Ten Footballers Who Played for both of Marinakis' Clubs

Ten Footballers Who Played for both of Marinakis' Clubs

By Stephen Kountourou

In the beautiful game, we have gotten used to seeing several high profile and wealthy individuals dip their toes into the crazy and unpredictable world of owning a football club, with some even owning two or more. With dual ownership comes the inevitable swapping of players from one club to another. Whether that be to strengthen one team in a better league or sending a player out on loan to gain some form to either return to their parent club or be sold for profit. 

Examples range from the Pozzo family, who own both Watford in the Premier League and Udinese in Serie A, Red Bull who own a variety of clubs ranging from Leipzig, Salzburg, New York Red Bulls, Red Bull Brasil to name a few and City Football Group, owners of Manchester City, New York City, Melbourne City among others. As you may have guessed, however, my focus today will be on Evangelos Marinakis' teams Olympiakos and Nottingham Forest. 

The shipowner and Media Mogul acquired the most converted team in Greece and his home town club in 2010 as well as the historic former European champions from the north of England in 2017. In that time, and even a little before, there have been multiple transfers between the two clubs. I will be talking about the ten most recent footballers who have played for both Olympiakos and Nottingham Forest. Disclaimer: I will not be including Jao Carvalho as he has just joined Olympiakos and I will be discussing him in a future blog. I will also not be including Pajtim Kasami as he arrived at Nottingham Forest before Marinakis took over the club.

Mohamed Drager 

Let’s start with the most recent transfer between the two clubs that being Tunisian right back Mohamed Drager. After joining the Greek champions for a fee of around one million Euros, Drager struggled during his time in Piraeus. The Tunisian international had to contend being second to then right back Rafinha, and during the second half of the season as the third choice behind both Kenny Lala and Thanasis Androutsos. 

Injuries also did not help as Drager was sidelined during periods of the regular season after having a couple of decent games in Greece. After clocking meagre ten games and 626 minutes in all competitions the club seemingly deemed him surplus to requirements and he was signed by sibling club Nottingham Forest. Drager has since not featured for the English side in the Championship, only featuring twice in the Premier League 2 with the Under 23s. 

Cafu

The Portuguese midfielder joined Thrylos during the 2020 January transfer window from Legia Warsaw for 360,000 Euros. Cafu played sporadically for the Greek champions in his half-season in Piraeus, with his most memorable moment in the red and white shirt being a late strike against rivals Panathinaikos. After making 14 appearances and 484 minutes in all competitions in his time in Greece, Olympiakos decided to send Cafu out on loan to England and Nottingham Forest. 

Cafu did not feature in the first couple of months upon his loan move to the Championship side. Gradually he was able to establish himself and become a mainstay in the first team throughout the 2020/21 campaign, finishing the season on 33 appearances in all competitions. Under current manager Steve Coope however, Cafu has found game time much more limited in Forests starting Xi. At the time of writing the Portuguese midfielder has played only 279 minutes in all competitions with the vast majority of his inclusion coming off the bench.

Tiago Silva 

Now for the first player on this list to go the opposite direction, from England to Greece. Portuguese attacking midfielder Tiago Silva joined Nottingham Forest for Liga NOS side Feirense in July 2019. During his only full season for the former European champions, Silva played almost every match of their Championship campaign, only missing two out of 46 games. He was able to contribute to 4 goals and 4 assists in all competitions and it was felt by Forest supporters that Silva, while talented, was not able to show that consistently enough on the pitch for them. So the next summer Silva made the move to sibling club Olympiakos. 

A muscular problem delayed Silva’s debut for the Piraeus side until the 5th of December in a league match against Volos. After being subbed on with less than ten minutes to go Silva announced his arrival to the Greek champions by assisting for the 4th goal in a 4-1 win. After that, however, it was as good as it got for Silva in Greece with the midfielder, much like his time with Forest, struggling for consistency for the Super League champions. With 21 appearances and a league title under his belt, Silva was deemed surplus to requirements and was sold back to Portugal to play for Vitória Guimarães on a free transfer. 

Marios Siampanis

Former PAOK youth player and Goalkeeper Marinos Siampanis joined Olympiakos on a free transfer in summer 2019. He was then immediately loaned out to Nottingham Forest for the season where he made no appearances for the Championship side. After an uneventful season in England, he returned to his parent club which sadly released him. He signed a free contract with Aris, where Greece under 21s international finally found some fortune and game time for the Thessaloniki side. 

Hillal Soudani

Algerian forward Hillal Soudani first joined Nottingham Forest in the summer of 2018 from Croatian team Dinamo Zagreb for 32.7 million. He made an almost immediate impact for the Championship side, coming off the bench and scoring 2 goals in 4 matches. Sadly for Soudani the rest of his time at Forest would be hit by a knee injury which kept the Algerian international out for nearly two months. After he returned in with limited minutes played for the club, he was out injured again, this time a leg injury which kept Soudani out until the end of the season. 

In an attempt to get his career back on track, Soudani was transferred to Olympiakos in July 2019. Soudani would play a pivotal role in Thrylos reclaiming the title, primarily coming off the bench as an impact substitute and adding to the attacking potential alongside El Arabi. Although he did not make the European squad for the Champions League group stages, Soudani was a great contributor to the domestic campaign, scoring 7 and creating 5 assists in 25 matches in all competitions. Just as Soudani had finally earned his place as part of the European squad for the Europa League knockout stages, the Algerian sustained a cruciate ligament injury effectively ending his season once more. 

