MILAN - Sokratis Papastathopoulos is now a Milan player from today. The Greek central defender was born in Kalmata (Greece) on June 9, 1988 and joined Milan after two seasons with Genoa in Italy.
Papastathopoulos came through the AEK Athens youth ranks and made his debut on October 26, 2005 in the Greek Cup against PAS Giannina where he was on the scoresheet in a 3-0 win.
He gained further experience in 2006 when he played for second division side Niki Volos FC where he made 15 appearances.
He then returned to Athens for the remainder of the 2006-07 season and played 14 games in the league and three in the Champions League which just happened to include a 1-0 win against Milan who Carlo Ancelotti had claimed had gone to Athens to get used to the pitch which would be the venue for the final. In fact, that turned out to be the case as Milan defeated Liverpool in the final on May 23, 2007.
His experience in the Greek league ended on August 1, 2008 with a move to Italy and Genoa. His Serie A debut was on September 27, 2008 against Fiorentina. In these two years in Italy, Sokratis has become a regular for Genoa, making 51 appearances and scoring twice.
At international level, he forged ahead in 2007 when he was captain of the Under-19 side which reached the European Championship final in Austria. He made his senior debut on February 5, 2008 but his three caps were not enough to force him into the squad for Euro 2008. On November 19, 2008 he played for Greece against Italy in a 1-1 draw in Athens and was selected for the 2010 World Cup where he made two appearances and played 130 minutes.
Today, Papastathopoulos began his new experience in a Milan shirt. So Welcome Sokratis and good luck for your adventure with the Rossoneri!
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