The Resurrection of Taxiarchis Fountas

The Resurrection of Taxiarchis Fountas



We have witnessed quite an interesting 2019/2020 football season, majorly due to the coronavirus outbreak which had forced some leagues in Europe to cancel their competitions, such as the Netherlands Eredivisie where Vangelis Pavlidis and Orestis Kioumourtzoglou were performing fantastically well for Willem II and Heracles Almelo respectively. But not Austria, and luckily for one has continued his phenomenal season scoring goals after the Austrian Bundesliga resumed in early June.

His name is Taxiarchis Fountas, resurrected and full of confidence with a return to the Ethniki Omada looming for the inform attacker. Believe it or not, it is now his ninth professional season and soon turning 25 in September.

Flashback to the 2011/2012 Super League season where a 16 year old Fountas emerged onto the scene. He was the youngest debutant in the history of AEK and the season after he became the youngest ever goal scorer in the club’s history. That season (2012/2013) is fondly remembered for AEK getting relegated from the top-flight for the first time ever which saw Fountas depart the club and signed for Austrian powerhouse Red Bull Salzburg at just 17 with a 3 year contract.

Moving abroad is psychologically tough for any young Greek player who are determined to test their strengths. With Fountas, he publicly stated last year in an interview that his agent pressured him to make the move abroad, suffering psychologically and saw himself reach rock bottom which ultimately effected his mentality as that was the case with the loan moves to Austrian clubs Liefering and Grodig, and with Panionios and Asteras Tripolis in the Super League

Although the 2014/2015 season with Panionios caught the attention of Sergio Markarian to select him for the Ethniki Omada for the EURO 2016 qualifying, making his debut in the humiliating 2-1 loss to Faroe Islands which sent shockwaves worldwide, then go on to make two further appearances in the 0-0 friendly draw with Poland and 0-1 loss to Finland in the EURO qualifiers in September 2015

2015/2016 season, it was a downward spiral, featuring for Arcadian club Asteras Tripolis which turned out to be a failure, and with his contract expired at Red bull Salzburg, he returned to Nea Smyrni and signed for Panionios for the 2016/2017 season hoping for a fresh restart, but became sour unlike his first stint with the club two seasons before.

Something was not going right for Fountas, no doubt he is talented and still has the time of reaching his potential. After his time with Panionios, he opted to move abroad again and signed for Sonnenhof Großaspach in the 3. Liga, Germany’s third division. Was this the right move for young Fountas? Again, it turned sour, badly, only marking 14 appearances and scored only 1 goal to his name with Fountas describing his time in Germany a ‘nightmare’. It was around this time the name Taxiarchis Fountas started fading away, but he saw the light at the end of the tunnel when he returned to the top-flight in Austria with St. Polten.

Fountas revealed in November 2019 about his only season in Germany, publicly expressing his gratefulness for Austrian football which is where he found his feet again when he moved to St. Polten in the Austrian Bundesliga with great support from his wife and new agent Kostas Kilikidis who changed his mentality. His time with St Polten in the 2018/19 season resulted in 4 goals in 21 appearances, but soon moved to powerhouse club Rapid Wien where his set his own objective of defeating his own record of 4 goals in a season.

Let me spell out the stats for Taxiarchis Fountas in the 2019/2020 season – 28 games, 20 goals along with 7 assists in all competitions so far in his first season with Rapid Wien. 

Pre-2019/2020 season, he had scored a total of 19 goals and with just one season the transition of Fountas is absolutely outstanding. Already smashed his own record of 4 goals in a season to 20 goals epitomises the struggles he had experienced before moving to the city of Vienna. Playing will full of confidence and has set the right mentality for himself. There is no stopping Fountas and with his spectacular form he is not letting the foot of the gas.  With only 2 years left in contract with Rapid Wien, the 24 year old definitely has a lot more goals in his boots with only a handful of rounds left in the Austrian Bundesliga as he is leading Rapid Wien’s charge for Champions league.

So now I come to the final part and it is regarding Ethniki Omada boss John Van’t Schip. It is no secret that the Dutchman is watching the energised Fountas, who was in line on marking his return to the national team for the March friendlies against Costa Roca and Mexico in USA, until the coronavirus pandemic forced all FIFA friendlies to be cancelled and suspend all football league championships. We are now in July and soon approaching September, where Greece will commence the 2020/2021 edition of the UEFA Nations League and compete against Kosovo, Slovenia and Moldova. 

So far, no reports have been published on who will be called up, obviously because it is too early to call. But with Fountas coming off his best ever season, fully motivated, has finally found the right mentality and certainly does not hide his intention of wearing the blue and white shirt again. You can assure that John Van’t Schip has Fountas lined up to be called up this Septermber for the Nations League.

It has been five years since he last featured for the Ethniki Omada, with Michael Skibbe and Angelos Anastasiadis never locked their eyes on the versatile attacker because of his sudden downfall beyond the 2014/2015 Super League season.His return to the Ethniki Omada is inevitable and hopefully he gets the opportunity to finally shine for the country.


Hellas Football


Follow @michael_vissini 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Football players who could’ve played for the Greek national team but didn’t

Image
Football players who could’ve played for the Greek national team but didn’t By Stephen Kountourou As Ethniki fans, we appreciate those who choose to represent Greece over another nation. It may come from tribalism, national pride, and a close connection with Greek culture. If a football player decides to play for Greece, they also represent us.  It's why supporters were thrilled at the news that Odysseus Vlachodimos, who was born in Germany, was convinced to be the starting goalkeeper for the last decade.  Why the late George Baldock’s passing wrenched at the hearts of every Greek who saw him line up in blue and white. Or most recently, after months of anticipation, Konstantinos Karetsas chose Greece over Belgium, despite being one of the highest-rated young talents in Europe right now, and lit up Hampden Park in our 0-3 victory over Scotland. However, some players do the opposite, for one reason or another, choose to play for a different national team despite having the optio...
Read more

Top 10 Chants in Greek Football

Image
Top 10 Chants in Greek Football By Nick Tsambouniaris, Greek ultras are known around the world for their passionate support. Atmospheres at games are electric to say the least as fans act as the 12 th man for their team. Here are my top 10 chants in Greek football with a hyperlink to the YouTube video of them being belted out in full glory. 10. AEK – RE BIN LADEN This cheeky party starter aimed at Olympiakos from AEK’s Original 21 makes it as number 10. As you can see in the below link, every single fan is jumping and singing along with purpose, making for a great atmosphere. 10. AEK – RE BIN LADEN 9. PAOK – IRTHAME SKASTOI APO TIN KLINIKI Gate 4 of PAOK are notoriously known for creating an intimidating atmosphere wherever they go. This particular chant gets extra points for its climax ending when the fans rise from the ground as one jumping all over the place. The chant itself is also funny and sums up the passion of Greek football fans in general as it says they...
Read more

The new generation of talented Greek footballers

Image
The new generation of talented Greek footballers By Stephen Kountourou Opportunity, experience and faith. These are just some ingredients in progressing youth players to the senior level. Some leagues are great at producing, promoting and developing academy prospects for their future football careers.  Of the big five leagues, La Liga, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga have been lorded as the best for producing young domestic talent. La Masia is the biggest example for Spain, PSG, who in more recent times has finally attempted to take advantage of their melting pot of young talent in Pairs and Germany with Borussia Dortmund, who not only produce youth from their academy but are excellent at identifying players from abroad.  Other Leagues like the Dutch Eredivisie and the Belgian Pro League have also been great gateway leagues for their youth and players from elsewhere, to hone their skills in exciting attacking competitions before attempting to take the next big step to the big leagu...
Read more