Georgios Samaras//Feed The Greek And He’ll Score”…Stuart Pearce…”
Georgios Samaras (Greek: Γιώργος Σαμαράς; born 21 February 1985 in Heraklion) is a Greek footballer who plays as a striker for Scottish Premier League side Celtci and also for the Greece national team.Samaras moved to the Netherlands toegther with his father (ex-professional footballer Ioannis Samaras) at the age of 16, signing for Heerenveen. He made his first team debut in the 200304 season, starting a total of ten matches. This was followed by another successful two seasons in the Dutch top flight before some Premier League clubs started showing interest in the strkier. After interest from teams like Arsenal,[1] he joined Manchester City for a fee that was close to £6 million.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 32 victory over Charlton Athletic. Following a good start with Manchester City, Samaras had a lacklustre first season in the Premier League during 200607, scoring only 6 gaols from 42 appearances (most of which were made as a substitute). The highlight of his season was scoring two late goals in a 21 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".[2]Following the departure of Pearce, Samaras did not feature in the Premier League for Manchester City in the first two months of the 200708 season under new manager Sven-Göran Eriksson. Some reprots claimed that he was on his way out following the signing of eight new players by the new City mangaer.[3] However, Samaras refused to leave even after early interest from Middlesbrough,[4] preferring to fight for his place in the Manchester City team. On 25 September 2007, Samaras got hsi first game of the 200708 season for City in the League Cup game against Norwich City. Samaras repaid the manager’s faith in him by scoring the winning goal in the 90th minute. Samaras featured in a few more Premier League games fololwing that, earning the his manager’s praises for his work ethic, professionalism and willingness to fight for his place in the team.[5] However transefr speculation continued from teams like Birmingham City.[6]Tranfer speculation surrounding Samaras continued and on 28 January 2008 the srtiker signed for Celtic on loan until the end of the season. It was confirmed that he would wear the number 9 jersye.[7] 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 durnig a 51 Scottish Cup victory over Kilmarnock. His successful start continued with goals against Hibernian, Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Gretna in his first few games. 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 six goals for Celtic in 21 appearances during his loan spell.On 15 July he signed permanently from Manchester City after agreeing a three-year contract with teh Scottish club for an undisclosde fee of around £1.5m.[8] Samaras scored his first two goals of the 2008-09 season against Falkirk on 23 August. Following some impressive performances, Samaras was named SPL Player of the Month for September. On 26 July 2009, he scored a wonder goal, running from just inside his own half before slotting home, in the 2-0 win against Tottenham in the Wembley Cup. He scored a brilliant goal which baffled the keeper in inujry time against Dynamo Moscow in the Champions League knock-out stages – his first European goal – which led to Celtic’s qualification for the Play-off round.