Angelos Charisteas (born February 9, 1980 in Serres, Greece) is
a striker on the Greece national football team. At the 2004
European Football Championship, he scored the lone goal in a 1-0
victory over France to lead his team to the semifinals. He went
on to score the only goal in Greece's 1-0 win over Portugal in
the final. In Euro 2004 he also scored against Spain (1-1), in
the second game of Greece in the tournament.
Professionally, Charisteas firstly played for Aris, in Greece.
Now he plays for Ajax in the Dutch Eredivisie. He was signed
from German Bundesliga side Werder Bremen in December 2004,
after both leagues went on their annual winter break, thereby
opening the transfer window. He was largely a fringe player at
Bremen before Euro 2004, and his heroics did not change his
status there, as he was the fourth-choice striker at Bremen.
Greece national team coach Otto Rehhagel publicly urged
Charisteas to try to move to another club during the January
2005 transfer window in order to get first-team action.
The deal was logical for both clubs. Bremen wished to raise
money and clear payroll in order to make a bid for Monaco
striker Shabani Nonda. For its part, Ajax was hoping to find a
replacement for Swedish international striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic,
who was sold to Italian power Juventus before the 2004-05
season. |
