Hellas Football

Jannis Nikolaou is a German born footballer with Greek roots through his father. At 26 his career is on the up and as a goal scoring #6 his blooming career bares similarities to another German born footballer with Greek roots in Jose Holebas. Jannis was kind enough to give us his time, and we gladly shine the spotlight on him in our latest 1 on 1. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got into football? I‘m a 26 years old guy from a village close to the former German Capital Bonn. That‘s also where I joined my first football Club. As many guys from where I was born and raised, I have been playing football since I was able to run. Of course, it has been my dream to become a professional football player. What part of Greece is your family from and have you visited it? My father is Greek. He was born in Thessaloniki and moved over to Germany many years ago. My mother is German. Yes, I have been to Greece many times. I visit different spots in ne

Round 4 of the 2019/2020 Greek Super League concluded with Panathinaikos  and  Olympiakos end ing a ll-square , and thought I give my personal overview of the clash between the two sides.   Before th is  clash ,  Olympiakos played their first group stage game in the UEFA Champions League against  the hot and cold  Tottenham Hotspur ,  where they earned a  hard-fought  point in what  was  an entertaining match  and  witnessed an  Olympiakos side that never  gave up  when they trailed 0-2  to comeback and draw 2-2 . Since Pedro Martins  became manager, Olympiakos  are  very settled and with the team they have currently built, they will look to challenge Bayern and Red Star Belgrade in the coming games as well as this season’s league title.  They were heading into the game with Panathinaikos in great form and having scored a total of 22 goals and conceded 3 goals from the league and UEFA Champions League means Olympiakos are not messing around. Their eternal rivals, Panathina

Dimitris Goutas burst onto the Greek Football scene with Xanthi, before scoring a big move to Olympiakos. After plying his trade across Europe on various loan moves, he is back in Greece this season with Atromitos. He was good enough to give us some of his time in our latest 1 on 1 interview. What was it like growing up in Kavala and were opportunities more limited as opposed to a player from Athens? The truth is that I grew up in a much smaller place called Thasos, which is an island very close to Kavala. From my small local club, a Xanthi FC scout saw me and offered me an opportunity to move to the city of Xanthi alone to develop my football skills. From a personal point of view, both Kavala and Xanthi can provide opportunities, but my home island, it is quite difficult. Do you remember your first professional match for Xanthi? Yes of course,  it was at an away match against Veria FC. The match was played on our OXI National Celebration Day, 28th of October 2012. I pl

John van't Schip. 2 games in. A loss to Finland and a draw with Liechtenstein where the latter scored their first goal in god knows how long. look on social media and laugh (or cry) at the many tweets people are putting up mocking the Ethniki Omada. Greek Tragedy and all that jazz. I kept saying to people that I speak to especially non Greeks who say, you've got a great team, little do you know that they either have an over inflated ego or they are in bed with people high up who prolong their career. I would dare say van't Schip fell into that category thinking, "there's some great players in this squad who play for big clubs in Europe, this looks like an easy assignment" lol I'm not blaming the coach here. Whilst naïve of him to think he can get something out of certain mercenaries his appointment this late in the qualifiers meant he didn't have much time to delve into it so I guess he thought, he will see things for himself.  And you can