Borussia Dortmund are determined to sign Said El Mala. However, if the transfer does not go through, Giannis Konstantelias of PAOK Saloniki is apparently the alternative. Bayern Munich also once made an offer for the now 23-year-old.For weeks, Borussia Dortmund’s decision-makers have kept schtum over their long-standing and very strong interest in Said El Mala of 1. FC Cologne. The two clubs have been locked in tough talks for some time. It would take something extraordinary for BVB not to get the deal for the 19-year-old over the line.Still, years of footballers’ interviews have taught us one thing: never rule anything out in this business. That brings us to Giannis Konstantelias. The 23-year-old from PAOK in Thessaloniki is said to be Dortmund’s Plan B if the El Mala move does not happen.”A bit of pace and a bit of one-on-one dribbling are certainly elements we are looking out for,” BVB sporting director Ole Book recently revealed, at least in terms of the player profile being sought. That makes perfect sense because nobody in the current squad offers those qualities. Karim Adeyemi had, after all, been moved on to Barcelona.Getty ImagesCrazy transfer saga involving Giannis Konstantelias and VfB StuttgartKonstantelias has exactly those attributes. His strengths are close control, dribbling, outstanding technique and a good view of the game between the lines. The Greek is two-footed, secure in possession and can play as a classic No. 10 or out wide.For Book to contact PAOK, the Greek champions of 2024, if interest in Konstantelias unexpectedly became serious after all, would almost be a miracle. The 18-time international has already come close to leaving several times. So far he has made 189 competitive appearances for his boyhood club, scoring 44 goals and providing 26 assists.Europa League QualificationAnderlechtAND14 Aug 202602:30PAOK Thessaloniki FCPAOClub FriendliesBorussia DortmundBVB15 Aug 202623:30RomaROMIf it comes to that, Book would do well to ring his counterpart Fabian Wohlgemuth at VfB Stuttgart. Exactly a year ago, the Swabians’ board member for sport went through a true odyssey in trying to lure Konstantelias to the Neckar and failed.Getty ImagesPAOK’s “pistol president” forbids Konstantelias transferThat was not through any fault of his own. Ivan Savvidis blocked it. The Russian-Greek businessman has been PAOK president for nearly ten years. By way of reminder: Savvidis is the man who, in March 2018 during a heated match between PAOK and AEK Athens after a disallowed goal, stormed onto 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 his stance. He had not reckoned with PAOK’s highly emotional fans. They went, and this is putting it mildly, up in arms and heavily criticised the club’s approach in wanting to let the best player in the squad leave in the very season of the club’s 100th anniversary.Then, at the gate at Amsterdam airport shortly before departing for Stuttgart, Konstantelias received a call from Savvidis. The message: transfer off, come straight back to the training camp in The Hague. A few days later, Konstantelias and Savvidis posed for a photo with thumbs up and lavished praise on each other in statements that appeared staged because Konstantelias had extended his contract until 2029.Getty Images”Like watching Neymar”: Giannis Konstantelias shone from an early ageLast season, Konstantelias then followed that up with 14 goals and nine assists in 40 matches. He seems to have shaken off the transfer saga straight away and increasingly grew 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. Three years before making his debut in an international competition in September 2021 and being described in Greek media as an “18-carat talent”, Konstantelias spent time on trial at Barcelona. The Catalans offered €500,000 for the then only 15-year-old. Bayern Munich and Fulham also submitted offers, while Ajax and Chelsea also showed interest.PAOK insisted on a seven-figure fee. Nobody wanted to pay that, so Konstantelias stayed with the club he joined in 2013. He had arrived from amateur club Agia Paraskevi in Konstantelias’ home city of Volos. There, he had already left people stunned as a child. 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. To me, he is a phenomenon. When he is 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 game as “creative, I always want to provide that little extra in the final third of the pitch”.He very nearly got the chance to do 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 on the ball, can beat players, can bring other players into the game. He is an exceptional player, he can do magical things. He absolutely has the quality to play in a top league.”Yet, as you might expect, the move did not happen despite multimillion offers from Salzburg. PAOK have only let Konstantelias leave once, and only for 162 days at that. He spent the second half of the 2021/22 season on loan at Belgian club KAS Eupen, among others under German coach Stefan Krämer.Getty ImagesGiannis Konstantelias: BVB’s Plan B, interest from Juventus TurinOn paper, that spell does not look particularly impressive, with just 157 minutes played and no start in eight appearances. But the brief experience abroad was hugely important for his development. After that, Konstantelias increasingly became PAOK’s rising star.Now it is summer again. Once more, plenty of rumours surround the midfielder, with one strong lead pointing to Juventus Turin. Perhaps Konstantelias will soon become the traditional club’s record sale. That ranking is led by Stefanos Tzimas, who moved to 1. FC Nuremberg in 2025 and from whom PAOK earned just under €22 million in total.Konstantelias has clearly grown used to the fuss around him. Will a move happen this time? Either way, he is not letting his unclear future affect him, as he is currently proving: 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
