Georgios Samaras

Georgios Samaras

Personal information
Full name	Georgios Samaras
Height	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	Celtic
Number	9
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 11 February 2009

Georgios Samaras (Greek: Γιώργος Σαμαράς) born 21 February 1985 in Heraklion) is a Greek footballer who currently plays as a striker for Celtic.

Club career

Heerenveen

Samaras moved to the Netherlands together with his father at the age of 16, signing for Heerenveen. He made his first team debut in the 2003-04 season, starting a total of ten matches. This was followed by another successful two seasons in the Dutch top flight before some Premiership clubs started showing interest in the striker. After interest from teams like Arsenal, he joined Manchester City for a fee that was close to £6 million.

Manchester City

His Manchester City debut came in as a substitute against Newcastle United, and he scored his first goal in English football on 12 February 2006 in a 3-2 victory over Charlton Athletic. Following a good start with Manchester City, Samaras had a lacklustre first season in the Premier League during 2006-07, scoring only 6 goals from 42 appearances (most of which were made as a substitute). The highlight of his season was scoring two late goals in a 2-1 victory over Everton. Although Samaras was criticised by some journalists for his lack of goals, Manchester City manager Stuart Pearce (who rarely started the Greek), always maintained that he would develop in to a great striker, saying "Georgios is a 21-year-old playing in the Premier League for the first time in his life. He's a young man learning the game in the hardest league to learn ."

Following the departure of Stuart Pearce, Samaras did not feature in the Premier League for Manchester City in the first two months of the 2007-08 season under new manager Sven-Göran Eriksson. Some reports claimed that he was on his way out following the signing of eight new players by the new City manager. However, Samaras refused to leave even after early interest from Middlesbrough , preferring to fight for his place in the Manchester City team. On 25th September 2007, Samaras got his first game of the 2007-08 season for City in the Carling Cup game against Norwich. Samaras repaid the gaffer's faith in him by scoring the winning goal in the 90th minute. Samaras featured in a few more Premier League games following that, earning the his manager's praises for his work ethic, professionalism and willingness to fight for his place in the team. However transfer speculation continued from teams like Birmingham City

Celtic

Tranfer speculation surrounding Samaras continued and on 28th January 2008 the striker signed for Celtic on loan until the end of the season. It was confirmed that he would wear the number 9 jersey for Celtic while on loan. The Greek striker confirmed that as well as helping Celtic, one of the reasons he moved was in order to get more games so that he would be considered for the Greek national team in the UEFA Euro 2008 competition. Samaras scored on his debut for Celtic, coming on as a sub during a 5-1 Scottish Cup victory over Kilmarnock. His successful start continued with goals against Hibernian, Inverness and Gretna in his first few games. He then added again to his goal tally by heading the only goal against Aberdeen in a 1-0 win on 19 April. Georgios scored again after coming on as a substitute against Motherwell and heading in a Barry Robson corner to seal Celtic's 3 points. The final result was 2-1 to Celtic. The season ended in triumph for Samaras with Celtic becoming SPL champions on the last day of the league, gaining Samaras his first Championship medal. In total he scored 6 goals for Celtic in 21 appearances during his loan spell. On 15th July 2008 he signed permanently from Manchester City after agreeing a three-year contract with the Scottish club for an undisclosed fee of around £1.5m. Samaras scored his first two goals of the 2008/2009 season against Falkirk on 23rd August. He continued his good start to the season by scoring an equaliser against Old Firm rivals Rangers, however Celtic would go on to lose the game 4-2. The following games yielded a brace against Motherwell and yet another two goals against Kilmarnock in a 3-1 win at Rugby Park. Samaras went on to net a third consecutive double in Celtic's League Cup tie at home to Livingston, scooping another Man of the Match award in the process. He scored his tenth goal of the season in all competitions on 4th October 2008 when he scored Celtic's second goal of the game in a 4-0 win over Hamilton Academical. Samaras was also named September SPL Player of the Month.

International career

Samaras was eligible to play for Australia as a youngster. His father Giannis was born in Melbourne but eventually moved to Greece at the age of 13 and had a successful career in football himself, playing for Panathinaikos and the national team. His grandfather (also Georgios) was one of the founding members of South Melbourne FC . Although technically eligible, the opportunity to play for Australia was never pursued as Samaras chose to play for the country of his nationality.

He made his debut for Greece just a week after his 21st birthday on 28 February 2006 in a friendly game against Belarus, in which he scored the only goal of the game. He featured in Greece's Euro 2008 qualifiers and was a member of the unsuccessful Greek squad at the finals.

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	28 February 2006	Limassol, Cyprus	Belarus	1-0	Win	Friendly Match
2.	1 March 2006	Nicosia, Cyprus	Kazakhstan	0-2	Win	Friendly Match
3.	11 October 2006	Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bosnia and Herzegovina	0-4	Win	UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier

Statistics

Last updated 4 October 2008

Season	Club	Nat	Apps	Goals	Assists
2007/08	Celtic		21	6	4
2008/09	Celtic		14	11	4
Total			35	17	8

Honours

• Celtic F.C.
• Winners
  • Scottish Premier League 2007-08

• Individual
  • SPL Player of the Month - September 2008

External links

• Georgios Samaras at Soccerbase
• FootballDatabase.com Profile
• Georgios Samaras Unofficial Fan Site

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