Santos expected to return

Portuguese coach set to sign three-year deal with PAOK after recent spell here at AEK

Fernando Santos, who parted ways with Benfica earlier this summer, is expected in Thessaloniki within the week to sign with PAOK.

Portuguese coach Fernando Santos has reportedly agreed on a three-year deal with Thessaloniki soccer club PAOK, whose 1-0 loss at Xanthi in last weekend’s opening round of Super League play triggered preemptive action from the club’s new administration.

Santos, who earlier this summer parted ways with Benfica, the Portuguese club he joined after a second tenure with Greek club AEK between 2004 and 2006, is expected in Thessaloniki within the week to sign the contract. Financial details were not announced.

Perplexed by developments so early in the season, Santos’s predecessor, Giorgos Paraschos, apparently warned his players early yesterday that “there’s a lot to be read in the press these days and I just don’t know what to say.”

Just hours later, Paraschos met with PAOK’s board, where it was agreed to end his contract.

Santos’s return to Greece would reunite him with PAOK’s new boss, Thodoris Zagorakis, who played under Santos as coach at AEK.

In other soccer developments, both PAOK and AEK, along with Larissa, will play a three-way fund-raising tournament this Sunday, beginning at 5 p.m., at the Olympic Stadium in Athens. All funds will go to victims of the recent fires, the clubs said.

Planned soccer action for the upcoming weekend, a Super Cup game between last season’s title winner Olympiakos and Cup champion Larissa, was postponed yesterday. A new date has yet to be set.

Greek police had warned the Greek soccer federation that it would be undermanned because of the upcoming Thessaloniki International Fair, to be opened by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Saturday. Both Super Cup finalists had also complained that they would not be able to field full-strength teams because of national team duty. Greece, with a five-point lead at the top of Group C, is preparing for a Euro 2008 qualifier against Norway in Oslo on September 12.

Nuremberg striker Angelos Charisteas and midfielder Stelios Giannakopoulos are out injured. Attacking midfielder Yiannis Amanatidis returns to the squad after injury.