International Career
Samaras was eligible to play for the Australian national team. His father, Ioannis, was born in Melbourne, but moved to Greece at the age of 13, and had a successful football career, playing for OFI Crete, Panathinaikos, and the Greek national team. Additionally, his grandfather (also Georgios) was one of the founding members of South Melbourne. Although Samaras considered playing for Australia, he was never approached by Football Federation Australia and chose to play for the country of his birth.
He made his debut for Greece just a week after his 21st birthday, on 28 February 2006, in a friendly game against Belarus, in which he scored the only goal of the game. He featured in Greece's Euro 2008 qualifiers and was a member of the unsuccessful Greek squad at the finals. Samaras' fourth international goal was a crucial one, when he scored the winning goal in a 2010 World Cup qualifier against Israel in front of his hometown crowd in Heraklion. He scored his fifth international goal with an overhead kick in a World Cup qualifier on 10 October 2009, against Latvia in a 5–2 victory.
Samaras also played against Ukraine in a World Cup Qualifying play-off, setting up the only goal of the tie, passing to Dimitris Salpingidis who slotted home to give Greece a 1–0 win and a place in the 2010 World Cup Finals.
On 1 June 2010, Georgios Samaras was selected in the 23 man Greece squad for the World Cup. ESPN.com rated him as Greece's second best player, only behind talisman Giorgos Karagounis. He played in all three group matches. Despite Greece's 2–1 win over Nigeria, they failed to proceed to the knockout stage of the World Cup, due to 2–0 losses to both South Korea and Argentina. On 17 November 2010, Samaras scored his sixth international goal in a friendly against Austria in Vienna with Greece winning the match 2–1. Samaras also set up Greece's second goal.
Samaras then went on to score a vital goal for Greece against Croatia on 7 October 2011, a volley from the edge of the box with his left foot. The match finished 2–0 and the result meant that Greece qualified for the Euro 2012.
Read more about this topic: Georgios Samaras
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)