Soudani would not return to full fitness until the beginning of the 2020/21 season. Eventually, after making a few substitute appearances and contributing to 2 goals in the process, Pedro Martins decided that Soudani was surplus to requirement and his contract was cancelled by mutual consent. Since leaving Piraeus, Soudani has played out in Saudi Arabia first with Al Fetah and currently with Damac FC.   

Panagiotis Tachtsidis 

The journeyman Greek midfielder Tachtisidis joined Thrylos from Serie A side Torino for 650,000 Euros in the summer of 2017. He made his debut in the Greek Cup against Asteras Tripolis in a 2-1 win. The Greek international time in Piraeus was far from successful as he was part of one of the worst Olympiakos sides in nearly a decade, finishing 3rd in the league, losing the title and the Greek Cup to AEK Athens and PAOK respectively. He would be part of a mass exodus for players from the club the next summer and he was released and signed for Nottingham Forest on a free transfer. 

Amazingly Tachitsids did not play a single minute for the Championship side only being on the bench once the entire season and out of the squad for the rest of it. Following this hugely unsuccessful period, the Greek international would return to Italy to Lecce on loan before making the move permanent the following season. He currently plays out in Saudi Arabia with Al-Fayha.

Karim Ansarifard 

Iranian striker Karim Ansarifard joined Olympiakos midway through the 2016/17 season from Panionios for 400,000 Euros. The imposing forward made an almost instant impact during his first half-season in Piraeus, most notably scoring a brace in the Europa League round of 32 against Osmanlispor and earning himself UEFA Europa League Player of the Week for his performance. He ended the campaign with 4 goals, two assists and the Greek Super League title. 

The Iranian international enjoyed a much more prolific scoring season in 2017/18 as he netted 18 goals and assisted 6 in 28 matches in all competitions. Despite his good season statistically, it was not enough to help Olympiakos retain the title as Thrylos finished in a disappointing 3rd place. Even with Ansarifard being one of the few positives of a poor season for the Piraeus side, the Iranian was not rated by incoming manager Pedro Martins and he was released from the club, signing for Nottingham Forest in the summer of 2018. 

The striker found game time hard to come by in England, making only 12 appearances, playing 287 minutes all season but contributed to 2 goals and 2 assists in that time. He was sold the next summer to Qatari side Al Sailiya SC for an undisclosed fee. He has since returned to Greece to play for AEK Athens.  

Gil Dias

Portuguese winger Gil Dias is the only player on this list to not be permanently owned by either Olympiakos or Nottingham Forest but instead was sent out on loan to both clubs by parent club AS Monaco during the 2018/19 season. First landing in England with the Championship side, Dias made 24 appearances in all competitions for Forest, scoring once and assisting once. The technically gifted winger failed to impress towards the end of the calendar year and his loan was cancelled with the former European champions and was instead sent out to Piraeus to Olympiakos for the remainder of the season. 

Dias faced similar struggles for Thrylos, as he was very inconsistent in the ten matches he played for Pedro Martins' men. Highlights of his time in Greece included a thunderbolt of a goal in the Europa League against Dynamo Kyiv being the most memorable moment. Dias went on to a couple of other loans with Granada in Spain and Famalicao in his native Portugal. He finally left Monaco permanently back to Portugal, this time with giants Benfica.

Andreas Bouchalakis 

The only player on this list currently playing for Olympiakos, captain of the club Andreas Bouchalakis first joined Thrylos from Ergotelis for 135,000 Euros. After being sent back to the Cretan side on loan, Boucha would become part of the main squad in Piraeus. Under several coaches, the Greek international struggled to find his best position and was in and out of the team during the first couple of seasons with the Greek champions. Eventually, The midfielder left the club on a free transfer to Nottingham Forest under the then new ownership of Marinakis at Nottingham Forest. 

At first, Boucha looked as though he had found a place with the Championship side, scoring a brace against Brentford on his debut. That seemed to be as good as it got for him unfortunately in Nottingham, as eventually his minutes for the club decreased until he was left out of the squad almost entirely by the last third of the campaign. Bouchalakis returned to Olympiakos, again on a free transfer the next summer in 2018, where under Pedro Martins, he finally seemed to find his footing and a position that suited him best. He has since gone on to become one of the mainstays in the first team, helped Thrylos return to the top of Greek football and secure multiple league titles and as said previously is the club captain.  

Stefanos Kapino

Greek Goalkeeper Stefanos Kapino, after coming through the ranks at Panathinaikos and playing in Germany with Mainz, returned to Greece in the summer of 2015 to be backup to Olympiakos then first-team shot-stopper, Roberto. After spending the vast majority of the 2015/16 campaign on the bench, Kapino was finally given his chance upon the departure of the Spaniard and became the starting keeper for Thrylos. It was a mixed bag overall for the then young Greek. Although he was decent enough between the sticks during the 2016/17 season he was prone to the occasional error but was able to help win another title in Piraeus. 

2017/18 however, Kapino was victim to some high profile errors in what would be an abysmal campaign for Olympiakos, first after going 0-3 down at home to Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League group stages, and after losing in a 3-2 comeback win to eventual Champions AEK, Kapino had lost the faith of the Olympiakos hierarchy and was dropped for experienced keeper Silvian Proto. He was exiled from the squad midway through the season and never played for the club again. He was released in the new year and signed with Nottingham Forest on a free transfer. Kapino would only play 4 matches for the Championship side, all of them being in the final stage of the season where he kept two clean sheets. His spell in England was short lived however and he left for Bundesliga side Werder Bremen. He has since moved on again to his current club Arminia Bielefeld.

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