'Flash transfer': Roda striker Anastasiou joins Ajax
03 February: Eredivisie sides Ajax and Roda JC
finalized a surprising 'flash transfer' on Monday
evening: Yannis Anastasiou, the 30 year-old Greek central
forward of the Limburg side, will join Ajax immediately,
signing a contract for 18 months. If Ajax can get the
formalities out of the way this week Anastasious is expected to
make his début in Ajax's red and white on Sunday in
the top fixture against PSV.
Yannis Anastasiou. [Photo:
RodaJC.nl]
The transfer eases the pain of coach Ronald Koeman, who has
to deal with a whole team of injured players. The central
forward slot is particularly problematic: Zlatan Ibrahimovic
and Wesley Sonck are injured, Rafaël van der Vaart also
had to miss last Sunday's home game against ADO Den Haag, while
Young Ajax's Jason Culina was on the bench recovering from the
flu and Ryan Babel (Ajax A1) made his first team
début.
Nevertheless, Ajax denies that the purchase of Anastasiou
was a 'panic move'. In the words of general director Arie van
Eijden: "You should not regard this as a panic purchase. We
think Anastasiou is a really good striker and we're glad he's
joining us."
In spite of the fact that Anastasiou was a key player for
Roda, the Limburg side was happy to co-operate. Anastasiou's
contract would have expired in July, which would have allowed
the striker to leave Kerkrade on a free transfer. Selling him
to Ajax was the only way for Roda to receive a modest transfer
fee for the player. Roda head-coach Wiljan Vloet said: "It
really is a shame he's leaving, but in order for Roda to stay
financially healthy this transfer was desirable (...) I did not
want to lose Yannis and I made this clear to the board, but
they told me that this transfer was agreed on for strictly
economic reasons. Yannis is our topscorer and he also gave many
assists."
The transfer fee Ajax paid to Roda JC remained undisclosed
as usual. However, Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad
reports that a transfer to Portugese side Belenenses fell
through recently, because the 300,000 euro
fee demanded by Roda JC was deemed too high by the
Portugese. It is safe to assume that Ajax paid a similar amount
for Anastasiou.
Yannis (also spelled as Ioannis) Anastasiou was born in
Arta, Greece, on 05 March 1973. His professional career started
at Ethnikos Piraeus, for which club he played for two
seasons (1994-1996), playing 46 league games. He netted 11
times. He joined Greek top outfit OFI Crete in the summer
of 1996. He spent three seasons on the Greek island, playing 82
league games for OFI (22 goals).
His first major international transfer followed in 1998: to
Belgian giants RSC Anderlecht. That season Anastasiou made his
début for the Greek national team (for which he played 5
games so far), but he never became a starter at
Anderlecht, in spite of the fact that his 10 appearences
were enough for 4 goals. He dropped out of the Anderlecht squad
in the summer of 2000, after which Roda JC turned up. In four
seasons at Parkstad Limburg Stadium he played 114 Eredivisie
games, scoring 48 goals. In Kerkrade he was a plague for Ajax
several times. In total Yannis Anastasiou played 265 league
games as a professional footballer, in which he scored 90
goals.
Anastasiou is known as a headstrong, physically powerful
striker - not only for his height of 1.85 metres. However, he
is also skillful and known as a central forward with an eye for
team-mates standing in a better position. (MP)
Sources: Ajax.nl, VI.nl, NOS Teletekst, Algemeen
Dagblad
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