Samaras Handed Greece Call-Up

[Alan D]

Samaras handed Greece call-up
By Alex Dunn - Created on 15 Feb 2006

Georgios Samaras' promising start to life at Manchester City has resulted in a call-up to the Greece national side.

The promising 20-year-old grabbed his first goal in City colours at the weekend against Charlton and has looked sharp since arriving in Manchester in the January transfer window.

Samaras has now been recognised by Greece coach Otto Rehhagel, who has called the player up for a tournament to take place in Cyprus at the end of February.

Rehhagel has named the foreign based players he expects to be present at the tournament, with Bolton's Stelios Giannakopoulos another Premiership-based player named.

Preliminary squad: Sotirios Kyrgiakos (Rangers), Angelos Charisteas (Ajax), Angelos Basinas (Real Mallorca), Stelios Giannakopoulos (Bolton Wanderers), Takis Fyssas (Hearts), Georgios Karagounis (Benfica), Georgios Seitaridis (Dinamo Moscow), Ioannis Amanatidis (Eintracht Frankfurt), Georgios Samaras (Manchester City), Kostas Chalkias (Murcia).

http://home.skysports.com/list.asp?hlid=363908&CPID=219&clid=&lid=2&title=Samaras+handed+Greece+call-up

-----------------------------------------------------------

[ReturnoftheTang]

This is stupid, I don't think Greece needs all these players to beat Cyprus. They are wasting these players' valuable time, time away from doing more productive things. If it was the EURO2008 qualifications, I can understand, but this is a no name tournament. I am very dissapointed. Now we are playing Villa without Samaras.

[Alan D]

This is stupid, I don't think Greece needs all these players to beat Cyprus. They are wasting these players' valuable time, time away from doing more productive things. If it was the EURO2008 qualifications, I can understand, but this is a no name tournament. I am very dissapointed. Now we are playing Villa without Samaras.

He IS playing against Villa tomorrow! I imagine that he would not miss any Man City games and the tournament will be taking place while all the friendlies are happening around the world. England are playing Uruguay in a week and half time and the tournament will be played then. Its not going to be a serious competition and I imagine Samaras would only play in one or two matches since I'm guessing only a few teams will take part in it.

[Frankfurt Blue]

Another load of bullshit. What the hell are national teams, especially European national teams, doing playing a tournament at an important stage in the regular season?
UEFA should stop this kind of thing.
It may be all well and good that City has a guy who will be playing for his national team, but not right now. :mad:

[Alan D]

Samaras scored the only goal against Belarus for Greece yesterday in a friendly. Should give him some confidence at least.

[chinesefootballfan]

He scored 2 goals in 2 days. He is carrying Greece to victories in these friendlies. I looked at his records on soccernet.com, it appears that he scored a lot of goals in the Dutch league. Dutch league, although is not as tough as EPL is still an good indication of how good players are.

I would say sell Andy Cole, keep Vassel and this Greek International. Once Andy Cold gets healthy again, he is still worth a good 2 million pounds. He is too old and we don't need him.

[Alan D]

He scored 2 goals in 2 days. He is carrying Greece to victories in these friendlies. I looked at his records on soccernet.com, it appears that he scored a lot of goals in the Dutch league. Dutch league, although is not as tough as EPL is still an good indication of how good players are.

I would say sell Andy Cole, keep Vassel and this Greek International. Once Andy Cold gets healthy again, he is still worth a good 2 million pounds. He is too old and we don't need him.

Sell Andy Cole :eek: :confused: You being serious? Hes our top goalscorer! Anyway, we don't want to sell any of our strikers because we don't exactly have a massive squad anyway. Doesn't matter that hes getting older, hes still scoring the goals!

[chinesefootballfan]

Sell Andy Cole :eek: :confused: You being serious? Hes our top goalscorer! Anyway, we don't want to sell any of our strikers because we don't exactly have a massive squad anyway. Doesn't matter that hes getting older, hes still scoring the goals!

Vassel, Samaras, BWP, Andy Cole

okay I guess you are right, it's good to have 4 strikers, at least 2 on the bench and 2 starting

It's just that A Cole doesn't have a lot left in him. Plus he is fragile to injuries.

[ForzaGrifo]

Samaras is a gem. Good pace, good size, good headers, good with both feet. Smart player with a touch of flair also.