Goumenos was desperate to cash in, he was openly chased by Olympiacos, AEK Athens and Panathinaikos. Salpingidis publicly refused the offer of bitter rivals Olympiacos, despite being the most profiting one among the three. On 16 August, after a lengthy negotiation period, he finally agreed to sign a four-year contract to Panathinaikos. He transferred for a fee of €1.8 million, with PAOK additionally receiving Sandor Torghelle, Kostas Chalarambidis and Athanasios Tsigas as an exchange. This was the third most expensive transfer between Greek teams at that time, estimated at €5 million. This transfer caused heavy turmoil amid PAOK fans, branding Salpingidis a traitor and ungrateful to the pains they had taken to keep him in the club. This tense situation brought about the demise of Goumenos' troubled presidency soon after. His debut with the greens was on 20 August 2006 in an away win with 4–1 against Egaleo where he scored three goals. In the 2009–10 season, Salpingidis was a key player during the victorious march to the Greek championship. Return to PAOK After four very successful seasons with Panathinaikos (including a double-winning 2009–2010 season), in the summer of 2010 Salpingidis joined PAOK once again. On 16 June 2010, it was officially announced that he signed a four-year contract with PAOK, after his contract with Panathinaikos had expired. This club means everything for him as he explained : "I first played for the club in the 1990s and I feel very good there. My whole family and my childhood friends live in the town and I'm playing football for a team with big ambitions. PAOK are one of a select group of clubs with the most fanatical supporters in Europe. Throughout the whole of the north of Greece, people live for the team alone and nothing else." On 9 January 2011, he scored his 100th goal in the Greek Superleague against Asteras Tripolis with a header. On 3 November 2011, Salpingidis became the Greek player with the most goals in Europe. On 30 November he scored a header, beating Heurelho Gomes, in a 2–1 win against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane, after a cross from Giorgios Georgiadis, in the Europa League. In the start of the 2012–13 season he changed his squad number from 9 to his favourite 14. In July 2012, Fortuna Düsseldorf are in the process of trying to sign Dimitris Salpingidis from PAOK. The newly promoted