Borussia Dortmund are determined to sign Said El Mala. However, if the transfer does not go through, Giannis Konstantelias of PAOK Saloniki is likely to be the alternative. Bayern Munich also once made an offer for the now 23-year-old.For weeks, Borussia Dortmund’s hierarchy have kept schtum over their long-standing and very strong interest in Said El Mala of 1. FC Köln. The two clubs have been locked in tough talks for quite some time. It would be a miracle if BVB did not get a deal for the 19-year-old over the line.Still, tens of thousands of football interviews over the past few years have taught us one thing: in this business, you should never rule anything out. That takes us straight to Giannis Konstantelias. The 23-year-old from PAOK in Thessaloniki is said to be Dortmund’s plan B if the move for El Mala falls through.”A bit of pace and a bit of one-on-one dribbling are certainly elements we are looking around for,” BVB sporting director Ole Book recently revealed at least in terms of the player profile being sought. That makes perfect sense because there is currently nobody in the squad who embodies those qualities. Karim Adeyemi had, after all, been moved on to FC Barcelona.Getty ImagesCrazy transfer saga involving Giannis Konstantelias and VfB StuttgartKonstantelias has all of those qualities. His strengths are close control, dribbling, outstanding technique and good vision between the lines. The Greek is two-footed, reliable in possession and can play as a classic No 10 or out wide.Should the Konstantelias situation, against expectations, suddenly become serious, and should Book have to contact PAOK, the Greek champions of 2024, it would almost border on a miracle. The 18-cap international has made 189 competitive appearances for his youth club so far, scoring 44 goals and providing 26 assists, and he has already been close to leaving several times.Europa League QualificationAnderlechtAND14 Aug 202602:30PAOK Thessaloniki FCPAOClub FriendliesBorussia DortmundBVB15 Aug 202623:30RomaROMIn that case, Book would be well advised to give his colleague Fabian Wohlgemuth at VfB Stuttgart a call. Exactly a year ago, the Swabians’ sporting director experienced a true odyssey in trying to lure Konstantelias to the Neckar – and failed.Getty Images”Gun-toting president” of PAOK forbids Konstantelias transferThat was not through any fault of his own. It was down to Ivan Savvidis, a Russian-Greek businessman and PAOK president for almost ten years. By way of reminder: Savvidis is the man who, in March 2018, after a disallowed goal in a heated match between PAOK and AEK Athens, stormed on to the pitch in a rage with a pistol in his belt to confront the referee. The Greek championship was then suspended for three weeks, and four years later the 67-year-old received a 25-month suspended sentence.Savvidis did not want to let Konstantelias go under any circumstances, but the player’s desire to leave and the prospect of receiving the targeted €20 million transfer fee from VfB softened him. He had not reckoned with the highly emotional PAOK fans. They went, to put it mildly, absolutely berserk and heavily criticised the club’s plan to let the best player in the squad leave in the very season of its 100th anniversary.Then, at the gate at Amsterdam airport shortly before departing for Stuttgart, Konstantelias received a call from Savvidis. The message: move off, return immediately to the training camp in The Hague. A few days later, Konstantelias and Savvidis posed for a photo with their thumbs up and traded mutually flattering statements that seemed staged – because Konstantelias had extended his contract until 2029.Getty Images”Like watching Neymar”: Giannis Konstantelias shone from an early ageKonstantelias then followed that up with 14 goals and nine assists in 40 matches last season. He apparently shrugged off the transfer saga immediately and increasingly developed into the team’s leader. PAOK captain Dimitris Pelkas wrote in his Instagram story: “A little magician among us.”Failed transfers are nothing new to Konstantelias, going right back to his early youth. Three years before he made his debut in an international competition in September 2021 and was described in Greek media as an “18-carat talent”, Konstantelias spent time on trial at FC Barcelona. The Catalans offered €500,000 for the then only 15-year-old. Bayern Munich and Fulham also submitted bids, while Ajax Amsterdam and Chelsea also expressed interest.PAOK insisted on a seven-figure sum. Nobody wanted to pay that, so Konstantelias stayed with the club he joined in 2013. He had arrived from amateur club Agia Paraskevi from Konstantelias’ hometown of Volos. There, even as a child, he had already caused huge amazement. Alexandros Malakasiotis, the club’s academy director at the time, said of him: “A player like him does not come along every day. Not even every 50 years. He has unique gifts. For me, he is a phenomenon. When he is in a one-on-one, it is like watching Neymar.”IMAGO”Can do magical things”: this is Giannis Konstantelias’ role modelKonstantelias once described the Brazilian as “my biggest role model”, because: “I find his style of play more attractive than that of anyone else.” He described his own as “creative, I always want to provide that little extra in the final third of the pitch”.He almost could have done that in the season after the title won on the final matchday at Red Bull Salzburg. Konstantelias was 21 at the time, and his Austrian team-mate Stefan Schwab told kicker about him: “He is an attacking type of player who can basically play in any system. He has superb technique. He has pace, is good with the ball, can beat players, can bring other players into the game. This is an exceptional player, he can do magical things. He absolutely has the quality to play in a top league.”Yet, as you may suspect, the move did not happen despite multimillion offers from Salzburg. PAOK have only let Konstantelias leave once, and even then only for 162 days. He spent the second half of the 2021/22 season on loan at Belgian club KAS Eupen, including under German coach Stefan Krämer.Getty ImagesGiannis Konstantelias: BVB’s plan B, interest from Juventus TurinStatistically, that spell does not look especially rosy, with just 157 minutes played and no starts in eight appearances. But the short stint abroad was enormously important for his development. After that, Konstantelias increasingly emerged as PAOK’s rising star.Now it is summer again. Once more, numerous rumours are swirling around the midfielder, with one hot lead pointing to Juventus Turin, for example. Perhaps Konstantelias will soon become the record sale of the traditional club. Top of that ranking is Stefanos Tzimas, who moved to 1. FC Nürnberg in 2025 and from whom PAOK earned a total of just under €22 million.Konstantelias seems to have grown used to the fuss surrounding him. Whether a move will happen this time? In any case, he is not letting his unclear future affect him, and he is proving that right now: in three Europa League qualifying matches, he has already scored three goals and set up one more.Giannis Konstantelias: his professional career at a glancePeriodClubMatchesGoalsAssistssince 2021PAOK18944262022KAS Eupen800
