Greece Players in Arsenal History | Christos Tzolis and 3 others

Greece players in Arsenal history are rare commodities, but with Christos Tzolis set to join, the number will rise to four.

Arsenal are on the verge of writing a new chapter in an unusual corner of their history with the imminent signing of Christos Tzolis from Club Brugge in a €40m move, a deal that will make the winger the fourth Greek player to ever wear the famous red and white shirt.

Over nearly a quarter of a century, Arsenal have dipped into Greek football just three times before now, each occasion telling a very different story, from a young defender who never got a foothold, to a FA Cup hero.

What links them, beyond nationality, is a sense of unfinished business, because none of the first three Greeks became fixtures at Arsenal.

Injuries, squad depth, and simple bad timing conspired against each of them in North London, even as most went on to enjoy productive careers elsewhere.

Christos Tzolis, then, will arrives with a chance to change that pattern, not as a project or a squad depth signing, but as a proven attacking talent Arsenal have actively pursued and are paying serious money for.

Greece Players in Arsenal History

Who is Arsenal’s first-ever Greek player?

Stathis Tavlaridis (2001-2003)

Stathis Tavlaridis was just 21-year-old when he became the first-ever Arsenal Greece player. Signed from Iraklis Thessaloniki for around £1 million in the summer of 2001, but the towering centre-back struggled to break past Sol Campbell and Kolo Toure in Arsene Wenger’s defence.

He made just seven starts in eight appearances for the club, six of them in the League Cup, with his sole Premier League appearance coming as a substitute in a 6-1 win over Southampton in May 2003.

A loan spell at Lille impressed enough to be made permanent in 2004, and Tavlaridis went on to spend six productive years in Ligue 1 with Lille and Saint-Etienne. History will forever remember him as the first-ever Greece player in Arsenal history.

Konstantinos Mavropanos (2018-2020)

Exactly 15 years after Tavlaridis’s departure, Konstantinos Mavropanos arrived in the winter window of 2018 as a 20-year-old, joining from PAS Giannina for £1.8m and becoming the second Greece player in Arsenal history.

Like Tavlaridis, first-team chances proved scarce, just eight appearances across two years before loan spells at Nurnberg and Stuttgart took him away from the Emirates for good.

Stuttgart made the move permanent, and Mavropanos was later sold to West Ham for a fee reported between £17m and £19m in 2023, with Arsenal earning a further 10 percent on the fee due to a clause in the agreement a year earlier.

He has since made over 100 appearances in east London, and with West Ham relegated this summer, has even been linked with a surprise Arsenal reunion.

Who is the most successful Arsenal’s Greece player?

Sokratis Papastathopoulos (2018-2021)

Soratis Papastathopoulos remains Arsenal’s most successful Greek by far. The defender arrived from Borussia Dortmund on a long-term deal for a reported £17.6m, going on to make 69 appearances and lift the FA Cup in 2020.

His Emirates career wound down under Mikel Arteta, and his contract was terminated by mutual consent in January 2021, paving the way for a return to Greece with Olympiacos.

Greece Players in Arsenal History: Christos Tzolis

Christos Tzolis now looks to complete the set, and arguably arrives with the loudest reputation of the four. His will become Arsenal’s first-ever Greek attacking signing, and his form has excited fans.

Fresh off a season of 22 goals and 29 assists in 52 appearances as Brugge won the Belgian title, the 24-year-old winger is being signed not as a fringe option but as a genuine addition to Arsenal’s attack.

Tzolis is a very different proposition to the Greeks who came before him, but like his countrymen, he will have to fight for the right to start, because the club is looking forward to bringing more competition in his position this window.