Do You Remember Them #10- Theofanis Gekas

Biodata

Full Name: Theofanis Gekas

Nationality: Greek

Date of Birth: 23 May 1980

Position: Striker

Former Clubs:

1998- 2001 AEL

2001- 2005 Kallithea

2005- 2007 Panathinaikos

2006- 2007 VfL Bochum (loan)

2007- 2010 Bayer Leverkusen

2009 Portsmouth (loan)

2010 Hertha BSC (loan)

2010- 2012 Eintracht Frankfurt

2012 Samsunspor

2012- 2013 Levante

2013 Akhisar Belediyespor

2013- 2014 Konyaspor

2014- 2015 Akhisar Belediyespor

2015 Eskisehirspor

2016- 2017 Sion

2017 Sivasspor

International Career:

2005- 2014 Greece

Achievement:

None

Career

The victory of Euro 2004 had given a lot of Greek football player the attention and football resources like never before. More and more local and international footballing talent had emerged from the Greek league since then. This proved to be the peak moment for Greece football overall. Football team outside Greece are more willing to give Greek player a chance to showcase his talent in their team. In fact, there is a talented Greek goalscorer had proved that he is able to score whenever and whichever league that he went in his whole footballing career. Who is this prolific striker that we are talking about?

Theofanis Gekas started his professional football career in 1998 at his hometown club AEL, which is the Greek second division team at that time. Even at his young age, Gekas had performed at his highest-scoring ability. In his professional season in AEL, Gekas scored 12 goals in 38 games in all competition. This hot scoring form had attracted the attention of Kallithea, which is also the Greek second division team. His 14 goals in 26 league games had helped Kallithea to get promoted to the Greek first division and became the top scorer of the Greek second division at the same season as well. Gekas continuously high-quality performance had helped Kallithea to stay in the Greek first division for three continuous seasons under his service. His performance had earned him a move to Panathinaikos during the 2005 winter transfer. At his new club, Gekas became the top goal scorer of the Greek League in 2005 and earned himself a national team call up. Gekas also participated in the FIFA Confederations Cup 2005 alongside his national team.

In the summer of 2006, Panathinaikos had loaned Gekas to VfL Bochum after the German club had expressed their interest in the Greek striker. During that season, VfL Bochum was actually fighting against relegation. The addition of Gekas not only avoided relegation but also secured their place in Bundesliga quite comfortably. Gekas was also the Bundesliga top scorer at that season, with a tally of 20 goals. His goal-scoring ability had attracted the attention from Bayer Leverkusen and subsequently signed him on the next season. Gekas form was consistently good as he was also the top scorer of Bayer Leverkusen in the 2007-2008 season. However, he was consistently dropped from the squad by his manager at the time, Michael Skibbe. On the February next season, Gekas was loaned out to the struggling Portsmouth for the remainder of the 2008-2009 season. Unfortunately, the manager who signed him, Tony Adams was sacked shortly after he completed the move and the caretaker Paul Hart did not give him any game time. Gekas was returned to Leverkusen earlier.

His return to Leverkusen was not great either. Gekas was competing with several strikers in the team like Stefan Kiessling, Eren Derdiyok and Patrick Helmes for a place in the starting eleven. On December 2009, Gekas signed for Hertha BSC in a short term deal. However, Hertha BSC could not escape relegation despite his 6 goals and 1 assist contribution. Gekas finally escape Bayer Leverkusen as he joined Eintracht Frankfurt on the next season. Unfortunately, Gekas also could not help Eintracht Frankfurt to escape relegation despite his 16 goals and 3 assists in the league. His stay in the 2.Bundesliga was not a long one as he signed for Samsunspor after just 14 games into the season.

Since he left Germany, Gekas started his nomadic career around Europe. He signed for several clubs across Europe, mostly in Turkey. The club that Gekas played for in the latter year of his career is Samsunspor, Levante, Akhisar Belediyespor, Konyaspor, Eskisehirspor, Sion and Sivasspor. He is still carrying his top goal-scoring form whenever he went as his goal ratio is almost one goal in two matches. In terms of the national team, Gekas was part of the Greece national team player in FIFA World Cup 2010, Euro 2012 and FIFA World Cup 2014. However, his most remembered moment in that period was the missed penalty kick in the shootout against Costa Rica in the Round of 16 in FIFA World Cup 2014 that directly caused the Greece national team to get eliminated. In 2017, Gekas announced his retirement from football.

Post Retirement

After his retirement, Gekas had remained low profile and kept himself away from the limelight. However, his legacy as one of the best striker in Greece football team history still remains in the heart of the Greek football fans.