Theofanis Gekas
| Theofanis Gekas | ||
 Theofanis Gekas (2013)
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| Personnel | ||
|---|---|---|
| birthday | May 23, 1980 | |
| place of birth | Larissa , Greece | |
| size | 179 cm | |
| position | Storm | |
| Juniors | ||
| Years | station | |
| 1997-1998 | Toxotis | |
| Men's | ||
| Years | station | Games (goals) 1 |
| 1998-2001 | AE Larisa | 61 (15) |
| 2001-2005 | Kallithea FC | 99 (46) |
| 2005-2007 | Panathinaikos Athens | 41 (23) |
| 2006-2007 | → VfL Bochum (loan) | 32 (20) |
| 2007-2010 | Bayer 04 Leverkusen | 50 (13) |
| 2009 | → Portsmouth FC (loan) | 1 (0) |
| 2010 | → Hertha BSC (loan) | 17 (6) |
| 2010–2012 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 48 (23) |
| 2012 | Samsunspor | 11 (8) |
| 2012 | Levante UD | 4 (0) |
| 2013 | Akhisar Belediyespor | 15 (12) |
| 2013-2014 | Torku Konyaspor | 24 (13) |
| 2014-2015 | Akhisar Belediyespor | 24 (12) |
| 2015 | Eskişehirspor | 10 (5) |
| 2016-2017 | FC Sion | 30 (13) |
| 2017 | Sivasspor | 10 (2) |
| National team | ||
| Years | selection | Games (goals) |
| 2005-2014 | Greece | 78 (24) |
| 1 Only league games are given. | ||
Theofanis "Fanis" Gekas [ θɛɔˈfanis ˈʝɛkas ] ( Greek Θεοφάνης Γκέκας , born May 23, 1980 in Larisa ) is a former Greek football player . In the 2006/07 season he was the top scorer in the Bundesliga with 20 goals .
Career
Greece
Gekas began his professional career in his hometown Larisa with the local second division club AE Larisa . After three years, he moved to the Athens club Kallithea FC in the summer of 2001 , with whom he was promoted to Alpha Ethniki , the first division , in the first year . Up to this point, Gekas had scored 30 goals in 87 second division matches.
Since Gekas scored goals with constant regularity in the following years, the traditional Greek clubs quickly became aware of the striker. So it came about that he moved to Panathinaikos Athens in January 2005 after 32 goals in 73 games . For Gekas, who scored eight goals in the remaining 15 match days and was thus top scorer of the 2004/05 season, this should be the breakthrough in his career. In addition to a regular place at Panathinaikos, he played his way into the circle of the Greek national team and took part in the Confederations Cup 2005 . At Panathinaikos he made 41 appearances and 23 goals. In 2006, Gekas made his UEFA Champions League debut and finished second on the Greek top scorer list with 15 goals in the Greek league.
VfL Bochum
On August 23, 2006 he moved to Germany to VfL Bochum , who had been promoted back to the Bundesliga , and with his seven goals scored in the first half of the season he played a part in the fact that the club spent the winter of 2007 on a non-relegation zone. In November 2006, Bochum coach Marcel Koller respectfully dubbed him “our life insurance” because of his performance. At VfL he played with the shirt number 22.
On February 18, 2007, Gekas scored his first “Bundesliga double” with his two goals in the game at Arminia Bielefeld and brought VfL to victory in this important away game. His second brace followed on March 10, 2007 in the home game against Borussia Dortmund , who were defeated 2-0. On April 8, 2007, he was able to contribute two goals to the morally important 4-1 away win for VfL at Bayer 04 Leverkusen . The winning goal to 2-1, with which VfL leaders defeated FC Schalke 04 in the Revierderby in Bochum on April 27, 2007 , was his 19th goal in the Bundesliga. During the second half of the season he scored at least one goal in eight consecutive games, making it the longest streak of a player from a newcomer. Gekas scored the opening goal at Hamburger SV on matchday 32 . He was the top scorer with 20 goals, enough to be awarded the top scorer's cannon after Stefan Kuntz (22 goals in 1986) and Thomas Christiansen (21 goals in 2003) .
