I have msn address of a Liverpool youth player (Steve Irwin) and I was just speaking to him on msn, and he told me Dean has decided to play for Greece this week, so it looks like we can forget about him for Australia. Can anyone confirm this? Or is he pulling my leg.
He has been selected in the Greek U/21 squad. Doesn't matter yet, it won't be a cap to his name. We can still snatch him at a later date if he is good enough.
Arrrgh European BASTARDS. Here we go again. FFA keep watch! Keep that net nice and firm, don't let one slip through, not on your watch. You know what this battle has been like, this history, through the 90s to now? This is a COLD WAR. We're at war, with Croatia, Serbia, England, Greece, Wales, you name it. These bastards come up and try to steal our guys and often do. We have to counter their espionage. Let's not underestimate this threat, this IS a war and it's been a war for a decade or so now. I am sick of these bastards, who still treat us as some bloody kind of colony, who just come by at their whim and steal our best and brightest, like bandits coming in for their routine tariff! We have to fight! (I guess I give more tangible ideas of how to fight in this thread: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=654631)
Hes not just 'a' player...hes the U-18 Academy captain and a very versatile player...he can play RB, CB, DM, CM, RM all very well. Bouzanis is a player that MUST play for Australia...he has just recently started to play for the Reserves and is doing quite well, although his kicking does need the most improvement. He is one of, if not the most talented young GK we have.
This is a quote taken from Wikipedia: "International career Bouzanis recieved his first call up to the Australian U17 side in 2005 at the age of 15.[2] He was also later included in the squad for Australia's unsuccessful 2006 AFC U17 Championships qualifying campaign.[9] On February 2, 2008, Bouzanis officially received a call-up from the Greek FA youth manager Alexis Alexiou to represent the youth team against Slovakia on February 5, 2008. [10] Bouzanis visited Greece on February 3, 2008 for an interview with Greek radio station SportFM[11], and also to participate in the friendly against Slovakia. He played the full 90 minutes for Greece, keeping a clean sheet in the process. In his interview for SportFM, Bouzanis states 3 reasons why he may choose Greece over Australia, namely that Greece is the country of his heritage, the success of the Greek National Team, and easier transport from Liverpool" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Bouzanis It seems he may be on the verge of coming to a conclusion over which country he will represent. Personally, I hope he will play for Australia's senior team one day as he looks to be quite impressive, however if he does decide to play for Greece then good luck to kid.
My goodness. And to be honest it's not like he has much competition in his generation of Australian keepers, he's leading his generation. I can understand if he felt like Didulica or something, that he'll never get an opportunity, but that's certainly not the case for him. Once Schwarzer retires, all we'll have essentially are Brad Jones, Vukovic, Federici, Coe and van strattan, when it comes to keepers under 30 years of age. And ALL of those guys are atleast 23-24. So there's quite the age gap again, 6-7 years, between he and they. Odds work out, that, unless another star keeper comes up around his age, or a little older, then he could be first in line to securing the keeping job for the NT for a generation, similar to how Bosnich, then, Schwarzer were in their time. But yeah getting ahead of myself, but still I hope this boy still has his options open for Australia. If things worked out differently, he'd still be with Sydney FC right now.
If he's not passionate about Australia, i don't care how good he is, i don't want him playing for us if his mind is somewhere else.
I couldn't agree more. As dissapointing as this is i'm glad he's a goalkeeper as we have a lot of talent in that department. IMO Vukovic is the next generation and he's already proved to be promising. Won't be in the A league much longer.
i can sympathise with the 'no passion - no park' mentality that some have BUT after watching joey diduluca talk (with his broad melbourne accent, by the way) about how in the early 2000's he was spoken to by Soccer australia and what a complete ******** up ol' farina was by saying 'look sorry joey, swarczer and zejlko are 1 and 2 for now AND for the forseeable future, so yea, i don't know where you fit in'. Now he's seen how incredible world cups are and wanting to be involved at all costs (presumably; i would anyway), you speak the language fluently - so you can still have good fun at training, and all of a sudden you're in the mix for a world cup. The FFA need to say Dean, do you wanna play for australia? Then if he says yes, give him an approximate date by which if we haven't capped him at international level he can feel free to play for his second choice country. If he says he doesn't like that idea THEN you tell him to trade in his aussie pride for his greek heritage. No problems. Didiluca could not completely hide the fact that he felt rejected and angry at the same time. I reckon that's how he probably felt when te croation FA took him out for champange and coke.
