Background
Armenakas was born in Newport Beach, California before moving to Sydney, Australia at a young age.
Armenakas was born in Newport Beach, California before moving to Sydney, Australia at a young age.
Armenakas has played youth football for Sydney Olympic, Watford and Udinese Calcio. Originally, Armenakas represented Greece U-17, but more recently has played for the Australian U-17 side. He is of American, Australian and Greek nationality.
Armenakas started his youth career playing for Sydney Olympic, after being scouted in a park by ex-Socceroo Jim Patikas.
At the age of six, he was invited to spend three weeks training with Football Club Barcelona"s elite juniors squad. While in Europe, he also spent time with Bolton Wanderers.
In 2012, he moved to Europe and joined Watford"s Youth Academy. After spending two years with Watford, he signed a three-year deal with fellow Giampaolo Pozzo owned club, Udinese.
By signing with the Italian club, Panos became the youngest Australian ever to sign a professional contract in any of the top five leagues in Europe.
In November 2015, Armenakas signed a contract extension, keeping him at Udinese until 2018. Armenakas initially represented Greece at under-17 level, playing in two friendly matches against Turkey U-17 in August 2014. In late 2014, Armenakas accepted a call up to the Australian U-17 squad, to play in the 2014 Nike International Friendlies tournament in the United States, where he made his debut in a loss to Brazil U-17 in November 2014.
In October 2015, he was selected in Australia"s 21 man squad for the 2015 Fédération internationale de football association U-17 World Cup in Chile.
During this time, he was also selected by The Guardian as one of the best fifty young talents in world football.