Angelos Charisteas leaves Ajax and joins... Feyenoord
31 August: Hours before the
closing of the international transfer window, Feyenoord have
landed Dirk Kuyt's successor. It is... Angelos
Charisteas, Ajax's Greek striker, who was recently told that he
could look out for a new club. Charisteas joined Ajax in
December 2004, committing to the Amsterdam club until
30 June 2008. He had 45 official appearances
for Ajax, in which he scored 15 goals. He will sign a
three-year deal at De Kuip. The transfer fee remains
undisclosed, but technical director Martin van Geel told
newspaper Het Parool that Ajax are "very
pleased indeed with the fee Feyenoord paid us."
Angelos Charisteas (born Serres,
Greece, 09 February 1980) played for Greek sides Strimonikos
Serros, FC Aris Saloniki and Athinaikos FC (94
games and 20 goals on the highest Greek level) before
moving to German outfit SV Werder Bremen in teh
summer of 2002. The year 2004 was the most glorious year in
Charisteas' career: he won the 'double' with Werder Bremen in
Germany and became a Greek legend by scoring the winner
for Greece in the Euro 2004 final against Portugal. On
23 December of that year Ajax landed him as
Zlatan Ibrahimovic's successor.
Just like Ibrahimovic, Charisteas had
a very difficult start at the Amsterdam ArenA. He was heavily
criticised by press and fans, and the head-coach who purchased
him (Ronald Koeman) resigned only months after Charisteas'
arrival. Ajax decided that Angelos Charisteas was not
the man for Ajax's future. The club landed
Markus Rosenberg and later
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. Charisteas lost his starting spot. In
most of his 45 official appearances for Ajax he came
on as a substitute.
Remarkably, Charisteas' play only got
better. He helped Ajax turning games around several times in
the 2005-2006 season. His very last game for Ajax, last
Sunday's Eredivisie away game at
NAC Breda, was typical: Ajax went 1-0 down and Klaas-Jan
Huntelaar was struggling. On came Charisteas, who caused unrest
in the box, played very well as a 'number 9' and won a
penalty for his team (which Huntelaar missed, by the way). Ajax
head-coaches Danny Blind and Henk ten Cate praised Charisteas
for his positive attitude, his excellent work ethic - and for
the fact that he never complained. In spite of all
that, the conclusion must be drawn that Angelos Charisteas
never became the star striker Ajax hoped he would be.
Once again, a tough start at a new
club lies ahead for Charisteas, not only because he is
(once again) the successor of a hugely popular superstar (Dirk
Kuyt), but also because the first reaction
from Feyenoord's most fanatical fans were rather
hostile. The arrival of Charisteas even elicited a spontaneous
fan protest at De Kuip yesterday evening and the chairman of
the official Feyenoord Fanclub said: "The board promised us
that there wouldn't be any panic buys, but what do they
do? They buy the fourth striker of our 'friends' from
Amsterdam." Also remarkable: the comprehensive
news report on Feyenoord's official
website manages to totally avoid the word 'Ajax' and does
not mention where the club's new
striker actually came from... (MP)
Sources: Ajax.nl, Feyenoord.nl,
Algemeen Dagblad
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