Cash-strapped PAOK Thessalonikis has been forced to sell its Portuguese star Adelino Vieirinha.
The winger has been sold to German Bundesliga club Wolfsburg for AUD$5.6 million as PAOK attempts to make ends meet and secure UEFA licensing for its participation in the Europa League.
Vieirinha, PAOK’s star player over the last two seasons, signed a three-year deal with Wolfsburg, in a move that will earn him $4.2 million over three years.
The Portuguese player was the second departure for PAOK in as many days, after Chile international Pablo Contreras also announced he was returning home to see out his career.
Vieirinha and Contreras were instrumental in PAOK winning its Europa League group this season, beating Tottenham at White Hart Lane in the process and setting up a round-of-32 clash with Udinese.
However the club’s debts, which reportedly add up to $11.2 million, have forced PAOK president Theo Zagorakis to let at least two of the Thessaloniki giant’s stars go, with at least one more set to follow.
The next to go could be Stelios Malezas, Giorgos Fotakis or Dimitris Salpingidis, with rumours suggesting Salpingidis could be heading back to Panathinaikos.
