diff --git a/cmake/FindPythia8.cmake b/cmake/FindPythia8.cmake
index 88535cede70317aa9c2c6a53f5e84e08f1924a34..62106fad47a94e1f7d877bb8ec4b82030f25cacb 100644
--- a/cmake/FindPythia8.cmake
+++ b/cmake/FindPythia8.cmake
@@ -66,9 +66,16 @@ if (Pythia8_CONFIG)
   _Pythia8_CONFIG_ ("--libdir" Pythia8_LIBRARY STRING "the pythia8 libs")
   _Pythia8_CONFIG_ ("--datadir" Pythia8_DATA_DIR PATH "the pythia8 data dir")
   _Pythia8_CONFIG_ ("--cxxflags" Pythia8_CXXFLAGS STRING "the pythia8 cxxflags")
+
+  # read the config string
+  file (READ "${Pythia8_INCLUDE_DIR}/Pythia8/Pythia.h" Pythia8_TMP_PYTHIA_H)
+  string (REGEX MATCH "#define PYTHIA_VERSION_INTEGER ([0-9]*)" _ ${Pythia8_TMP_PYTHIA_H})  
+  set (Pythia8_VERSION ${CMAKE_MATCH_1})
+  message (STATUS "Found Pythia8 version: ${Pythia8_VERSION}")
+  
 endif ()
 
 # standard cmake infrastructure:
 include (FindPackageHandleStandardArgs)
-find_package_handle_standard_args (Pythia8 DEFAULT_MSG Pythia8_PREFIX Pythia8_INCLUDE_DIR Pythia8_LIBRARY)
+find_package_handle_standard_args (Pythia8 REQUIRED_VARS Pythia8_PREFIX Pythia8_INCLUDE_DIR Pythia8_LIBRARY VERSION_VAR Pythia8_VERSION)
 mark_as_advanced (Pythia8_DATA_DIR Pythia8_CXXFLAGS Pythia8_INCLUDE_DIR Pythia8_LIBRARY)