Alexandros Samontourov (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: Αλέξανδρος Σαμοντούροβ; born April 20, 2005) is a Georgian–Greek professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player for

Panathinaikos Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos (, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club based in the City of Athens. Panathinaikos is one of the mos ...

of the

Greek Basketball League The Greek Basketball League (GBL), and also known as the Stoiximan Greek Basketball League (GBL) for sponsorship reasons, is the first tier level professional basketball league in Greece. It is run by the Hellenic Basketball Associat ...

(GBL) and the

EuroLeague The EuroLeague is a European men's professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognised as the top-tier and the most prestigious men's basketball league in Europe. The league consists of 20 teams, of which 16 are given lon ...

. He is a tall

power forward The power forward (PF), also known as the four, is one of the five traditional Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. Traditionally, power forwards have played a role similar to center (basketball), centers and are typi ...

Early years and ''10 Academy''

Samodurov was born and raised in

Evosmos Evosmos (, ''Évosmos''; before 1955: ''Neos Koukloutzas'' (Νέος Κουκλουτζάς, ''Néos Koukloutzás'')) is a suburb of the Thessaloniki Urban Area and was a former municipality in the regional unit of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Gre ...

, a suburb of

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, to Georgian parents. He started playing basketball as a kid, joining

Nikos Chatzivrettas Nikolaos (Nikos) Chatzivrettas (alternate spelling: Hatzivrettas) (Greek: Νικόλαος (Νίκος) Χατζηβρέττας; born May 26, 1977) is a retired Greek professional basketball player. At a height of Chatzivrettas 1.97 m (6 f ...

's ''10 Academy'' at the age of 10. His first steps on the next level were made at the ''2019 Greek U16 Championship'', where he averaged 4.3 points, 3 rebounds and 1 steal in 12 minutes, despite playing two years up, at age 14. His huge progress paid off in the 2021–22 season, where Samodurov's star shone in the ''Rising Stars'' tournament, organized by the

Hellenic Basketball Federation The Hellenic Basketball Federation (abbreviated HBF; , abbreviated as Ε.Ο.Κ.,) is the main basketball governing body for the sport in Greece. It directs and oversees all of the national basketball teams of Greece, including both the junior a ...

, hosting U18 teams. He was named the MVP of the tournament and led ''10 Academy'' to the title, with his numbers being over the top, averaging 25.9 points (75.7% free throws, 66.7% two-pointers and 25.8% three-pointers), 13.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 2 blocks, in 35 minutes.

Professional career

On March 22, 2022, Samodurov signed a six-year contract (through the summer of 2028) with Greek powerhouse

of the

Greek Basket League The Greek Basketball League (GBL), and also known as the Stoiximan Greek Basketball League (GBL) for sponsorship reasons, is the Greek basketball league system, first tier level professional basketball league in Greece. It is run by the ...

and the

. He stayed in ''10 Academy'' for the remainder of the 2021–2022 season, joining the ''Greens'' in the upcoming summer. On June 23, 2022, ''10 Academy'' retired Samodurov's jersey, wishing the player all the best on his career. On October 5, 2023, Samodurov signed a

two-way contract A two-way contract is a professional sports contract that stipulates that an athlete's salary is dependent upon the league in which the athlete is assigned to play. This is opposed to a one-way contract that would pay the same salary regardless o ...

with 2nd division club Panerythraikos, while remaining on the active roster of Panathinaikos as well.

National team career

On June 20, 2022, Samodurov was called up in the Greek U18 national team for the upcoming

2022 FIBA U18 European Championship The 2022 FIBA U18 European Championship was the 37th edition of the European basketball championship for national under-18 teams. It was played from 30 July to 7 August 2022 in İzmir, Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye ...

. One day later, he was also called up by coach

Dimitrios Itoudis Dimitrios Itoudis (alternate spelling: Dimitris) (, born September 8, 1970) is a Greek professional basketball coach who is currently the head coach for Hapoel Tel Aviv of the Israeli Premier League and the EuroCup. He formerly coached the Greec ...

in the Greek men's national team's selection for the

2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification The 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification process determined 30 of the 32 teams that qualified for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup. As co-hosts, the Philippines and Japan each got an automatic qualification for the tournament when they ...

game against

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

. In 2025, Samodurov represented the

Greece men's national under-20 basketball team The Greece men's national under-20 basketball team (, (Greek young men's national basketball team) is the representative for Greece in international Under-20 age basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of fi ...

during the 2025 FIBA U20 EuroBasket and although his team finished 5th he was included into the tournament's All-Star Five.

Career statistics

EuroLeague

, - , style="text-align:left;",

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

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, 2 , , 0 , , 1.0 , , .667 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2.0 , , 0.5 , - , style="text-align:left;background:#AFE6BA;", 2023–24† , 1 , , 0 , , 1.0 , , .500 , , 1.000 , , , , , , 1.0 , , , , , , 3.0 , , 3.0 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 3 , , 0 , , 1.3 , , .600 , , 1.000 , , , , , , .3 , , , , , , 2.3 , , 1.3

Domestic leagues

{, class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:100%; text-align:right;" ! Year ! Team ! League ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! , - , style="text-align:left;",

, , style="text-align:left;",

, , style="text-align:center;", GBL , , 7 , , 6.5 , , .714 , , .500 , , .750 , , 1.6 , , .1 , , .3 , , .1 , , 2.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , , style="text-align:left;", Panerythraikos , , style="text-align:center;", HEBA A2 , , 27 , , 15.0 , , .474 , , .348 , , .621 , , 3.1 , , .6 , , .5 , , .8 , , 4.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , , style="text-align:left;",

, , style="text-align:center;", GBL , , 8 , , 14.3 , , .563 , , .200 , , 1.000 , , 2.5 , , .6 , , .2 , , .6 , , 2.6

Personal life

Samodurov has two brothers. The younger one, Angelos, who was born in 2008, also plays basketball.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Samodurov, Alexandros 2005 births Living people 21st-century Greek sportsmen Basketball players from Thessaloniki Greek Basket League players Greek men's basketball players Greek people of Georgian descent Panathinaikos B.C. players Power forwards