Angelos Charisteas

Angelos Charisteas

Personal information
Full name	Angelos Charisteas
Date of birth	9 February 1980 (1980-02-09) (age 31)
Place of birth	Serres, Greece
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Playing position	Striker Winger
Club information
Current club	Arles-Avignon
Number	9
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1997–2002	Aris Thessaloniki	87	(19)
1998–1999	→ Athinaikos (loan)	7	(1)
2002–2005	Werder Bremen	66	(18)
2005–2006	Ajax	31	(12)
2006–2007	Feyenoord	28	(9)
2007–2010	Nuremberg	57	(8)
2009	→ Bayer Leverkusen (loan)	13	(1[1])
2010–	Arles	0	(0)
National team‡
2001–	Greece	85	(24)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 17 April 2010. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 12 June 2010

Angelos Charisteas (Greek: Άγγελος Χαριστέας, pronounced [ˈaɲɟelos xariˈste.as]; born 9 February 1980 in Strymoniko, Serres), but originates from Mani. He is a Greek footballer, who currently plays as a striker for Arles-Avignon. He is a member of the Greece national football team.

Club Football

After a few years playing for non-league Strimonikos Serron Charisteas eventually started his professional career with Greek side Aris Thessaloniki. It was during his first season at Aris that Charisteas started making a name for himself, scoring twice in nine matches as they won the Greek second division in 1997–98. Charisteas started well in his first season in the Greek top league and got further noticed when he scored twice in the local derby against Thessaloniki rivals PAOK. The striker made twelve appearances in the Alpha Ethniki – six as a substitute – before a loan at Athinaikos in 1998–99. He returned to Aris the following season and made his European debut in a UEFA Cup defeat by Celta de Vigo at the age of 19. Charisteas was continuously developing and in the 2000–01 season scored seven goals, his best return in Aris' colours.

Having been watched by scouts from a number of Europe's leading sides, he was signed by German Bundesliga side Werder Bremen in the summer of 2002. He had a successful first season scoring nine goals in 31 appearances in the Bundesliga and two goals from four games in the UEFA Cup. Then in 2003–04, Bremen won the Bundesliga and the German Cup with Charisteas scoring four goals from 24 appearances.

In the 2004–05 season, Charisteas scored five goals in 11 matches for Bremen, before moving to the Netherlands to play for AFC Ajax for a reported €4.5 million fee. Greece national team coach Otto Rehhagel had publicly urged Charisteas to try to move to another club during the January 2005 transfer window in order to get more first-team action. Ajax fitted the bill as they were hoping to find a replacement for Swedish international striker Zlatan Ibrahimović, who had been sold to Juventus. Charisteas made his Ajax debut on 23 January 2005 against FC Utrecht and scored his first goal four days later against SC Heerenveen. However, he only managed three more games all season. Charisteas netted home eight goals in the 2005–06 season, which included a late winner against Vitesse. Charisteas missed Greece's crucial match in the World Cup qualifying due to a head injury received after colliding with Arsenal's Kolo Touré in a Champions League match which Ajax lost 2–1.

Under new Ajax coach Henk ten Cate, Charisteas was the 5th striker behind Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Markus Rosenberg, Ryan Babel, and Rydell Poepon. Ten Cate explained this by saying that Charisteas is a great striker for the 4-4-2-system, but not for the 4-3-3-system which is played for Ajax. Despite stating that he was only interested in a move to England or Germany, Charisteas signed for arch-rivals Feyenoord in Rotterdam on 31 August 2006, the final day of the summer transfer window. This move caused a great deal of agitation in Rotterdam with parts of Het Legioen that did not want an Ajax player at their club protesting at De Kuip and demanded chairman Jorien van den Herik to resign. Charisteas made his debut for Feyenoord on 10 September against Sparta Rotterdam and played the full game. He eventually scored his first goal for his new club in his tenth game. Although he seemed to establish and convince some fans at a certain point, Charisteas never enjoyed a good relationship with Feyenoord supporters. The Greek striker played a total of 28 games for Feyenoord and netted nine goals.

