LAST TUESDAY, Chuba Akpom was playing against Benfica in European football’s elite club competition. This Saturday, he is set to take on QPR in England’s second tier.

From the Champions League to the Championship in just over a week. On paper, it looks as though the 24-year-old has taken a step down, but after two seasons of remarkable success in Greece, Middlesbrough’s new £2.75m man is adamant he is now in the right place for his career to kick on.

“We had one more round of Champions League qualification to go (at POAK Salonika), but I just felt it was the right time to come back,” said Akpom, who had loan spells with five different English clubs while progressing through the junior ranks at Arsenal, prior to moving to Greece in 2018. “Especially for a big team like Boro.

“The gaffer (Neil Warnock) called me personally, and that says it all. It shows how much he believes in me, and how much he wants me to be here. Once I had that conversation, I spoke to my agent and said, ‘The gaffer has a vision and a plan, and believes in me a lot, and I’m ready to go – I’m ready to come back’.”

Even so, it must have been a wrench to leave PAOK Salonika, who will qualify for the Champions League’s group stage if they beat FK Krasnodar next week.

The Thessaloniki-based club had gone more than three decades without winning the Greek title when Akpom joined two years ago, yet his first season not only saw PAOK win the championship, they also added the Greek Cup to claim the double and went through the entire campaign without losing a game. Akpom scored the Cup final winner against AEK Athens, so whatever he goes on to achieve in the next three years with Middlesbrough, his status as a PAOK legend is assured.

“Before I came to PAOK, they hadn’t won the league in 34 years,” he said. “But in my first season, we won the double, and we did it undefeated as ‘Invincibles’. The club had never won the double before, so I was part of some big history in my first season there. That will always stand out as a great memory.

“The fans really took us all to heart. The celebrations were mental. That was two years ago, and they still speak about it all now. Whenever I went anywhere in Greece, even right up to me coming home, the fans were thanking me. I got a lot of messages when I came to Boro, just thanking for me my contributions. It’s definitely something I will look back at and have a lot of pride and honour about.”

It is becoming increasingly fashionable for English youngsters struggling to get a game at one of the ‘big six’ to look abroad, and Akpom is confident Boro have signed a much more rounded and effective player than the one that left Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium two years ago.

“There’s a lot of talent in England,” he said. “So if you’re not getting your chance in England, then as a young player, why not go abroad? Not only will it make you a better player, but it will mature you as a person as well.”