Greek Gekas frustrates Fener, Beşiktaş kicks bucket

Page last updated at 09:31 GMT, Friday, February 3, 2012 - 14:31 EST

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Today's Zaman:

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Samsunspor’s Greek striker Theofanis Gekas hitting a hat trick on Thursday evening against the Canaries shows why politics should have no place in football.

Turkey and Greece have never gotten well politically but Gekas is a hero now at Samsun, where he also gets superstar treatment at this Black Sea city famous for its hospitality.

The 31-year-old Gekas -- the first Greece-born football player in the Turkish league -- was acquired during the January transfer window and is now the talk of the town, having scored six goals in four outings.

Slovakia striker Miroslav Stoch, the only player worth mentioning on the Fenerbahçe team, scored a solo effort after only six minutes to give the Canaries a 1-0 lead, but Gekas converted a penalty in the 41st for Samsunspor’s equalizer and both teams went to their dressing rooms tied at 1-1.

The second and third goals in the second half came from dead ball situations. Gekas headed home a Serdar Özkan free kick in the 71st to make the score 2-1 and reconnected another Serdar free kick four minutes later (75th) to settle the deal: Samsunspor 3, Fenerbahçe 1.

Read the whole story: Today's Zaman

Watch from YouTube: Samsunspor 3 - 1 Fenerbahçe Özet - Gekas scores hattrick

Comments

Poor choice from Gekas!

February 3, 2012 by Chris (United Kingdom ), 15 weeks 1 day ago

He has been superb, but why on earth would he make the decision to move to a small Turkish club when he's playing his final few years at the top? Surely he should for one last hurrah at the top level before making this type of move at the age of 34!

Money makes the world go round

February 4, 2012 by Jim Adams (United States ), 15 weeks 1 day ago

Money makes the world go round
The world go round, the world go round
Money makes the world go round
It makes the world go round

A mark, a yen, a buck or a pound
A buck or a pound, a buck or a pound
Is all that makes the world go round
That clinking, clanking sound
Can make the world go round

Oh come on, as if moving to

February 5, 2012 by Chris (United Kingdom ), 15 weeks 2 hours ago

Oh come on, as if moving to Samsunspor was necessary to "take care of his retirement from football". The guy has spent the last 6-7 years earning over 20k euros per week. Let's say he's earning 25k a week now in Turkey, would moving to the likes of Everton instead and earning 15k a week prevented him from "taking care of his retirement"? It's not like he had two options: money or destitution. He's simply greedy.

There's an end to everything

February 6, 2012 by Jim Adams ( ), 14 weeks 6 days ago

A player's career is a finite thing. Gekas might have another 50 weeks left in him, which according to your estimate translates into approx. 50x10k= 500k. That's a lot of money for somebody that intends to build a roof for himself & raise a family! (Younger people usually don't grasp this concept)

He's 31 years old, it's

February 7, 2012 by Chris (United Kingdom ), 14 weeks 5 days ago

He's 31 years old, it's highly unlikely that he has 50 weeks left in hime. On the Phantis forums a Turkish member said he's earning 3m euros a year (3 year deal I think). So in Turkey he'll make 9m euros, if he was in the Premiership making 2.5m a year and ended up making 7.5m euros would that not have been enough? Let's also remember the guy has already made millions. It's not like he's starting from zero and trying to earn a living to secure his future within merely 3 years. He and his family are already secure for life.... and that's without the coaching career or TV punditry work that is likely to await him