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Christian Karebe has associated his name with Olympiacos for the past 20 years. Since the summer of 2001, when he arrived in Piraeus, being one of the most prominent signings in Greek football, he has offered various positions in the Piraeus team. Now he is the sports director of the “rojiblancos”.
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What a lot of people don’t know is how he ended up in Piraeus, when current Manchester City manager and tonight’s rival, Pep Guardiola, refused to come! the Sport24.gr Get to know first-hand and reveal the incredible story that connects the two former famous aces of the stadium.
Summer 2001. The Olympiakos champion led by Takis Lemonis, is looking for a top-notch defensive midfielder to raise the team’s level in the Champions groups. The PAE offices and the coach received the information that the “very” Pep Guardiola is preparing to leave his favorite Barcelona and look for his next team abroad.
MUCH MORE THAN ZIOVANI
By order of the administration, Kokkali leaves a fax to the representative of the Spanish ace, with the unimaginable amount of 3,000 million drachmas for a two-year contract. To understand the amount of the proposal, Giovanni was taking 1,100 million drachmas from Olympiakos, that is, around 3 million euros. The offer to Guardiola was even higher, reaching 4 million euros per year, respectively.
The offer of the ‘rojiblancos’ completely covered Pep’s agenda, but not him. The issue was not economic, but had to do with the desire of the then 30-year-old international midfielder to continue, leaving the Camp Nou and the homeland in a more competitive league. For this reason, he preferred to move to Italy and wear the Brescia shirt -small- and medium-. The sudden and unexpected “no” from Guardiola, given that the proposal was not realistic for the Greek data, opened a new round of discussions to find another player with similar characteristics and prestige.
THE CONVERSATION WITH PADITS
Then Takis Lemonis got in touch with his good friend Milinko Padic in Spain, to ask him if he has any other good cases of a 6 of the “Primera”. The question Lemonis asked the former ace of Atlético de Madrid and Panionios was the following: “I’m looking for a cutter with the characteristics of Karebe.”
And Padic’s surprise response: “Why not Christian himself? I know him well, we are friends, we have the same agenda. Do you want me to ask him?”
“Question, I wish it could be done, but I find it difficult”said Takis Lemonis, who didn’t believe his ears. I did not expect that Karebe, champion of Spain with Real and world champion with France, would agree to come to Greece. Padic, however, got away with it and managed to “bake” Christian, but also their common agent, Milan Chalasan.
SIGN WITH LESS
In fact, the money the international Frenchman took to become a permanent resident of Piraeus was far less than what Guardiola had been offered a few days earlier. The information indicates that he signed with slightly less than Giovanni, around one billion drachmas a year, while a smaller amount was spent to make the transfer from the English Middlesbrough. It is worth mentioning that Karebe and Guardiola have a one-month age difference. Christian was born in December 1970 and Pep January in 1971.
THE QUESTION – KEY
The response from Chalasan and Karebe with the timely dribbling of Padic and the suffocating pressure of Lemonis, was positive. Christian, who was a lover of Greece and the sea since he was little (he was born in New Caledonia) when everything was agreed, made one and only phone call before boarding the plane to come to our country to get the signatures. He called Takis Lemonis and the dialogue continued:
Karebe: “Coach, I want to ask you a question. What position are you planning to play me in?”
Lemon: “In your position, defensive midfielder, next to Ze Elias.”
Karebe: “Well that’s what I wanted to hear. You know, in Real, I had to play several times again and I didn’t like it …”
This is how history was written and Christian Karebe wore the Olympiakos jersey to continue offering his services to this day, from various key positions. If Lemonis had given the wrong answer then, Christian would not have come to Piraeus to wear red and white.
Tonight Karebe and Guardiola will be opponents for 90 minutes. As an old man in the “Classic” Barcelona – Real. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving office. A story that, at least as far as Karebe is concerned, changed his life, as for Olympiakos, whom he served and is serving from day one as an absolute professional.
THE LEMON OF ACCEPTANCE
Takis Lemonis used to say that “We played a game against United in Manchester and then we came to play in the mud and rain at Proodeftiki Stadium with Egaleo. When we got to the stadium, Christian looked like a loser. What can you tell him?” Not only did he not say a word, he was also one of the best in the mud fight that followed … “.
Another tale from the incredible world of football …
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