Sydney Olympic Unveil Greek Star Sotiris Kyrgiakos

Former Greek international and Liverpool star Sotiris Kyrgiakos (pictured, left) will turn out for NSW Greek-Australian side Sydney Olympic FC this weekend, after being officially unveiled by the team’s officials on Monday.

Sydney’s new signing took many by surprise and is surely one of the highest-profile transfers in Australian soccer history. The Greek veteran agreed to play in two matches with the Greek-Australian team. Kyrgiakos will play the first of his two games for Olympic on March 23 against Blacktown Spartans at Belmore Sports Ground, a game the club expects will draw a crowd in excess of 5000 supporters. His second match will be a fortnight later at Belmore when Olympic takes on St George on April 6.

Various pundits believe Kyrgiakos will be looking to impress A-League clubs with his performance in the hope of securing a contract for next season, although the player himself dismissed that as speculation.

‘It’s a beautiful thing for me to come to Sydney and play football in Australia,” Kyrgiakos said, via a translator. ”I wanted to experience this opportunity, which was to be available for a handful of games, and that’s really all the club proposed.”

Kyrgiakos revealed that he had received several contract offers from Greek and Russian clubs, but Olympic’s hellenic link carried a greater bearing on his decision. ”There was a lot of interest from Greece but I didn’t want to play there, Russia was the same,” he said. ”I’m thrilled to get to know Australian football and experience it and it’s very significant that I’m coming to a very historic club with great Greek support,” he said.

The 34-year-old central defender has enjoyed a 15-year professional career at major clubs including English giants Liverpool and, also in the Premier League, Sunderland, as well as Scotland’s Rangers, Germany’s Eintracht Frankfurt, and most recently Wolfsburg, in addition to spells at AEK Athens and Panathinaikos and his 61 international caps.