The PAOK Academy owes a tremendous amount to the players’ grandparents who are always in the mood and have the will to be on the side of the pitch every afternoon for their grandchildren. Theocharis Tsingaras, at the age of just six, went to play at the Bebides academy for the first time with his grandfather. «Along with my cousin,» he says, «my grandfather put us in the car and we made the trip from Portaria, Halkidiki to Thessaloniki and back several times a week.»

As a child, Tsiggaras thought of the journey as a normal everyday part of his life. «It was tedious and I did not always find the time I wanted to study, but I stole some hours to read on the bus from home to school,» he recalls. The busy and stressful training program never stopped him from being consistent at school. Always a good student, he also enrolled in the School of Management, Economics and Communication. Since joining PAOK in 2010, Tsingaras, born on August 20, 2000, opted to make the PAOK Academy house his home after years of clocking up the kilometers with his road trips.

Tsiggaras was and is a disciplined and persistent character. A smart and extremely capable defensive midfielder, he is able to help his team in both defence and attack. A humble and hard worker in training as well as on the pitch, he quickly found his way to his dream. One of the influential figures in the Under-15 title-winning side of the 2014-15 season, and a champion in the 2015-16 season with the Under-17s, he also won the title with the Under-19s in three consecutive seasons (2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20). He was also a key player during the Under-19s UEFA Youth League campaigns, and of course has represented Greece at every youth level.

In the summer of 2019, he joined up with the first team squad for pre-season training, and played in the friendly against FC Zwolle, and continued to work with consistency and patience, but also with an obvious development, which did not go unnoticed by former coach Abel Ferreira during the 2020 pre-season. He played for the senior side for the first time in June 2020 against Aris, coming off the bench in the 86th minute.