In a not-so-distant era, when Lionel Messi’s star was shining at full brightness, somewhere around 2007–10, Greek sports journalists were “christening” every young, talented Greek footballer as the “new Messi.”
Back then, being young, short, fast, and good at dribbling was enough to immediately earn you that nickname.
Let’s remember some of them.
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In the summer of 2007, Larissa-born Vasilis Koutsianikoulis impressed with Ergotelis, and in 2009 he earned a huge transfer to PAOK.
Although he never lived up to expectations (he scored just over 30 career goals) he has gone down in the minds of Greek fans as the first “Greek Messi,” or the “poor man’s Messi.”
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That same year, another promising young footballer, who dazzled in his debut with Panathinaikos, was described by part of the press as the “Greek Messi.” It was Sotiris Ninis.
One of the biggest “what ifs” in Greek football, he played brilliant football for almost 3 years and then burned out.
With a total of 23 goals in 281 career matches, he is more like a “Greek Alexandre Pato.”
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Two years later, in 2009, a short, dribbling winger made his debut with Olympiacos and was genuinely impressive.
It was Giannis Fetfatzidis, and in him Olympiacos had found its own “Greek Messi,” or “Fesi” — yes, you read that right.
He clearly had better stats than the previous players, scoring close to 50 goals, but you still wouldn’t call him the “Greek Messi.”
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In 2010, the performances of the then-young Kostas Fortounis with Asteras Tripolis led Greek sports journalists to dub him the “Messi of Arcadia.”
A baller, but very unlucky because of a serious injury that held him back, he is the closest thing to Messi we had, while at the same time still very far away.
With close to 100 goals in nearly 400 appearances, you can at least call him extremely consistent. Years later, he even pulled off a mind-blowing dribble against the real Messi.