Bayer 04 Leverkusen
After the 2006/07 season , Gekas moved from VfL Bochum to league rivals Bayer 04 Leverkusen. VfL did not take advantage of the purchase option against Panathinaikos Athens, which they had in the meantime to stay in the league. The parties have agreed not to disclose the amount of the payment due.
In the 2007/08 season , Gekas was still part of the Leverkusen regular team and scored eleven goals in 29 games. However, he was not undisputed as he was accused of not playing in a team-friendly manner. After the signing of Patrick Helmes in the summer of 2008, Gekas was only the third striker behind him and Stefan Kießling . He came in the preliminary round of 2008/09 on 15 missions, but played a total of only 167 minutes and scored two goals, which is why he wanted to leave the club.
Portsmouth FC
February 1, 2009 Gekas was until the end of season 2008/09 at the Portsmouth awarded the Gekas would have long term through a purchase option can bind to itself. Gekas, however, did not make his only appearance until matchday 32, when he was substituted on in the 90th minute. This was probably due, among other things, to the fact that the coach Tony Adams , who had brought Gekas, was replaced a short time later by Paul Hart .
Return to Leverkusen
Gekas is returning to Leverkusen for the 2009/10 season . Since Patrick Helmes sustained a lengthy injury before the season started, a place in the storm became available. However, this went to the Swiss newcomer Eren Derdiyok , so that Gekas was not part of the team. He was used six times in the Bundesliga and could not score a goal.
Hertha BSC
For the second half of the 2009/10 season, Gekas was awarded by the autumn champions Leverkusen to the last half of the season Hertha BSC . There he should help to prevent the threatened relegation to the 2nd Bundesliga . In a 5-1 win in the away game against VfL Wolfsburg , Gekas scored his first three-pack in his Bundesliga career on March 21, 2010 (matchday 27). The Berliners also secured an option to contractually bind Gekas if they were successful in relegation. Since this did not succeed, he formally returned to Leverkusen for the 2010/11 season .
Eintracht Frankfurt
On May 19, 2010, however, Gekas signed a two-year contract with Eintracht Frankfurt . Here he met Ioannis Amanatidis , who played with him in the Greek national team, and his old Leverkusen coach Michael Skibbe , who had been Eintracht's head coach since 2009. After poor performance in preparation and in the first game of the season, he was initially considered a bad buy. But on the 3rd matchday he scored his first two competitive goals for Eintracht in the away game in Mönchengladbach. In the eight games that followed, he scored the first goal for his team six times. He also got five “double packs” during this period. In the first half of the 2010/11 season Gekas scored 14 goals in 17 Bundesliga games and was the top goalscorer.
However, this was offset by a drop in performance in the second half of the season. Although he made all 17 games of the season here too, he only scored two goals. At the end of the season, Eintracht was relegated to the 2nd Bundesliga , but Gekas remained loyal to her.
In the 2nd Bundesliga 2011/12 Gekas scored six goals in 14 games in the first half of the season.
Samsunspor
During the 2011/12 winter break, Gekas moved to Samsunspor . On January 21, 2012 in the home game against table neighbors and Black Sea rivals Orduspor , Gekas met twice for his new club. On February 2, 2012 Gekas scored three goals against second table Fenerbahçe Istanbul . In the last games for relegation he was no longer available to Samsunspor due to a ligament stretch . Samsunspor was relegated at the end of the season. This was the third time in a row that Gekas was relegated with a club.
Levante UD
In August 2012 Gekas moved to the Primera División to UD Levante . After only four appearances in the league, in which he did not score, Gekas terminated his contract prematurely in November 2012 in agreement with the club.
Akhisar Belediyespor
For the second half of the 2012/13 season Gekas moved back to Turkey and hired the first division newcomer Akhisar Belediyespor, who was in danger of relegation . At Akhisar, too, as at Samsunspor, he immediately made a breakthrough within the team. With his 12 goals in 15 league games, he was instrumental in maintaining his team's relegation, which the club only secured on the last match day. Through his work, he established himself as a crowd favorite with the fans. After the end of the season, his contract could not be extended due to different salary expectations, so Gekas left the club.
Torku Konyaspor
In the last week of the 2013/14 summer transfer period, Gekas moved to the Turkish first division club Torku Konyaspor .
