Dimitris Salpingidis

Dimitris Salpingidis (Δημήτρης Σαλπιγγίδης ; born 18 August 1981) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a forward.

He was known to be "a very quick and useful tool on the counter attack."

Born in Zagliveri, Salpingidis started out as a Greco-Roman wrestler before discovering his calling in football.

Salpingidis began his football career through the youth ranks of PAOK.

Before football Salpingidis was participating in wrestling in which he was very good at, with a dream of competing in the Olympics.

This club means everything for him as he explained : "I first played for the club in the 1990s and I feel very good there. My whole family and my childhood friends live in the town and I'm playing football for a team with big ambitions. PAOK are one of a select group of clubs with the most fanatical supporters in Europe. Throughout the whole of the north of Greece, people live for the team alone and nothing else."

On 30 September 1999 he marked his official debut against Lokomotivi Tbilisi with a goal in a 2–0 win.

Acknowledging his potential and in order to gain much needed experience, the team soon loaned him for two successive seasons to Kavala where he finished top scorer of the Second Division.

His plea for a return to PAOK was granted by his mentor, Angelos Anastasiadis and he became an integral part of the team.

On 25 August 2002 he made his league debut for PAOK in a 4–1 win against Panathinaikos.

He scored his first league goal in 2–3 away win against OFI.

Despite playing out of position as a right midfielder he managed to earn a place in the starting line-up, just a few months after returning from loan.

Plagued with financial problems, the next season saw the club experiencing an exodus of its top players such as striker Ioannis Okkas and ex-Newcastle United forward Giorgos Georgiadis, Salpingidis, at the age of 21, then became first-choice striker and captain of the team.

The 2003–04 season proved to be the best in many years, as the club finished an unexpected 3rd, qualifying for the Champions league, despite running on a very low budget.

He didn't make it as a wrestler but his dream came true as footballer in 2004.

His significance for PAOK was such that in the summer 2004 he was given permission to miss a match with the Greek Olympic team so that he could participate in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers against Maccabi Tel Aviv.

The elimination at the hands of the Israeli team, followed by the sack of coach Anastasiadis and subsequent financial turmoil hit the team badly, resulting in his exodus less than 2 years later.

In the 2005–06 season he was top-scorer in the league with 17 goals.

In the summer of 2006, as the club's president Giannis Goumenos was desperate to cash in, he was openly chased by Olympiacos, AEK Athens and Panathinaikos.

Salpingidis publicly refused the offer of bitter rivals Olympiacos, despite being the most profiting one among the three.

On 16 August, after a lengthy negotiation period, he finally agreed to sign a four-year contract to Panathinaikos.

He transferred for a fee of €1.8 million, with PAOK additionally receiving Sandor Torghelle, Kostas Chalarambidis and Athanasios Tsigas as an exchange.

This was the third most expensive transfer between Greek teams at that time, estimated at €5 million.

This transfer caused heavy turmoil amid PAOK fans, branding Salpingidis a traitor and ungrateful to the pains they had taken to keep him in the club.

This tense situation brought about the demise of Goumenos' troubled presidency soon after.

His debut with the greens was on 20 August 2006 in an away win with 4–1 against Egaleo where he scored three goals.

In the 2009–10 season, Salpingidis was a key player during the victorious march to the Greek championship.

After four very successful seasons with Panathinaikos (including a double-winning 2009–2010 season), in the summer of 2010 Salpingidis joined PAOK once again.

On 16 June 2010, it was officially announced that he signed a four-year contract with PAOK, after his contract with Panathinaikos had expired.

On 9 January 2011, he scored his 100th goal in the Greek Superleague against Asteras Tripolis with a header.

On 3 November 2011, Salpingidis became the Greek player with the most goals in Europe.

On 30 November he scored a header, beating Heurelho Gomes, in a 2–1 win against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane, after a cross from Giorgios Georgiadis, in the Europa League.

In the start of the 2012–13 season he changed his squad number from 9 to his favourite 14.

In July 2012, Fortuna Düsseldorf are in the process of trying to sign Dimitris Salpingidis from PAOK.

The newly promoted Bundesliga side's general manager, Werner Wolf, claimed last week that there would be no more new arrivals at the Esprit Arena before the start of the 2012–13 campaign.

However, Goal.com has learned that Fortuna are currently trying to agree a fee with PAOK for Salpingidis, who was one of the stars of Greece's surprise run to the quarter-finals of Euro 2012.

The versatile attacker is on a net salary of €800,000 with his hometown club and Fortuna are not in a position to match those terms.

However, they are prepared to make Salpingidis one of their highest earners and it is believed that the player is willing to take a pay cut in order to at last try his luck in the Bundesliga, having been often linked with a move to Germany in recent seasons.

In the late February and early March 2013 he was in superb form scoring 6 goals in 4 matches.

On 17 March 2013 he put pen to paper on a 4-year deal to stay at the club until 2017, hoping to finish his career with his beloved team.