George Koumantarakis

Football player infobox
playername = George Koumantarakis


fullname = Georgios Koumantarakis
height = height|m=1.93
nickname =
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1974|3|27
cityofbirth = Athens
countryofbirth = Greece
currentclub =
position = Striker
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 1992-1994 1994-1997 1997-1998 1998-1999 1999-2002 2002-2004 2004-2005 2005-2006
clubs = AmaZulu Manning Rangers → Supersport Utd "(loan)" Luzern Basel Preston Rot-Weiß Erfurt Greuther Fürth Career Totals
caps(goals) = 4 (0)
89 (38)
31 (14) 28 (9) 90 (38) 17 (4) 6 (2) 0 (0) 265 (105)
nationalyears = 1997-2004
nationalteam = South Africa
nationalcaps(goals) = 13 (1)
pcupdate = 4 October 2007

Georgios "George" Koumantarakis (born March 27, 1974 in Athens, Greece) is a retired South African football player of Greek descent. He was born in Athens, Greece but grew up in Durban, South Africa.

He is mostly remembered for his time at FC Basel where he played in the Swiss Super League and UEFA Champions League. He played for the South African national team and was a participant at the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

Club career

George Koumantarakis started out at South African team AmaZulu F.C. in 1992. He left the club after 6 months, however, to join Manning Rangers where he won the South African title. He joined one of South Africa's most successful teams, Supersport United FC, in 1996 for a then record South African club to club transfer. He was a success at Supersport and his big move to Europe came in 1998 when he signed for Swiss club FC Luzern. He had a good debut european season in Luzern and did enough to impress Christian Gross, manager of Swiss giants FC Basel. He spent the next three seasons at Basel, playing over 90 games and scoring 38 goals. His period at Basel was undoubtably the best of his career, winning national titles and playing in European competitions. A move to England was on the cards next for Koumantarakis, signing for Championship outfit Preston North End in 2002. He was a big signing for Preston but failed to live up to expectations as he was injured on international duty after helping Preston recover from 18th in the log to just off the play off places. He left Preston for German club Rot-Weiß Erfurt in the 2004/05 season but his time there was plagued by injury and he only played a handful of games. Erfurt released Koumantarakis at the end of the season and he signed for SpVgg Greuther Fürth. He retired without playing a game for Fürth after failing to overcome his persistent knee injury.

International career

George Koumantarakis played for the South African national team from 1997 until injury started to plague his career in 2004. He was drafted into the squad often but was usually a reserve behind the likes of Benni McCarthy and Sibusiso Zuma. He made his international debut against DR Congo, in a 2-0 defeat, on the 6 April 1997 and played his last last game for "Bafana Bafana" on the 20 June 2004 in a 3-0 defeat to Ghana. The high point of his international career was playing at the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea & Japan where he made a substitute appearance in all three of South Africa's group matches.

Honours and Awards

Team Awards

*flagicon|South Africa Premier Soccer League: 1995
*flagicon|Switzerland Swiss Cup: 2002
*flagicon|Switzerland Swiss Super League: 2002

Individual Awards

*flagicon|South Africa Premier Soccer League Top Goal-Scorer: 1997
*flagicon|South Africa Premier Soccer League Best 11: 1997

References

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/worldcup2002/hi/team_pages/south_africa/squad/newsid_1988000/1988743.stm BBC: World Cup 2002]