Angelos Charisteas

Angelos Charisteas (; ) (born February 9, 1980 in Strymoniko, Serres) is a Greece football (soccer) striker who currently plays for 1. FC Nuremberg. He is a member of the Greece national football team and played in the 2004 European Football Championship, in which Greece was triumphant, scoring the winning goal in the final against Portugal national football team.

Club Football

After a few year playing for non-league Strimonikos Serron Charisteas eventually started his professional career with Greek side Aris Thessaloniki FC. This actually came against his family's wishes at the time as Angelos had to famously go to the Aris trials in secret. 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 FC in 1998–99. He returned to Aris the following season and made his European debut in a UEFA Cup defeat by RC 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 Germany Bundesliga (football) 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 Fußball-Bundesliga 2003/04, Bremen won the Bundesliga and the German Cup with Charisteas scoring four goals from 24 appearances. He was largely a fringe player at Bremen before Euro 2004, and his heroics in that competition did not change his status at Bremen, as he was the fourth-choice striker.

In the 2004–05 season, Charisteas scored five goals in eleven matches for Bremen, before moving to the Netherlands to play for AFC Ajax for a reported €4.5m 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 Sweden national football team striker Zlatan Ibrahimović, who had been sold to Juventus F.C.. 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 Arnhem. Charisteas missed Greece's crucial match in the World Cup qualifying due to a head injury received after colliding with Arsenal F.C. Kolo Touré in a Champions League match which Ajax lost 2-1.

Under the 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 in Amsterdam. Despite stating that he was only interested in a move to England or Germany, Charisteas signed for arch-rivals Feyenoord Rotterdam on 31 August 2006, the final day of the summer transfer window. This move caused some 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 the 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 most 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 July 6, 2007 1. FC Nuremberg confirmed a deal with Feyenoord to sign Charisteas on a four year deal worth 2.5 million euros. Charisteas scored his first two “official” goals with German club Nuremberg, in a 6-0 victory, against fourth division club Victoria Hamburg.