On 6 July 2007, 1. FC Nuremberg confirmed a deal with Feyenoord to sign Charisteas on a four-year deal worth €2.5 million. Charisteas scored his first two official team goals in a 6–0 victory against fourth division club SC Victoria Hamburg.

On 2 February 2009, he was loaned out to Bayer Leverkusen until the end of the season.

The 2009–10 season (where he returned back to newly promoted Nuremberg) has been a fairly disappointing season for Charisteas due his lack of goals. His first goal of the season came on 12 March 2010, when he scored the winning goal in the 1–2 away win against Hertha BSC.

International career

Having been a regular player for the Greek Under-21 side, Charisteas made his senior international debut in February 2001 in a 3-3 draw against Russia. His impact was immediate as he scored two of the goals for Greece that day. His prolific goal scoring continued, eventually helping his team qualify for the UEFA Euro 2004 Championship.

During the victorious Euro 2004 campaign, Charisteas scored three goals: one in the group stage against Spain, one against France in the quarterfinals and the winning goal against Portugal in the final. His contribution to the team and his impact in the competition was further recognised when he was named in the Euro 2004 All-star Team and he was also nominated for 2004 European Footballer of the year award, where he finished 11th in votes.

In January 2007, Charisteas told Dutch football magazine Voetbal International that winning Euro 2004 was an unbelievable experience which he would not swap for all the money in the world: “Even in 50 years time, everybody will remember that I scored the goal which made Greece the champions of Europe. We wrote history and my life changed completely at that point.”

In the qualifying rounds for UEFA Euro 2008, Charisteas scored three goals, helping Greece to automatically qualify for the competition with two games left. He would go on to be one of few Greek players who performed well at Euro 2008, scoring the defending champions' only goal of the tournament in the 2-1 defeat to Spain. He also scored 3 goals for his country in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification.

During and after Greece's qualifying campaign for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, his selection for the national team by Otto Rehhagel has mainly been criticized in Greece due his lack of goals and disappointing performances for club and country. Despite that, Charisteas was part of the squad that travelled to South Africa for the final tournament, where he played one game.

On August 2, 2010 Greece's new National coach Fernando Santos decided to drop him from the Greek team, due to his poor form. Charisteas found himself out of the Greek National team after almost 8 years.^[2]

Career statistics

^[3]

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	28 February 2001	Pankritio Stadium, Heraklion, Greece	Russia	2 – 3	3–3	Friendly match
2.	28 February 2001	Pankritio Stadium, Heraklion, Greece	Russia	3 – 3	3–3	Friendly match
3.	28 March 2001	Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece	Germany	1 – 1	2–4	2002 FIFA World Cup qualifier
4.	6 October 2001	Old Trafford, Manchester, England	England	0 – 1	2–2	2002 FIFA World Cup qualifier
5.	2 April 2003	Windsor Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	0 – 1	0–2	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifier
6.	2 April 2003	Windsor Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	0 – 2	0–2	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifier
7.	11 June 2003	Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium, Athens, Greece	Ukraine	1 – 0	1–0	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifier
8.	3 June 2004	Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz, Liechtenstein	Liechtenstein	0 – 2	0–2	Friendly match
9.	16 June 2004	Estádio do Bessa, Porto, Portugal	Spain	1 – 1	1–1	UEFA Euro 2004
10.	25 June 2004	Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon, Portugal	France	0 – 1	0–1	UEFA Euro 2004
11.	4 July 2004	Estádio da Luz, Lisbon, Portugal	Portugal	0 – 1	0–1	UEFA Euro 2004 Final
12.	17 November 2004	Karaiskákis Stadium, Piraeus, Greece	Kazakhstan	1 – 0	3–1	2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier
13.	17 November 2004	Karaiskákis Stadium, Piraeus, Greece	Kazakhstan	2 – 0	3–1	2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier
14.	30 March 2005	Karaiskákis Stadium, Piraeus, Greece	Albania	1 – 0	2–0	2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier
15.	11 October 2006	Bilino Polje, Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bosnia and Herzegovina	0 – 1	0–4	UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier
16.	6 June 2007	Pankritio Stadium, Heraklion, Greece	Moldova	1 – 0	2–1	UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier
17.	13 October 2007	Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1 – 0	3–2	UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier
18.	6 February 2008	GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus	Finland	1 – 1	2–1	Friendly match
19.	18 June 2008	Wals Siezenheim Stadium, Salzburg, Austria	Spain	0 – 1	2–1	UEFA Euro 2008
20.	6 September 2008	Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg, Luxembourg	Luxembourg	0 – 3	0–3	2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier
21.	11 October 2008	Karaiskákis Stadium, Piraeus, Greece	Moldova	1 – 0	3–0	2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier
22.	11 October 2008	Karaiskákis Stadium, Piraeus, Greece	Moldova	3 – 0	3–0	2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier
23.	15 October 2008	Karaiskákis Stadium, Piraeus, Greece	Switzerland	1 – 1	1–2	2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier
24.	25 May 2010	Stadion Schnabelholz, Altach, Austria	Korea DPR	1 – 2	2–2	Friendly match

