The 17-year-old stopper, Dimitris Keramitsis, flew to Italy to sign for Roma. All the background of the transfer in Gazzetta.
The players of the national U19 team gathered yesterday (19/8) in Agios Kosmas for the first time in 18 months, due to the effects of the coronavirus. In the calls made by the federal coach, Tasos Theos, his eye “fell” on the name of Dimitris Keramitsis. He didn’t look like anything from previous Super League youth leagues, and his move to Empoli was made completely quietly in July 2020, in the midst of a pandemic. In Gazzetta’s attempt to gather information about the player, news emerged! The 17-year-old centre-back travelled to the Italian capital today to sign for Roma!
The tangle started to unravel when we were informed that Keramitsis was in Athens on Thursday, just to inform Theo and the national team director, Kostas Konstantinidis, that he will not be able to participate in the trainings and took the plane back to Thessaloniki. The absence was unexpected for a kid who had never been called up to the national teams, except for some U15 tryouts in March 2019. At the time, he was playing for AMS Panorama. In contact with his family, the reason for the absence was revealed, which was completely justified and certainly with the knowledge of the national coach. Dimitris will become a “Roman” as he “flew” to the “Eternal City” and is expected to finalize his transfer from Empoli tomorrow!
The decision to go abroad and travel to the Netherlands, Scotland
It all started when his father Nikos, a graduate of the famous Cologne coaching school (but never practiced coaching) decided that his talented son’s future was abroad. His case was different compared to other peers who are attracting international attention thanks to their achievements in the infrastructure championships. Keramitsis has never been the wonderkid of the academies of a big club, although he had spent time with PAOK at a very young age. He chose the rough path of playing against adults and before he was 15, he had already played in the first division of the EPS Macedonia with Niki Evkarpia, later with Panorama, while he also made a pass from the Third National Division with Thermaikos in the fall of 2019. It was a conscious decision of the family, in the context of the overall plan that had been worked out, in constant cooperation with Yannis Ispyrlidis, former coach of Xanthi and a close family friend. Dimitris also had to acquire the “grit” to be able to cope with a challenge away from home, from his own people.
During this time the first tempting offers started to arrive. In the summer of 2019, he travelled to Tilburg in the Netherlands to join Willem, but was not acquired due to age restrictions (in order to sign an international transfer in Europe, a player must be 16 years of age). In February 2020 he went to Glasgow and basically agreed on everything with Rangers, whose people had even arranged for the private school he would attend to complete his secondary education, as he is a schoolboy, let’s not forget. But then the first wave of the pandemic broke out, with huge consequences in Britain, and the Rangers’ case was ‘scuppered’.
So, in the summer of 2020, Italian scouts who had spotted him since Easter 2018 at a training camp in Thessaloniki, presented him with the options that were available and they were many. Born on July 1, 2004, a center back with height over 1.90cm and good technical skills, it was impossible to go unnoticed and several teams expressed interest. At the same time, he was an extremely attractive “package”, as he was free of trophies. He chose Empoli who offered him a very good deal, providing him with everything, a minor who all of a sudden sees his life change and his future destined for a foreign country. Italy is not far away, there are many Greeks who have been playing there from a young age, but the decision to leave home at 16 is always a difficult one. Empoli have an amazing academy (Primavera 2021 champions) and that was the main criterion for selection.
Roma and the… near call-up to the Italian national team
This morning (20/8) the player and his father went to Rome to sign a deal at a much higher level than that of his former club. They were hosted at the club’s academy hotel, while medical examinations are scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday.
The “Giallorossi” were watching him during last year’s Junior Championship (U17), they had outlined him, but where they actually “went crazy” with the tall Thessaloniki player was on May 23, 2021 and in the Roma-Empoli 0-3 match! Keramitsis put in a performance such that it left no room for further discussion. The Romans would have this player, come rain or shine! In that game, as in the Lazio-Empoli 2-4 game three weeks earlier, the Greek’s presence was so dominant in the centre of defence for the visitors that he caught the eye of the Italian U17 coach, and particularly keenly so. This is Bernardo Corraddi, the veteran international striker of Inter, Lazio, Parma, Manchester City, who approached the player, talked to him a bit and made the decision to invite him to the Azzuri boys! Dimitri’s excellent command of Italian and a surname that could easily be “local” (Cheramici), made Corraddi mistake him for a compatriot. But he was informed that he was Greek and the invitation was left in his drawer!
Empoli couldn’t do much to keep Keramitsis, even though they had staked a lot on him. It was proved when the player was included in the squad for the semi-final and final of the Primavera championship, with teammates two years older. He did not play, but was among the “22” registered for the final and the 5-3 win over Atalanta. Roma offered him everything he asked for, most importantly a commitment to personal development, as expressed in the conversation he had with Morgan de Sanctis, former goalkeeper and current sporting director of the club.
Thus, Keramitsis leaves the beautiful Tuscany to move about 300 kilometers south to the “Eternal City” and will play directly for Roma’s Primavera team. A new life awaits him there, a football future that looks bright. As for the youth national team, he can wait until Tasos Theou’s next call-ups ahead of official duties.
20/08/21
Source: gazzetta