Georgios "George" Koumantarakis (born 27 March 1974) is a South African former

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player of Greek descent. He was born in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

but grew up in

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. He studied to be a lawyer and has BCom,LLB degrees from the university of Kwazulu Natal. Was top goals scorer in the PSL in 1997. He is mostly remembered for his time at

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, and ...

where he played in the

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

and

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

. He played for the

South African national team South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

and was a participant at the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

Club career

Koumantarakis started out at

n team

AmaZulu F.C. AmaZulu Football Club (Simply often known as AmaZulu) is a South African professional soccer club based in the city of Durban in the KwaZulu Natal province, that plays in the Premier Soccer League the first-tier of South African football l ...

in 1992. He left the club after six months, however, to join

Manning Rangers Manning Rangers is a now defunct South African Association Football, football club based in Durban. The side is best remembered as the Champions of the Inaugural season of South Africa's Premier Soccer League. History The club was founded in 192 ...

where he won the South African title. He joined one of South Africa's most successful teams,

Supersport United FC SuperSport United Football Club (often known as SuperSport) is a South African professional football club based in Atteridgeville in Pretoria in the Gauteng province. The team currently plays in the Dstv Premiership. United is known as ''Matsats ...

, in 1996 for a then record South African club to club transfer. He was a success at Supersport and his big move to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

came in 1998 when he signed for

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

club

FC Luzern Fussball-Club Luzern (), or simply abbreviated to FCL, is a Swiss sports club based in Lucerne (german: Luzern). It is best known for its professional football team, which plays in the Super League, the top tier of the Swiss football league syste ...

. He had a good debut European season in Luzern and did enough to impress

. Koumantarakis joined Basel's first team for their 1999–2000 season under new head coach

Christian Gross Christian Jürgen Gross (born 14 August 1954) is a Swiss football manager and former player who most recently coached Schalke 04. He played as a sweeper and central midfielder. Gross was manager of Basel from 1 July 1999 to 27 May 2009, winning ...

. After playing one test match, he played his debut for his new club in the home game in the

Stadion Schützenmatte Stadion Schützenmatte is a sports stadium with track and field facilities in the Bachletten quartier in Basel, Switzerland. It is the home ground of BSC Old Boys Basel and, together, the pitch and tennis courts make up the western part of the ...

on 26 June 1999 as Basel beat Korotan 6–0 in return leg of the first round of the 1999 UI Cup and advanced to the next round. He scored his first goal for his new club in the same game. In fact he scored four of the six goals in that game. After playing in another UIC and another test game Koumantarakis played his domestic league debut for the club in the away game in the

Cornaredo Cornaredo (Milanese: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Milan in the Italian region Lombardy, located about northwest of Milan. Cornaredo borders the following municipalities: Rho, Pregnana Milanese, Settimo Milanese ...

on 7 July 1999 as Basel played a 1–1 draw against

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

. Koumantarakis scored his first domestic league goal for his new club on 5 August in the away game in the

Charmilles Stadium Charmilles Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Geneva, Switzerland. It was used mostly for football matches, and was the home venue for Servette FC. The stadium was able to hold 9,250 people and was built in 1930 for the Coupe des Nations 1930 ...

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

as Basel played a 1–1 draw against

Servette Servette is a district of the city of Geneva, Switzerland. The district's name comes from the Latin word for forest, ''silva'', and means "little forest". Its name alludes to Servette's rural past, before Geneva grew beyond its walls and incorpora ...

. He spent three and a half seasons with Basel and during this time Koumantarakis played a total of 130 games for Basel scoring a total of 51 goals. 84 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, 7 in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

, 3 in the Champions League, 5 in the

UEFA cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

, UI Cup and 23 were friendly games. He scored 26 goals in the domestic league, 6 in the cup, 10 in the european competitions and the other 9 were scored during the test games. His period at Basel was undoubtedly the best of his career, winning national titles and playing in European competitions culminating in him appearing in the champions league in 2002–03 season. Basel went on to the final group phase of the competition that year. A move to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

was on the cards next for Koumantarakis, signing for

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 ...

outfit

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

in January 2003. He was a big signing for Preston but failed to live up to expectations as he was injured on international duty. He left Preston for

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

club Rot-Weiß Erfurt in the 2004–05 season but his time there was plagued by injury and only played a handful of games. Erfurt released Koumantarakis at the end of the season and he signed for

SpVgg Greuther Fürth Spielvereinigung Greuther Fürth (), commonly known as Greuther Fürth (), is a German football club based in Fürth, Bavaria. They play in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of the German football league system, following relegation from the B ...

. He retired without playing a game for Fürth after failing to overcome his persistent knee injury.

International career

Koumantarakis played for the

from 1997 until 2004. He was drafted into the squad often (over 60 times) but was usually a reserve behind the likes of

Benni McCarthy Benedict Saul "Benni" McCarthy (born 12 November 1977) is a South African coach and former footballer who is a first-team coach at Manchester United. He previously worked as head coach of South African Premier Division team AmaZulu. A former fo ...

and

Shaun Bartlett Shaun Bartlett (born 31 October 1972) is a South African professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is the manager of Cape Town Spurs F.C., Cape Town Spurs. During his playing career, h ...

. He made his international debut against

Congo Congo or The Congo may refer to either of two countries that border the Congo River in central Africa: * Democratic Republic of the Congo, the larger country to the southeast, capital Kinshasa, formerly known as Zaire, sometimes referred to a ...

, in a 2–0 defeat, on 6 April 1997 and played his last game for ''Bafana Bafana'' on 20 June 2004 in a 3–0 defeat to

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

. The high point of his international career was playing at the

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

where he made a substitute appearance in all three of South Africa's group matches. In total, he accumulated 13 caps scoring one goal.

International goals

Honours

Club

Premier Soccer League Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

: 1996–97 *

: 2001–02 *

: 2001–02

Individual

Top Goal-Scorer: 1997

References

Sources

* Rotblau: Jahrbuch Saison 2017/2018. Publisher: FC Basel Marketing AG. * Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.
Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv" Homepage

External links

*
George Koumantarakis
at BBC World Cup 2002 {{DEFAULTSORT:Koumantarakis, George 1974 births Living people South African soccer players South Africa international soccer players Greek emigrants to South Africa 2002 FIFA World Cup players Expatriate footballers in Germany FC Basel players FC Luzern players Swiss Super League players FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt players SpVgg Greuther Fürth players 2. Bundesliga players Association football forwards Preston North End F.C. players Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Switzerland South African expatriate sportspeople in Germany South African expatriate sportspeople in England South African expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland South African expatriate soccer players White South African people Manning Rangers F.C. players Footballers from Athens Greek footballers Sportspeople from Durban