By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
Everyone was thinking that Barcelona was the driving force behind the possible departure of Kostas Papanikolaou from Olympiacos, but as it turns out the highest bidder for the player is CSKA Moscow. According to Eurohoops sources, while Barcelona was offering Olympiacos more than 1 million euros in order to buy out Papanikolaou’s contract, CSKA Moscow made an unofficial offer directly to the player.
CSKA seems to be willing to pay 4,2 million euros for the next three seasons to the Greek forward and that’s why the agent of the player wanted to start negotiations with Olympiacos at 4,7 million euros for the next three seasons. The Reds were informed for the asking price of the player and until this point haven’t made a counter offer. So, all indications are that they are willing to sell the player.
The question is who will finally get the player, since CSKA Moscow hasn’t made yet a buy out offer to the Reds, while Barcelona has made a buy out offer to the Euroleague champions, but not a contract offer to the player who still has a deal with Olympiacos until next summer.