Should Greece between 2004 to 2014 be considered a golden generation?

By Stephen Kountourou

According to Wikipedia, a “Golden Generation” is “an exceptionally gifted group of players of similar age, whose achievements reach or are expected to reach a level of success beyond that which their team had previously achieved.” 

There are many examples of this in international football. Some reached the pinnacle of the sport and fulfilled their potential by winning major accolades or consistently qualified and were competitive in major tournaments beyond what was expected of them. 

Others, despite producing a talented crop of players that have or had the potential to become some of the greatest teams in the world, fell short, underperformed or never lived up to expectations, only being remembered for missed opportunities and what might have been moments. 

Off the back of the excellent video on this topic by HITC Seven, which I would recommend any football fan to watch his channel, there is one nation in particular that has been woefully overlooked when discussing what even clarifies as a golden generation in football. With this being a Greek football-centric site, you all know what I am referring to. 

Greece defied the odds in causing the greatest upset in football history to win Euro 2004 and from there the Ethniki, had ten “golden years” of success, qualifying for every major tournament, bar one and generally showed themselves to be one of the hardest teams to beat in Europe during that time. 

But despite outperforming anointed golden generations such as England in the early 2000s and Belgium in the 2010s, just to name a few, Greece is overlooked, despite fitting the description. Should Greece between 2004 to 2014 be universally considered a golden generation?

It is a tale befitting any Greek epic, as cliche as that sounds. But as many know the story that turned an unknown and unfancied team, to fans outside of the Greek world, into the greatest upset in football history, I will be as brief with the context. 

Greece, after years of underachievement despite producing talented individuals, had only ever qualified for two major tournaments before Euro 2004. In the Ethniki’s debut at Euro 1980 and at World Cup 94. They did not win a single game in either tournament. 

Upon the arrival of Otto Rehagel in 2002, and after some early teething issues of players adapting to the style he was implementing, Greece qualified top of their group for the Euro 2004 over Spain. The rest, as they say, is history. 

Karagounis, Charisteas, Zagorakis and co beat hosts Portugal on opening day and qualified for the quarter-finals in second where they would defeat the holders and tournament favourites France, thanks to a trademark header from Charisteas. 

The Piratiko followed that up with a narrow victory in extra time over a fancied Czech Republic side, with Traianos Dellas scoring the only silver goal in football history. The final was a repeat of the opening game with Portugal’s “golden generation”, and a young Cristiano Ronaldo, hoping to win the tournament on home soil. 

However, Greece spoiled the party, thanks to Charisteas scoring the most important goal in Greek football history to win the Ethniki and Otto Rehagel the European championship to wild celebration worldwide.

From this point on the Ethniki would have 10 golden years of success. Under Rehhagel Greece qualified for Euro 2008 as defending champions and reached only their second-ever World Cup in 2010, where they also scored their first-ever victory in the tournament against Nigeria in 2-1, where they also scored for the first time in the finals.

Under King Otto’s successor Fernando Santos, Greece reached the quarter-finals of Euro 2012, after a famous win against Russia in their final group stage match, and battled hard but bowed out in a 4-2 defeat to Germany. 

The final time to date that the national team qualified for a major tournament, that being the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, they bettered their previous effort at the finals to qualify for the knockout stages for the first time in their history and ten years after they famously won Euro 2004. 

After late drama against Ivory Coast, where Giorgos Samaras’s converted spot-kick in added time sent Greece through to the Round of 16, only a gut-wrenching penalty shootout defeat to tournament surprise package Costa Rica prevented the Ethniki from progressing to a second consecutive quarter-finals stage at a major tournament. 

Greece hit their only real stumbling block during this ten-year period, by failing to reach the 2006 World Cup in Germany after a dismal qualifying campaign. Although they also featured in the now defunct Confederations Cup as European champions.

Several nations are on Wikipedia’s list of Golden Generations and have achieved much less than Greece despite the size of the nation and the quality of players at their disposal. 

The biggest example is, of course, England, specifically between 2001-2006 with then the chief executive of the Football Association Adam Crozier, labelling that talented crop of players as “the golden generation” back in 2001 and essentially coining the phrase that would end up being a curse on the players rather than a gift. 

The three Lions boasted the likes of Beckham, Scholes, Lampard, Gerrard, Owen Ferdinand and Rooney just to name a few over that period, yet they underachieved. The weight of a whole nation's expectations, criticism and scrutiny from the media and fans, divided by club elegance, ultimately caused them to win nothing and not even progress past the quarter-finals of a major tournament.