Honours

Werder Bremen

• German Championship: 2004
• German Cup: 2004

Ajax

• Dutch Super Cup: 2006
• Dutch Cup: 2006

Greece

• European Championship: 2004
• 2004 UEFA European Football Championship: UEFA Team of the Tournament

Bayer Leverkusen

• German Cup: Runners up 2008–09

References

External links

• Angelos Charisteas at National-Football-Teams.com
• Player profile on Transfermarkt
• Career stats at Fussballdaten.de (German)
• Player profile on Feyenoord official website
• Player profile on ESPN

Greece squads Greece squad – UEFA Euro 2004 Winners (1st Title) 1 Nikopolidis • 2 Seitaridis • 3 Venetidis • 4 Dabizas • 5 Dellas • 6 Basinas • 7 Zagorakis (c) • 8 Giannakopoulos • 9 Charisteas • 10 Tsiartas • 11 Nikolaidis • 12 Chalkias • 13 Katergiannakis • 14 Fyssas • 15 Vryzas • 16 Kafes • 17 Georgiadis • 18 Goumas • 19 Kapsis • 20 Karagounis • 21 Katsouranis • 22 Papadopoulos • 23 Lakis • Coach: Rehhagel Greece squad – 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup 1 Nikopolidis • 2 Seitaridis • 3 Vyntra • 4 Tavlaridis • 5 Kyrgiakos • 6 Basinas • 7 Zagorakis (c) • 8 Giannakopoulos • 9 Charisteas • 10 Tsiartas • 11 Papadopoulos • 12 Chalkias • 13 Sifakis • 14 Fyssas • 15 Vryzas • 16 Kafes • 17 Amanatidis • 18 Goumas • 19 Kapsis • 20 Karagounis • 21 Katsouranis • 22 Gekas • 23 Lakis • Coach: Rehhagel Greece squad – UEFA Euro 2008 1 Nikopolidis • 2 Seitaridis • 3 Patsatzoglou • 4 Spiropoulos • 5 Dellas • 6 Basinas • 7 Samaras • 8 Giannakopoulos • 9 Charisteas • 10 Karagounis • 11 Vyntra • 12 Chalkias • 13 Tzorvas • 14 Salpigidis • 15 Torosidis • 16 Kyrgiakos • 17 Gekas • 18 Goumas • 19 Antzas • 20 Amanatidis • 21 Katsouranis • 22 Tziolis • 23 Liberopoulos • Coach: Rehhagel Greece squad – 2010 FIFA World Cup 1 Chalkias • 2 Seitaridis • 3 Patsatzoglou • 4 Spiropoulos • 5 Moras • 6 Tziolis • 7 Samaras • 8 Papadopoulos • 9 Charisteas • 10 Karagounis (c) • 11 Vyntra • 12 Tzorvas • 13 Sifakis • 14 Salpigidis • 15 Torosidis • 16 Kyrgiakos • 17 Gekas • 18 Ninis • 19 Papastathopoulos • 20 Kapetanos • 21 Katsouranis • 22 Malezas • 23 Prittas • Coach: Rehhagel