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Euro 2012: Players to watch – Giorgos Samaras (Greece)

SoccerNews in Scottish Premier League 23 May 2012

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The lofty Greek striker has shaken off a patchy spell at Manchester City to become one of the tournament’s more feared target men.

The slender build and six foot 4 inch frame of Giorgos Samaras does little to suggest he is a natural-born, old-fashioned striker, but the Greek frontman is carved from the same granite as an Ian Rush or a Christian Vieri.

The kind of forward who attacks with his back pushed against the defenders and heads home every cross coming his way. The 27-year-old Celtic attacker is a potent threat in any side.

With the gift of tremendous dribbling ability, Samaras has found himself playing in a variety of positions, from winger to second striker.

While at Manchester City, Sven-Göran Eriksson used to field him on the left flank, even though he protested so famously saying, “I am not a left-midfielder, I am a striker and I like to play there.” Eriksson replied he should stop dribbling so much. “I don’t think he should be

doing a lot of tricks. He should be using his physical power because he is an extremely good header,” the Swedish manager said.

For the Greek national team Otto Rehhagel did not hesitate to give him the role of playmaker and unsurprisingly his goalscoring tally has not been great. In 52 international caps since 2006 he has scored only seven times and his most memorable moment is not the overhead kick in Greece’s comfortable 5-2 victory against Latvia in 2009, but his beautiful assist to Dimitris Salpingidis, who netted the winning goal in the team’s second-leg 2010 World Cup qualifying play-off against Ukraine.

It was an awkward sight, but served efficiently the “galanolefki” in South Africa and since Samaras has returned to the same role as a first-team player under coach Fernando Santos in Greece’s qualifying campaign for the Euro 2012 finals.

As a youngster Samaras was equally inclined toward basketball – his favourite football star was Marco van Basten, his sporting hero, however, was Michael Jordan – but he chose football when at the age of 10 he joined OFI Crete, where his father, Giannis Samaras (a professional footballer and a Greek international as well, who currently serves as the head of Panathinaikos’ academies), was playing at the time.

His eye-catching talent attracted the interest of numerous European clubs. His father, though, an admirer of the Dutch football style, brought him to Heerenveen in 2001 and a year later his son’s efforts bore fruit. While only 17, Giorgos broke into the club’s first-team squad scoring three goals in his first four appearances, all as a substitute. He quickly established himself in Eredivisie and in January 2006 booked his ticket to stardom, when Manchester City bought him for £6 million, a record fee for a Greek player.

The Citizens move eventually proved a wrong step in his career as he failed to win a regular place in the starting line-up of the Eastlands team, even though he scored 13 goals in 63 appearances. However, a six-month loan spell to Celtic in 2008 would help Samaras to find his desired footballing destination.

Scoring a number of important goals in the Scottish side’s successful title race, forced them to use the buy-out option in his contract and sign him for three more years. Since Samaras has won two more titles with Celtic, the League Cup last season and the SPL this season, heading to Euro 2012 with his morale in the best possible shape.

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