ATHENS – Super Bowl champion and Athens native George Karlaftis, who currently plays as a defensive end for the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL, was received today by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Maximos Mansion in Athens. During their meeting, Karlaftis presented Mitsotakis with an autographed jersey.

Karlaftis was born in Athens and showed talent for multiple sports including football, track and field, basketball, and water polo, in which he even played at the national level for Greece. However, when he was just 13 years old, Karlaftis and his family moved to the United States. He went on to play college football at Purdue, where he earned all-Big Ten honors, before being drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed his surprise at the meeting, stating in an Instagram caption, “With the NFL’s ‘Greek Freak’ @georgekarlaftis, I never would have imagined that we would have a Greek champion in American football.”