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Why don't Greek players abroad stick?


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Hey all, forgive my naivety in advance. I am new to the game, and was curious why the tenure of Greek players abroad is usually so short-lived? Even within Serie-A, it seems a rarity for a player to stay rooted with one team over multiple seasons. 

 

Is there a general reason why this is the case that I am not aware of? Is this a trend that is not unique to Greece players alone, but seen across other nations as well? 

 

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That's a good question. I think you'll get a ton of different answers here. I'd say depending on the player, one of:

  • lack of work ethic
  • the move abroad is made too soon, developmentally
  • players are infantilized (a young prospect until they're in their mid-20s), and never develop as much as they should
  • poor initial development, to start
  • related to the above - a disorganized, corrupt, and disingenuous system behind the promotion of the players, the league, and the teams
  • the leagues they move to are just at too high of a level
  • culture shock

There's probably a bunch I'm missing, but it's a start.

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Pedigree, mentality, work ethic, professionalism, some of my guesses. But for a country of our size we've exported a few decent players.

 

Tsiartas, Georgatos, Zagorakis, Giannakopoulos, Kyriakos, Torosidi, Giouka, Katsourani, Dellas, Gekas and more. No world beaters, but decent players.

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The point that they lack quality wouldn't explain why they don't stay at mediocre foreign teams longer. But a lot of Greeks do play for average teams. And those sorts of teams seem to turn over players very often and usually don't give out very long term contracts. Apart from perhaps in EPL where even the average teams have a lot of money.

 

The one exception that comes to my mind is Amanatidis, who was at Frankfurt for a long time. Oh yes and Big Samaras at Celtic too.

 

Sokratis could stay at Dortmund for many years, it seems like a great club for him. But I wouldn't say the same thing about Manolas at Roma, since they have a habit of selling their CB for good prices.

Edited by Koro
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Pedigree, mentality, work ethic, professionalism, some of my guesses. But for a country of our size we've exported a few decent players.

 

Tsiartas, Georgatos, Zagorakis, Giannakopoulos, Kyriakos, Torosidi, Giouka, Katsourani, Dellas, Gekas and more. No world beaters, but decent players.

 

Tsiartas was a magician, end of story.  Georgatos played for Inter back when Seria A was the real deal.  Giannakopoulos played in the EPL for 5 seasons.  Katsouranis was captain of Benfica and got voted best player of the season for them.  These guys were serious players.  Not the sapia we have today who play one good game in four.

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