 Aris paid Ionikos Nikaias a transfer fee for his player rights, in the amount of 42 million Greek Drachmas, which was considered a huge amount of money for a transfer at that time.In order to complete the transfer, Giannakis also personally received a BMW car, a sporting goods store, and 8 million drachmas from Aris.Ionikos Nikaias won the Greek 3rd Division south conference in the 2017–18 season, and thus earned a league promotion to the Greek 2nd Division, for the 2018–19 season.