Time stands still…
Twenty-three years have passed since that fateful day. And yet it seems like yesterday. The memory every year becomes stronger. Our six brothers and sisters who were lost so unjustly are our guide on our journey through history. Brothers and sisters live on, you guide us forward…
Nobody from the PAOK family has let the six names be forgotten over time, for 23 years now.
Charalambos, Dimitris, Christina, Anastasia, George, and Kyriakos your love for PAOK brought you here, left you here, continued further and became an example of dedication and loyalty to the four letters for those who sit next to your seats, remember your trips, and cry when their minds return to that difficult night in October 1999.
The favorite habit, the addiction to the worship of the Double-headed Eagle, led you to climb the stairs of the double-decker coach that would take you to the OAKA for the match against Panathinaikos on October 3rd. And you went, chanted, and celebrated Nagbe’s goal to make it 1-1, before settling into your seats for the return journey.
In the early hours of the morning, the bus was already quiet, the fatigue was great, just like every time that you put in hundreds of kilometers in a day, just to be there to support PAOK, to show them what dedication means, to «educate» every new member of our family with your self-sacrifice…
The change of driver was not noticed, but it was fatal… In a clumsy overtaking manouvre just two kilometers from the tolls at Tembi, control was lost and the bus of the Cordeliou link crashed into the void…
Thousands of «whys» have been expressed, thousands of pages of memories have been written by those who survived the terrible accident that night in the Tembi Valley.
For PAOK as a club, moreover, memory is a key component of preserving the character and values that have united so many thousands of souls to shout the same slogans, applaud the same emblem, to sacrifice and be sacrificed…
And another slogan has been added since then, guys. You would sing it too, if it were not for you: «Brothers live on, you are the ones who guide us…». An indescribable thrill… You should feel proud that at that moment everyone really becomes one…
How we all begged for time to turn back. No matter how much we prayed we couldn’t make it. But we didn’t give up. We vowed not to let time pass you by. We don’t just remember you on this day. We always remember and are inspired by you.
Time stood still on 04.10.1999… On that day, the whole of PAOK mourned. From that day on, the entire PAOK family has «missed» a part of it. No matter what we achieve, no matter how much we dedicate to you, we will always pray that you could be with us…
