Kostoulas Transfer to Brighton: The New Economic Realities that Olympiacos Creates in Greek Football
Olympiacos did not just open a path but a highway with the transfer of Babis Kostoulas to Brighton.
The red lines are high, stone, proud walls that whoever manages to move them even a millimeter invades the annals of history. These walls, Olympiacos did not merely move; it pushed them kilometers further down, mocking and ridiculing as chimeric prey all the previous records.
With the sale of Babis Kostoulas to Brighton for 40+ million euros with the bonuses for meeting targets, Olympiacos became the fifth king in the deck, after the king of clubs representing David, the king of spades, Alexander the Great, the king of hearts, Charlemagne, and the king of diamonds representing Julius Caesar. It became the king promoting Greek football, the one that laid the foundations for the next big record, the first transfer worth 50 million euros. Olympiacos did not just open a path but a boulevard, inviting every interested compatriot to follow it on its mythical journey.
The increase achieved from the latest impressive transfer of Stefanos Tzimas from Nuremberg to Brighton (26.4 million euros) reached an astonishing 51.52%!
Even compared to the most expensive transfer of a Greek player (Kostas Manolas, 36 million from Roma to Napoli), the difference is 11.11%.
An agreement that, combined with Olympiacos’ recent successes in the Youth League and the successful integration of its young players into the first team, brings the Red-Whites’ academy into the spotlight while sending a loud message that ‘cheap Greek players are over.’
And to think that the double winner has in its showcase diamonds like Konstantis Tzolakis and Christos Mouzakitis, who are already found on the lists of the best young players in Europe. And how it is preparing to bring to the forefront Antonis Papakanellos, Fanis Bakoulas (Rio Ave), Argyris Liatsikouras, and Stavros Pnevmonidis, all winners of the Youth League 2024: European champions with Olympiacos’ 100% Greek squad that turned opponents like Inter, Bayern Munich, and Milan to dust.
This is not just a message but an economic policy that could change the landscape of Greek football. For many years, Olympiacos has been acting like a ‘Portuguese’ in developing young players and in transfer negotiations. If it continues at the same pace, it will soon be competing with Benfica, which recorded revenues of 516 million euros in the period 2014-2023 from the sale of 30 players developed by its academy; Ajax, with 376 million euros; and Lyon, with 370 million euros.
In the same period, the Argentine club Lanús collected 52 million euros from the sale of 11 of its players. A comparison that makes the magnitude of Olympiacos’ success in the Kostoulas case even more striking.
When a player just 18 years old, who until 12 months ago was playing in the academy, is sold to a team in the richest league in the world for 40 million euros, then it is certain that the next big thing will once again shift the red lines and create El Dorado conditions.
Every goal that the Greek Batistuta, Babis Kostoulas, scores from now on will add to the label of ‘Olympiacos academy’ and will increase the value of the talented players of the Red-Whites and, by extension, those of other Greek teams.
