Hull City have completed the eye-catching deal of Olympiacos goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis, with the 23-year-old signing a five-year contract for a club-record fee believed to be in the region of £20 million.
Tzolakis left Olympiacos’ training camp in the Netherlands late last month and returned to Athens, where he underwent a medical ahead of his move to City, and then eventually jetted out to join Sergej Jakirovic’s squad at their pre-season base in Istanbul, before watching Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Kasimpasa.
No fee has been disclosed by either club, but it’s understood to be in excess of £20m plus a series of add-ons and represents the biggest outlay on a single transfer since the Tigers were last in the Premier League a decade ago, and for the time being, a club record, eclipsing the £13.2m they paid for Ryan Mason in 2016.
The highly-rated international emerged as City’s top choice after Ivor Pandur departed for Rangers, and the club then brought in Jack Butland.
A regular for Oly, Tzolakis has European experience, having played in the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League. Last term, he played in 43 games for Olympiacos, with nine of those coming in the Champions League, but with one year left on his contract in Piraeus, he made it clear that he would not be signing fresh terms, and wanted to test himself in the Premier League.
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A four-time Greek champion, Tzolakis has also won the Conference League with the club owned by Nottingham Forest chief Evangelos Marinakis, and was named goalkeeper of the season in 2024/25. Capped nine times by his country, Tzolakis has played in World Cup qualifiers as well as the Nations League and four friendlies, and arrives with a significant pedigree.
“He’s our first choice. I had a conversation with him, and everything is fine. I explained to him everything, so he’s looking forward to joining us,” Jakirovic told Hull Live before going on to talk about his quality having been a regular for his country.
“Of course, he’s a national team player of Greece, and when we are speaking about national team players, there is quality. You cannot be in the national team by accident.”
Tzolakis is set to be in the squad that travels to Germany on Friday afternoon to face Bundesliga giants Eintracht Frankfurt, and that squad could yet be boosted by more arrivals with Lucas Herrington, Elliot Stroud, Nobel Mendy and Jens Hjertø-Dahl all close to sealing their switches to England. Leon Bailey’s move is also back on after City came close to pulling out of the deal with Aston Villa over the weekend.
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