Georgios Spanoudakis -- Sandhausen II

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  • Georgios Spanoudakis -- Sandhausen II

    I wondered what happened to this kid since after languishing at Guimares B for a year, I hadn't heard a thing, but apparently he was loaned to SV Sandhausen II in the fifth division of the German League. 1 goal and 1 assist in 5 games. I have to figure he was injured for most of last season. Since the last time I saw him, he's finally put on some weight and now looks like he can play with the big boys.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lZXVZ2cfR0

    Still some good moves on him. Hopefully he can work up the ranks and make enough noise to get noticed in a positive way.

  • #2
    Its already over for the half german, half greek player.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Reaper View Post
      Its already over for the half german, half greek player.
      What do you mean exactly?
      Last edited by Dean97; 09-22-2019, 01:15 PM.

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      • #4
        He's only 20. Lots of top players come up through the league system; Muller, Kante, Vardy, Holebas, etc. With a football education from Barcelona and Stuttgart, he can probably find his way to the Greek top division at a minimum.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Don Giovanni View Post
          He's only 20. Lots of top players come up through the league system; Muller, Kante, Vardy, Holebas, etc. With a football education from Barcelona and Stuttgart, he can probably find his way to the Greek top division at a minimum.
          True.. Greek league is equal opportunity with anyone who claims to be a footballer. I am struck however by this player's failure.

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          • #6
            I remember the hype on this guy years ago on gs.com

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Amorgos View Post
              I remember the hype on this guy years ago on gs.com
              He was the future...

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Reaper View Post
                Its already over for the half german, half greek player.

                I agree he fell properly through the cracks, and I wonder if it was injuries or simply something he isn't showing at a basic level.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Greekfreak View Post


                  I agree he fell properly through the cracks, and I wonder if it was injuries or simply something he isn't showing at a basic level.
                  I only saw glimpses of him. Just looked a normal midfielder. I think the fact he was the Barcelona youth made us all loopy. There have been tonnes of crap players come out that academy. Shame he could be as good as Carles Perez or Ansu - but even if he was - the Germans would knock on his door light years before the Greeks.

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                  • #10
                    Bernardo Silva wasn't considered good enough for Benfica and was ready to end his football career. It took a youth coach to believe in him the first time he thought of quitting and then later again when he thought of ending his career early (so he could go to university) it took a move to Monaco to turn things around for him.

                    https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en...silva-portugal

                    my path was quite difficult. I was always very small, and when you get to be a teenager, that can start to become a problem with certain coaches. When I was 16, I was at a critical stage in my career. I was hardly playing for the youth team. To me, that was like torture. I lived to play football. So I struggled to cope with it. Actually, it got to the point where I wanted to leave the club. That’s how unhappy I was.

                    But luckily, I got saved by a guy named Fernando Chalana.

                    Chalana was one of the greatest Portuguese players of all time. He was this tiny winger with an incredible mustache, who dribbled and passed so well that people called him o Pequeno Genial (the Little Genius).

                    He was one of our youth coaches at Benfica, and I guess he must have seen some of himself in me, because one day he took me aside and said, “Listen, your manager hasn’t got a clue about football. You’re the best player here. And trust me … One day you’ll be very important.”

                    That was probably the single most important conversation I’ve had in my life. Without Chalana, I don’t know what would have happened to me. He even started calling me “Messizinho.” I guess he did it because Lionel Messi and I are both small, technical and leftfooted. Of course, you can’t compare me to a genius like Messi, but the fact that Chalana did it anyway gave me so much confidence.

                    So I told myself, O.K., if the Little Genius believes in you, then you ought to believe in yourself too. With that boost, I climbed the ranks until I made the Benfica B team. But it seemed like no matter how well I did, I couldn’t break into the first team. At 18, I still wasn’t playing at the top level, and I actually started to study for my bachelor’s degree in European studies at the University of Lisbon.

                    To be fair, Benfica had a brilliant team. In the 2014 season they won the league and the two domestic cups. I played in one league game all season — as a sub. And that was it. So in the summer, I knew I had to leave. I had to say goodbye to the only club I had played for since I was seven years old.

                    At first, it was so hard to leave Benfica for AS Monaco. I had never lived outside of Lisbon, let alone Portugal. A lot of people thought I wouldn’t play, and to be honest, I could see their point. Monaco was a club with big money that had just finished second in Ligue 1. I was just a 19-year-old coming straight from the Portuguese second division.

                    But as it turned out, joining Monaco was of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I was lucky to work with a Portuguese manager, Leonardo Jardim, and Portuguese players like Ricardo Carvalho and João Moutinho. I broke into the team, and in my third season our young team really clicked. We reached the semifinals of the Champions League — and better still, we beat Paris Saint-Germain to the league title.
                    (emphasis mine)

                    Spanoudakis was 19-years-old last season in the Portuguese second division. The fact he was at Guimares II suggest to me PAOK has taken an interest in his development, but now that he's back in the German league system says to me he might not be deemed good enough. I hope they take a better interest in his development because there won't be many other Greeks who come up through the game with his background and development. And anyone who watches Greece play knows that we're crying out for a CM.

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                    • #11
                      I think there are two things--one, he seems to be a bit injury-prone, which no club wants to take a chance on.

                      Two, the game might be moving away from the Ozil-types, and speed is becoming more of a factor. That aspect seems to be a little asinine in my opinion, because if your team is set up right, you can always use a number 9 or a false-9 for that matter.

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                      • #12
                        2023 and now the kid is completely without a club.

                        I'd love to know his story. Without more info we'll have to presume he simply didn't work hard enough to impress any club of any note. Pity.

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                        • #13
                          Thought it different for the kid, but alas joins the ranks of such superlative talents like Katidis, Panagiotis Vlahodimos and countless other Greek talents. Hopefully delias,Tsingaras, Tsimas and Vagiannidis to name a few, are the exception.

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