Club Career
Koumantarakis started out at South African team AmaZulu F.C. in 1992. He left the club after six months, however, to join Manning Rangers where he won the South African title. He joined one of South Africa's most successful teams, Supersport United FC, in 1996 for a then record South African club to club transfer. He was a success at Supersport and his big move to Europe came in 1998 when he signed for Swiss club FC Luzern. He had a good debut European season in Luzern and did enough to impress Christian Gross, manager of Swiss giants FC Basel. He spent the next three seasons at Basel, playing over 90 games and scoring 48 goals. His period at Basel was undoubtably 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 was on the cards next for Koumantarakis, signing for Championship outfit Preston North End in 2002. He was a big signing for Preston but failed to live up to expectations as he was injured on international duty after helping Preston recover from 18th in the log to just off the play off places. He left Preston for German 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. He retired without playing a game for Fürth after failing to overcome his persistent knee injury.
Read more about this topic: George Koumantarakis
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