Even the current crop of English talent in Kane, Saka, Alexander-Arnold, Rashord, Grealish, Rice and Foden, have reached two consecutive European championship finals and a World Cup semi-final, have not been able to live up to expectations and win the island nation's first trophy since 1966. But at least with them, there is still time. 

Another nation, whose golden generation has just ended is Belgium. With a huge wealth of talent including, Lukaku, Hazard, De Bruyne, Kompany, Thibaut Courtois and co were one of the most feared nations for nearly a decade, even being ranked first in the FIFA World Rankings twice between November 2015 to March 2016 and September 2018 toMarch 2022. 

Yet individual brilliance, like with England, does not always equate to a successful team, with the Red Devils failing to make the final of any major competition in that time 

They were perhaps unfortunate at times, particularly in the 2018 World Cup and Euro 2020, when they faced the eventual winners in both competitions, France and Italy. But after losing to a spirited Wales side in the quarter-finals at Euro 2016, and being dumped out of the 2022 World Cup group stages, Belgium supporters were left wondering what could have been under different circumstances for their elite generation of players.

Lastly, Croatia, a nation smaller than Greece, produced some top-level players over the last decade, and has also been cited as their second golden generation, after the side that reached the World Cup semi-finals in 1998. 

“So close yet so far” is the phrase best used to describe the Croats. They reached the World Cup final once in 2018, but lost out to eventual winners France, finished third in the 2022 edition in Qatar and lost out on penalties in the final of the 2023 Nations League to Spain. 

The likes of Luka Modrić, Mario Mandžukić, Ivan Rakitić, Ivan Perišić and Mateo Kovačić were part of a feared Croatian side, that many would not have wished to face between 2018-2024. 

But although they were many people's dark horse to win a major trophy in the period they, like Belgium and England, fell short of their potential.

Now looking at these three examples, what is the common theme? 

All of these national teams had extremely talented individual players, who were not only good by their countries' standards, but also some of the best players in the world competing at a high level for their clubs. 

It is fair to say that Greece, over the “golden” ten years had some very good players, some of the best the country has ever produced in fact. Although it is hard to argue the higher level that the aforementioned nations had by comparison. 

This comes back to the point about what is classified as a golden generation. Greece, with not particularly big or well-known names in international football, still achieved more than these other national teams in a similar time frame.

Also when looking at the Ethniki’s history from the very beginning, this period of success was by every metric, an anomaly. Greece always had great players in the mid to late 20th century. 

But as a team, they were never able to put enough of a consistent run of games together to qualify for a major tournament and when they did, in 1980 and 1994, they were the exception to the rule at the time. 

So while of course, a golden generation can and should be classified by the pound-for-pound talent of the players it doesn’t have to be the be-all and end-all. Greece between 2004-2014 should also be classified as a golden generation in world football. 

The players did what previous iterations of the Ethniki couldn’t, in reaching and competing in major tournaments. They sustained that over the decade which never happened before in the history of the Greek national team, and, of course, they even won a major trophy which is still to this day, even by the rest of the footballing world, seen as one of the biggest shocks in the history of the sport. 

They exceeded the expectations of their supporters and outperformed far bigger footballing nations, which, unlike Greece, failed to live up to their mantel as a generation-defining era of players. While simply reaching consecutive major tournaments for some nations is only a formality, for Greece, that was a success when compared to the previous standard set.

What can be learned from all this? How to determine what a golden generation of players is much more subjective than what is presented by Wikipedia? In some ways yes. 

But not being included on that list does not devalue the achievements of Greece during those wonderful ten years. For any supporter who witnessed winning the Euros, that first World Cup win in South Africa, that goal from Giorgos Karagonis against Russia, or the late winner from Samaras in Brazil to send the Ethniki to their first World Cup knockout stages, it was the best of times. 

That period, and those players, will always be a golden generation for fans, whether it is recognised by the wider footballing world or not. 

What is even more exciting than reflecting past glory, is looking to the future of the national team. 

All of these talented young players coming through, many of whom have been rated by some of the finest in Europe, is maybe the light at the end of the tunnel supporters have been waiting for, after over ten years of hurt for Greece. 

If the likes of Kostoulas, Mouzakitis, Karetsas, Konstantelias, Koulieraskis and Tzolis, just to name a few, all live up to their potential, maybe then Greece will have a team that football fans from around the world deem worthy enough to be called a “Golden Generation.”  

@SteveKountourou

Hellas Football