new BVB signing.

While the Black and Yellows recently signed two highly rated Greek attacking talents in Konstantinos Karetsas (18) and Giannis Konstantelias (23), Kostoglou is heading in the opposite direction. The U19 player is joining PAOK Thessaloniki. The reigning runners-up announced the move on Tuesday (22 September). It was that very club from which Borussia only recently managed to pry away Konstantelias.

Kostoglou has already been in Thessaloniki for some time, where he has been training with the second team. Now, his return to PAOK is officially a done deal. The German-Greek player was already part of the “Dikefalos” youth academy at the age of seven before emigrating to Germany with his family.

Farewell against their Ruhr rival

The returnee played for Rot-Weiss Essen, Fortuna Düsseldorf and Borussia Mönchengladbach. In the summer of 2023, he joined BVB. He made a total of 24 appearances for the Westphalians’ U17 side (12 goals, 8 assists). Kostoglou then went on to make seven appearances for the U19 team (without a goal contribution) – most recently on 15 August 2026 in the 1-0 win over Schalke 04 in the DFB youth league.

Photo: IMAGO

Kostoglou is a Greek youth international and is expected to take part in the U17 World Cup, which will be held in Qatar in November 2026. It will be a first for the Southeastern Europeans, as they have never before qualified for a U17 World Cup.

According to information from the Greek outlet Gazzetta, Kostoglou is joining PAOK on a free transfer, where he has signed a three-year contract. The club’s decision-makers think highly of the youngster and are hoping he will make noticeable progress over the coming seasons.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.