Actually, bouzanis has already played two under nineteen greek national games, and this from wikipedia On February 2, 2008, Bouzanis officially received a call-up from the Greek FA youth manager Alexis Alexiou to represent the youth team against Slovakia on February 5, 2008. [10] Bouzanis visited Greece on February 3, 2008 for an interview with Greek radio station SportFM[11], and also to participate in the friendly against Slovakia. He played the full 90 minutes for Greece, keeping a clean sheet in the process. In his interview for SportFM, Bouzanis states 3 reasons why he may choose Greece over Australia, namely that Greece is the country of his heritage, the success of the Greek National Team, and easier transport from Liverpool. What the hell is the FFA doing, i wonder. Reasons 2 and 3 he lists kinda make me think good riddance though.
Hmmm, I don't really get it. Seems to me he's just looking for excuses besides just saying, I was born an Australian, brought up as a Greek therefore I thoroughly consider myself more Greek than Australian. Greece is the country of his heritage - Fair Enough Success of the Greek National Team - I trust if he's using that as an excuse than he's comparing the Greek's success to the success of the Australian team. The Greek's have made it to only one world cup, that being in 1994 and in 2 group stage matches, lost 4-0 and in the other, drawing. Australia have made it to 2 world cups, 1974 and 2006 and both times, played well and made the 2nd round (I consider 1974 the second round as only 16 teams played in the world cup final back then). We've also won Oceanic Cups which may not look like such an achievement but it's the only cup we had a chance to participate in when we were stuck in Oceania. Greece's greatest accomplishment was in 2004 where they played well and won it. Their 2005 Confederation Cup performance was something to be desired as they lost twice and drew with Mexico. Our Confederation Cup performances have lead to participating in the 1997 final and while being outclassed by Brazil, still coming 2nd and coming 3rd place in the 2001 Cup defeating Brazil. Then there is always that 1-0 friendly at the MCG that we won against Greece as well So I'm not sure what he's talking about but fair enough. Easier Transport From Liverpool - He's going to be a professinal for FFS and yes, while the travelling to Australia would be frustrating, when you decide what country you have the passion to play for is, travel times should take no consideration... but I feel that maybe that's just his youth talking.
heir fing heir. Heritage= Fine. If that's where you're heart is, do it double foot tackle style. But yeah - Greek national team success doesn't really blow aus out of the water. But that was a completely brilliant euro cup win, go you crazy greeks!!. Transport - phh, please, get on the phone to lucas neill or craig moore before you start bitching and moaning about a 20 hour flight between europe and australia maybe three times a year, (and 3 to asia) and playing more and more friendlies in europe. They love that shit and, yep, they make me proud to be an aussie. Travel or smoke bumholes, dean. Cheers.
I'll look at it this way guys. We're an emerging football nation. Maybe he thinks there will be too much competition in Australia and is taking the easy option! The old fella Nikopolidis can't be around forever, and maybe he thinks he's going to waltz on into the starting keeper's spot for Greece. If he doesnt feel Australian- then he can piss off.
Oh well maybe not all is lost.I think this is an unedited version of the Greek interview he did. The part in bold hasn't appeared in any of the translations i've seen. If its true then it means the FFA hasn't dropped the ball on this one and he may be up for a trip to San Francisco next month. http://sport.setanta.com/en/Sport/News/Football/2008/02/12/Prem-Bouzanis-chasing-Liverpool-spot/
There would be something, somewhere in fine print in his contract that prohibited him from making any public comments on his football without their knowledge.
I just don't think Dean Bouzanis wrote that it all seems kinda weird. Why would he say these things over myspace? It wouldn't have suprised me if someone hacked into his page, it happens all the time.
Especially when he gets facts about his own career(carea) wrong. Hasn't he appeared 8 times for the u-17s.