Dimitris Keramitsis is living his own football success story. The 17 year old Greek boy from Thessaloniki will, barring the unlikely event, sign for Roma tomorrow (20/8) and join the primavera side despite his age.

The 17-year-old centre-back (born in July 2004), who stands 1.92m tall, was transferred to Empoli last summer. His competitive presence both in the U17 team and in the one that participated in the primavera attracted the interest of the big teams of the neighbouring country. In the bidding war, Roma emerged the winner, who bought him from Empoli, as in Italy there are no boarding schools even for players of that age.

Dimitris Keramitsis was born in Thessaloniki and his CV includes appearances in the academies of Aris, PAOK and Apollon Kalamaria. All this until the age of 14. He then played for the Men’s football squads of AMS Panorama (A’ local), Thermaikos Thermi (3rd National League) and A.E Krini (A’ local).

In his early teenage years he participated in a camp in Thessaloniki where there was the presence of scouts from Italy. Also present at the tournament was Andrea Domenicini, son of Marcos, who is Spalletti’s assistant. The Italian scout “saw” in Keramitsis, although due to injury he participated only in one training session, what was not evaluated by the Greek scouts. He wrote his name on his notepad and recommended him to Fiorentina. But the player’s age and the formal requirements for his transfer stopped his transfer to Italy. But what didn’t happen in 2018 happened last summer, as Empoli asked, learned and proceeded to acquire the Greek boy by investing in his talent and technical ability.

Before Dimitris Keramitsis signed for Empoli, he had been in contact with Willem and Rangers, but the transfer was not completed due to coronavirus.

26/08/21