GdS: ‘The Greek from Genk’ – Milan ready to step up interest in talented forward

AC Milan have sent scouts to watch Konstantinos Karetsas in action for Genk, but the admiration goes back over a year.

La Gazzetta dello Sport report that Milan sent representatives to watch the Europa League match against Basel on November 27th, and ‘Kos’ – as he is known – scored the goal to make it 2-0. It was the right way to make an impression.

In actual fact, his name has been floating around the Casa Milan files for a while. His father, Vaios, told reporters in May 2024: “Leipzig, AC Milan, and even Manchester City invited us several times. We didn’t go for them. The only club we had discussions with, other than Genk, was Ajax.

“This was simply because they’re close by and we have a lot of respect for that club. It was just a conversation. The second one would have been about sporting and financial matters, but by then we had already given our word to Genk.”

Ready for the leap?

Karetsas has grown since then. Last season, he played 25 games in the Belgian league with Genk, scoring two goals. Part starter, part substitute. This season, he scored only that night against Basel, but he’s become a regular, with a knack for providing assists and an eye for a pass.

He’s a playmaker at heart – he beats his man, plays the ball and plays intelligent passes – but more than once he’s played on the right wing and he doesn’t complain. His lifelong heroes, after all, are Ronaldinho and Neymar, who started wide and then came to rule the world in the middle.

Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images

Karetzas will never be as good, but many like him. Greece and Belgium, for example, fought a battle for him for the national team. Now, Genk are getting ready for when he flees the nest, like Kevin De Bruyne, Kalidou Koulibaly, Thibaut Courtois, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Leon Bailey did.

Karetsas always played for Belgium in his youth teams, the nation where he was born and raised. However, on February 25th, he wrote on Instagram: “After much reflection, I have decided to represent Greece.

“The choice comes from the heart. Now I can focus on writing a beautiful story with Greece. I deeply appreciate the efforts of the Belgian federation in recent weeks, and my decision doesn’t mean I feel any less Belgian.”