Arsenal have secured the signature of young Greek forward Giorgos Samaras from Dutch side Heerenveen.
Samaras, 20, who bagged 11 goals last season, will be loaned back to Heerenveen immediately and join the Gunners squad in the summer of 2006, the deal is reportedly to be worth 4 million euros.
The deal was concluded late last night after the Greece-Ukraine u/21 fixture. Expect the news to be hitting the papers and websites today.
Samaras is Greece's best talent. Very quick and strong shooter.
In Holland they are comparing him to Batistuta.
I wish him all the best at the Gunners, hopefully he doesnt follow the same path as the last Greek at Arsenal - Tavrilidis.
某网友对他的评价：
Last night I actually watched the U-21 game between Turkey and Greece (we won 0-1 by the way ) and it was the first time I see Giorgos Samaras play a full-game... My god, what a player! He is a striker and he is BIG. I don't know how tall exactly (looked something like 1.95m) but he was not only the tallest player in the pitch (about a head taller than any Turkish defender) but also the FASTEST one, and the strongest one and the one with the best technique. It was like a man playing among boys. Three or four times he took the ball and dribbled past 3 or 4 Turkish players like they were not there... Winning headers, keeping the ball, defending, linking up with his teammates - he did EVERYTHING. And he had some wonderful tricks and flicks... BEATIFULL. He didn't score even though he had a couple of chances but every time he took the ball he was doing something good. At one instant, he dribbled past a Turkish defender and him not knowing what to do dived and grabbed him from his feet like in rugby. He was so good that when he was subbed out, the Turkish fans applauded him. We seriously should have no worries about the future of our attack. Salpiggidis, Samaras, Papadopoulos, Mantzios.
As for the reports of the other players: GK Sifakis (OFI) was bit unstable. Right back Torosidis (Xanthi) was ok. Leodiou (Proodeftiki, but he is of PAO) was our left back and he was horrible in first half but terrific in second. Central defence of Fintanidis (Kalamaria) and Avraam Papadopoulos (Aris) was very good. Tziolis (Panionios, but signed for PAO) was defencive midfielder and he was very average and also got a deserved red card for two very violent fouls. Other two central midfielders were Goundoulakis (Panionios) and Mendrinos (Olympiakos) both of them had bad game. Arabatzis (Panseraikos) on the right wing and Lagos (Iraklis) on the left were ok, Lagos scored our goal too. Samaras (Heerenven) up front was fantastic. In second half Vaggelis Mantzios came in and he was very good, assisting the goal too after nice move and low cross by Samaras from the wing. Kiriakidis of AEK replaced Goundoulakis and was ok, run a lot. After Tziolis was sent off, Liapakis of Egaleo came in and he was ok.