Akhisar Belediyespor (2nd period)
For the 2014/15 season Gekas returned to his previous club Akhisar Belediyespor and signed a two-year contract here. With this club, he started the 2014/15 season very successfully and for a long time led the league's top scorer list. With the turn of the year, Gekas had an unfortunate time and did not score a goal for a long time. After he began to miss the training sessions for no reason, he was immediately suspended from the squad by head coach Roberto Carlos .
Eskişehirspor
For the 2015/16 season Gekas hired the Turkish first division club Eskişehirspor . Here he met Michael Skibbe , his head coach from his time at Eintracht Frankfurt .
FC Sion
In February 2016 he moved to FC Sion .
Sivasspor
In January 2017 he moved to Sivasspor , where he only played for half a year. Then he ended his career.
National team
While Gekas was set up as a center forward at Kallithea and Panathinaikos and also played in this position at VfL Bochum, at the beginning of his national team career under Otto Rehhagel in the Greek selection he also acted as right winger or directly behind the tips. He scored his first goal for the selection of Greece on June 2, 2007 in a 2-0 victory over Hungary during the European Championship qualification. In the game against Latvia on October 10, 2009, he scored four goals in Greece's 5-2 win. With a total of ten goals in ten games during qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, Gekas was the best striker in the European qualifying groups.
In September 2010 Gekas resigned from the national team. According to his own statement, the reasons for this were “special conditions”. In October 2011 Gekas returned to the national team. He made his comeback in the national team on October 7, 2011, when he played in the qualifying match for the 2012 European Football Championship against Croatia . Here he met the 2-0 final score.
Play style
The right-footed player with number 11 was considered a player who had little contact with the ball, but who often came to the end of the goal due to his goal instinct and the skillful waiting at the level of the offside line.
useful information
Even after several years in Germany, Gekas could not speak the German language ; nor did he want to learn German. Gekas justified his displeasure with the fact that he “is paid for scoring goals, not for speaking”.
Awards
Web links
- Theofanis Gekas in the database of weltfussball.de
- Theofanis Gekas in the database of the German Football Association
- Theofanis Gekas in the database of kicker.de
- Theofanis Gekas in the database of soccerbase.com (English)
- Theofanis Gekas in the Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu database (English)
- Theofanis Gekas in the database of transfermarkt.de
- Theofanis Gekas in the database of mackolik.com (Turkish)
- Theofanis Gekas in the database of National-Football-Teams.com (English)
- Theofanis Gekas in the database of EU-Football.info (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hinterseer: "Until the last game is over" kicker.de, April 11, 2016
- ^ Matthias Arnhold: Theofanis Gekas - Matches and Goals in Bundesliga . RSSSF.com . December 20, 2019. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
- ↑ Skibbe beams: Gekas is coming!
- ↑ Eintracht agrees to Gekas change ( Memento from March 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Change from Theofanis Gekas perfect ( Memento from January 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ GAZETEFUTBOL . March 26, 2012. Retrieved March 26, 2012.
- ↑ Gekas llega a Valencia esta misma tarde ( Memento from August 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (German: Gekas arrives in Valencia this evening), message on the homepage of UD Levante from August 14, 2012 (accessed on August 14, 2012 ).
- ↑ "Gekas Akhisar Belediyespor'da" ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) (accessed January 25, 2013)
- ↑ trtspor.com.tr: "İşte Gekas'ın yeni takımı!" ( Memento from September 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on September 4, 2013)
- ↑ trtspor.com.tr: "Gekas yeniden" Akigo "dedi" (accessed on July 27, 2014)
- ↑ tr.eurosport.com: "Akhisar Belediyespor'da Gekas depremi!" (Accessed on July 5, 2015)
- ↑ FC Sion signs Theofánis Gekas and Anton Mitryushkin fc-sion.ch, accessed on February 11, 2016
- ↑ Gekas resigns from the national team (Greek)
- ↑ Efficiency in Greek? Gekas! October 28, 2010, archived from the original on July 21, 2012 ; Retrieved September 27, 2011 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gekas, Theofanis |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Gekas, Fanis (nickname); Γκέκας, Θεοφάνης (Greek) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Greek soccer player |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 23, 1980 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Larissa , Greece |