Georgios Efrem ( el, Γεώργιος Εφραίμ, born 5 July 1989) is a

Cypriot Cypriot (in older sources often "Cypriote") refers to someone or something of, from, or related to the country of Cyprus. * Cypriot people, or of Cypriot descent; this includes: **Armenian Cypriots **Greek Cypriots **Maronite Cypriots **Turkish C ...

professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a winger for

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας) is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Since February 2016, it is sponsored by Cyta and is thus officially ...

club

APOEL APOEL FC ( el, ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', literally "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") ...

and the Cyprus national team. Nicknames τατας

Club career

Early career

Efrem was born in

Limassol Limassol (; el, Λεμεσός, Lemesós ; tr, Limasol or ) is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the district with the same name. Limassol is the second largest urban area in Cyprus after Nicosia, with an urban population ...

and began his career as a 15-year-old with Arsenal in 2004; he was a regular in their reserve and youth sides. However, he was unable to break into the first team, and so moved to Rangers in May 2007. He soon became a regular in the reserve team and was loaned out to

Scottish First Division The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. History The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 to replace the old Scottish Football League Division Two, as ...

side Dundee to gain some first team experience on 1 February 2009. Efrem scored on his debut against Livingston a week later. He was released on 1 June 2009 by Rangers and signed with Omonia.

Omonia

Efrem had an excellent start with his new club in season 2009–10, leading Omonia to its 20th championship. In the same year,

Cyprus Football Association The Cyprus Football Association (CFA; el, Κυπριακή Ομοσπονδία Ποδοσφαίρου (ΚΟΠ), Kypriakí Omospondía Podosfaírou (KOP)) is the governing body of football (soccer), football in Cyprus and is based in Nicosia. It ...

awarded Efrem the ''Best Youth Player Award'' for the 2009–10 season. During his five-year spell with Omonia, he managed to win one

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

, two

Cups CUPS (formerly an acronym for Common UNIX Printing System) is a modular printing system for Unix-like computer operating systems which allows a computer to act as a print server. A computer running CUPS is a host that can accept print jobs ...

and two Super Cups. He also appeared in 134

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

matches and scored 25 goals.

APOEL

On 6 June 2014, Efrem signed a three-year contract with

. He made his APOEL debut against

HJK Helsinki Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (), commonly known as HJK Helsinki, or simply as HJK, is a professional football club based in Helsinki, Finland. The club competes in the Finnish Veikkausliiga. Founded in 1907, the club has spent most of its history i ...

Sonera Stadium The Bolt Arena (named Telia 5G -areena until January 2020, named Sonera Stadium until April 2017, and Finnair Stadium until August 2010; also known as ''Töölön jalkapallostadion'', " Töölö football stadium") is a football stadium in Helsinki, ...

on 30 July 2014, in a 2–2 first leg draw for the

third qualifying round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

of the

2014–15 UEFA Champions League The 2014–15 UEFA Champions League was the 60th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 23rd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The final was pl ...

. He scored his first official goal with APOEL on 30 November 2014, netting the only goal in APOEL's 1–0 win against his former team Omonia for the

. Efrem also appeared in five group stage matches in APOEL's

campaign. On 20 May 2015, Efrem scored two goals in APOEL's 4–2

Cypriot Cup The Cypriot Cup () is the main cup competition in Cypriot football, run by the Cyprus Football Association (CFA). It began in 1934, the same season with the Cypriot Championship. It is the second most important competition for Cypriot club team ...

final triumph over

AEL Limassol Athlitiki Enosi Lemesou ( el, Αθλητική Ένωση Λεμεσού, translation=Athletic Union of Limassol) commonly known as AEL, is a Cypriot sports club based in the city of Limassol, most famous for its football team. AEL also maintai ...

to win his first trophy with APOEL. Four days later, Efrem celebrated the

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...

with APOEL, as his team beat 4–2

Ermis Aradippou Ermis Aradippou () is a Cypriot professional football club based in Aradippou, a settlement on the outskirts of the city of Larnaca. The club was formed in 1958, and currently plays in the Cypriot Second Division. Ermis' greatest success came ...

and secured their third consecutive

title. Efrem received the best player of the

2015–16 Cypriot First Division The 2015–16 Cypriot First Division was the 77th season of the Cypriot top-level football league. It began on 22 August 2015 and ended on 15 May 2016. APOEL were the defending champions. The league expanded from 12 to 14 teams this season, com ...

Award by

, as he appeared in 24 league matches and scored 11 goals during 2015–16 season, breaking his previous personal scoring record in a single season. The next season, he scored three times in APOEL's impressive run to the last 16 of the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League, opening the score in the away matches against Young Boys and

FC Astana Astana Football Club ( kk, Astana Futbol Kluby) is a professional football club based in Astana. They play in the Kazakhstan Premier League, the highest level of Kazakh football. The club's home ground is the 30,254-seat Astana Arena stadium. ...

for the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

and against Athletic Bilbao at San Mamés for the round of 32 of the competition. On 17 January 2017, Efrem signed a four-year contract extension with APOEL, running until 31 May 2021.

International career

He has represented Cyprus at all youth levels and captained the Cyprus under-21 team. In March 2009, he was called up to the Cyprus national team squad and in September 2009, he made his first two appearances. On 16 November 2014, Efrem scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

against

Andorra , image_flag = Flag of Andorra.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Andorra.svg , symbol_type = Coat of arms , national_motto = la, Virtus Unita Fortior, label=none (Latin)"United virtue is stro ...

in his team's 5–0

UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from September 2014 to November 2015 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams joining the automatically qualified host team France in the UEFA Euro 2 ...

home victory and made history by becoming Cyprus' first ever international player to score three goals in a single game.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Cyprus' goal tally first.''

Honours

Club

Omonia *

: 2009–10 *

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

, 2011–12 *

Cypriot Super Cup The Cypriot Super Cup is a Cypriot football trophy, contested in an annual match between the previous season's Cypriot First Division champions, and the Cypriot Cup winners. The match is contested at the beginning of the football season, and is u ...

: 2010, 2012 APOEL *

: 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19 *

: 2014–15

Individual

*Youth player of the Season (

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

): 2009–10 *Best player of the

: 2015–16

References

External links

APOEL official profile
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Efrem, Georgios Living people 1989 births Sportspeople from Limassol Greek Cypriot people Cypriot footballers Cyprus under-21 international footballers Cyprus international footballers Association football midfielders Arsenal F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Dundee F.C. players AC Omonia players APOEL FC players Scottish Football League players Cypriot First Division players Cypriot expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Scotland