Giourkas Seitaridis

Infobox Football biography
playername= Giourkas Seitaridis


fullname = Georgios Dimitrios Seitaridis
Γιούρκας Δημήτριος Σειταρίδης
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1981|6|4
cityofbirth = Piraeus
countryofbirth = Greece
height = height|m=1.85
currentclub = Atlético Madrid
clubnumber = 2
position = Defender
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 1998–2001
2001–2004
2004–2005
2005–2006
2006–
clubs = PAS Giannina
Panathinaikos
FC Porto
Dynamo Moscow
Atlético Madrid Total

caps(goals) = 40 (5)
77 (0)
23 (0)
08 (0)
45 (1)
"'193 (6)
nationalyears = 2002–
nationalteam = Greece
nationalcaps(goals) = 63 (1)
pcupdate = 19 June 2008
ntupdate = 11 October 2008

Georgios "Giourkas" Seitaridis ( _gr. Γιούρκας Σειταρίδης, born 4 June 1981 in Piraeus) is a Greek football player currently playing for Atletico Madrid in Spain and for the Greek national football team. Giourkas (pronounced "Yurkas"), which he uses in both national team and Atlético Madrid shirts, means "George" in the Greek Pontic dialect and is his grandfather's name.

Club career

Seitaridis started his professional career with PAS Giannina in 1998, he was spotted by Greek giants Panathinaikos, for whom he signed for in 2001. At the age of 22 he won his first championship in the 2003-04 season. He was signed by Portuguese side and then Champions League winner FC Porto, there he won the Intercontinental Cup in 2004, there were constant rumours about a possible change of course to Real Madrid, following his success at Euro 2004, but the deal fell through, and on May 23 2005 he was sold to Russian side Dynamo Moscow for a fee approaching €10m euros. [ [http://www.uefa.com/footballeurope/news/kind=2/newsid=303874.html Dinamo pay record fee for Seitaridis] UEFA, 23 May 2005]

Seitaridis decided to leave Dynamo after one season, so on 16 June 2006 he was transferred to Atlético Madrid for a transfer fee of €12 million euros. [ [http://www.uefa.com/footballeurope/news/kind=2/newsid=430275.html Seitaridis joins Atletico newcomers] UEFA, 16 June 2006] Seitaridis scored his first goal for Atletico in a game against Gloria Bistriţa. [ [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/intertotocup/fixturesresults/round=15113/match=300827/report=rp.html Seitaridis steals Gloria's thunder] UEFA, 21 July 2007] On 11 November 2007, Seitaridis damaged his achilles tendon in a match against UD Almería, he underwent surgery and was expected back middle of March 2008. [ [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/uefacup/news/kind=1/newsid=619357.html Seitaridis set for surgery] UEFA, 15 November 2007] He made his return in the away 2-1 win over Sevilla, although not playing he did make the sub's bench and claimed it was good to be back after such a long time out.

International career

Seitaridis made his international debut on 13 February 2002 against Sweden, and later that year participated in the 2002 UEFA European Under-21 Championship final round in Switzerland. He also participated at Euro 2004 in Portugal, and was named as part of the 23-man UEFA All-Star squad, together with four other Greek players.

He scored his first international goal against Hungary in a UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying match.

tatistics

"Last updated May 31 2008"

Honours

*Greek Super League winner in 2003-04 with Panathinaikos
*Greek Cup winner in 2003-04 with Panathinaikos
*Euro 2004 winner with Greece
*Euro 2004 member of the UEFA Team of the Tournament
*Intercontinental Cup winner in 2004 FC Porto

References

External links

* [http://www.clubatleticodemadrid.com/en/primerequipo/jugadores.asp Official Atletico Madrid profile]
* [http://en.euro2008.uefa.com/tournament/teams/team=49/index.html UEFA player profile]
* [http://www.footballdatabase.com/index.php?page=player&Id=1133&pn=Giourkas_Seitaridis FootballDatabase.com statistics for Giourkas Seitaridis]