Athanasios Petsos

Athanasios Petsos
Personal information
Full name Athanasios Petsos
Date of birth (1991-06-05) 5 June 1991
Place of birth Düsseldorf, Germany
Height 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)
Playing position Defensive midfielder
Club information
Current team
 Rapid Wien
Number 5
Youth career
1999–2001 Düsseldorf 99 SC
2001–2010 Bayer Leverkusen
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
2010 Bayer Leverkusen II 8 (0)
2010–2012 Bayer Leverkusen 1 (0)
2010–2012 → 1. FC Kaiserslautern (loan) 39 (0)
2012–2013 Greuther Fürth 14 (1)
2013–2016 Rapid Wien 74 (5)
2016– Werder Bremen 0 (0)
National team‡
2007 Greece U17 1 (0)
2008–2010 Greece U19 7 (0)
2010–2012 Greece U21 5 (2)
2011– Greece 4 (0)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 12 March 2016.
† Appearances (goals)

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 30 March 2016

Athanasios "Thanos" Petsos (Greek: Αθανάσιος Πέτσος, born 5 June 1991) is a German-Greek footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Rapid Wien and the Greek national team.

Club career

Early career

Petsos started his football career at the age of eight for Düsseldorf 99 SC. In 2001 he was lured away to professional club Bayer Leverkusen. He progressed through the youth system and was part of the team that finished runner-up in the Under 19 Bundesliga in 2010. He made his debut for the Leverkusen reserve team in March 2010. He made seven more appearances in the 2009–10 season while continuing to play for the under-19 team. He made his Bundesliga debut on 24 April 2010 against Hannover 96.

With a Leverkusen contract running until 2014,[1] Petsos was loaned out to 1. FC Kaiserslautern for one season in 2010.[2][3] He made his full Bundesliga debut for the club on 13 November 2010 against VfB Stuttgart being played as a right back.[4][5] In April 2011, it was announced his loan to Kaiserslautern would be extended for the following 2011–2012 season.[1] He made a total of 42 appearances for the club.

SpVgg Greuther Fürth

In 2012, Petsos signed for newly promoted SpVgg Greuther Fürth on a three-year deal.[6] He made his debut for the club on 18 August 2012 in a DFB-Pokal match against Kickers Offenbach, he then went on to make his Bundesliga debut on 31 August 2012 against Mainz 05. He went on to make a total of 15 appearances for the club.

Rapid Wien

On 15 July 2013, Petsos joined Austrian club Rapid Wien on a three-year agreement.[7][8] He made his debut for the club on 27 July 2013 against Wiener Neustadt.[9]

In April 2015, it was reported that Olympiacos, with whom the Greek midfielder had been linked in the past, had revived their interest in his services.[10] On 3 May 2015, in a 2–2 draw away to SK Sturm Graz he scored for 2–1 with a hard long-range shot.[11][12]

On 4 August 2015, he greatly contributed to 2–3 away win with a strong performance in the third qualifying round of the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League against AFC Ajax.[13][14] In early September, he suffered an injury during training with the Greek national team keeping him out of action for several weeks.[15] Rapid in October stated their intention to extend Petsos' contract after he had been one of the team's best players during its strong start to the season.[16] On 18 October 2015 he returned to the team, starting in an Austrian championship game against Wolfsberger AC, but suffered an injury in the first quarter of the match.[17] On 22 October 2015 in a UEFA Europa League 3–2 home game against Plzeň, he scored a long-range goal, giving his club a lead of two goals.[18]

Werder Bremen

In January 2016, he announced he would not accept Rapid's offer to renew his contract which is set to expire in summer 2016[19][20] before signing a contract with Werder Bremen after three years with the Austrian club. The 24-year-old international agreed to a contract until the summer of 2019 with the German club.[21][22]

International career

Petsos decided to represent the country of his origin Greece from youth level. He has played for the under-17 team, the under-19 team and the under-21 team.

On 5 August 2011, he was called up to the senior team for the first time by manager Fernando Santos for the friendly match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, and three days later he made his international debut. After almost four years, on 3 September 2015, he was called up from manager Kostas Tsanas for the Euro 2016 qualifier matches against Romania and Finland, but was injured in a training session of the national team.[15] Following examination at the hospital, it was found he had suffered a partial rupture of the medial collateral ligament forcing him to be out of action for a month and to miss two matches of the national team, according to the Greek medical team. [23] On 24 March 2016, he made his second appearance with the senior team in a 2-1 home friendly match against Montenegro. [24]

Style of play

Thanos Petsos is both an elegant, and technically strong player and on the other hand a real fighter. The Düsseldorf-born feels more secured in the field on the position of the central defensive midfielder, but in Germany he played sometimes even as a right-back or even a centre-back. The most striking feature in Petsos' game is its excellent shooting technique.[25]

References

  1. 1 2 "Petsos weiter auf dem Betze". Kicker Online (in German). 27 April 2011. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  2. ↑ "Thanos Petsos Joins FCK from Leverkusen". 1. FC Kaiserslautern. 3 August 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  3. ↑ "FCK lockt Thanos Petsos in die Pfalz". Kicker Online (in German). 3 August 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  4. ↑ "Red Devils Battle Back from a 3-Goal Deficit". 1. FC Kaiserslautern. 13 November 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  5. ↑ "Tiffert-Vorlagen bringen Lautern zurück". Kicker Online (in German). 13 November 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  6. ↑ "Στην Γκρόιτερ Φιρτ ο Πέτσος". xrimaonline.gr. 23 May 2012.
  7. ↑ Gori, Marco (15 July 2013). "Rapid sign Petsos". TransferMarketWeb. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  8. ↑ Huber, Alexander (15 July 2013). "Rapid verpflichtet Thanos Petsos". Kurier (in German). Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  9. ↑ Rapid lässt Wiener Neustadt keine Chance. sportnet.at. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  10. ↑ "Petsos linked with Olympiakos". 5 April 2015.
  11. ↑ Bailey, Ryan (3 May 2015). "10 Best Golazos from World Football This Weekend". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  12. ↑ "Τρομερό γκολ ο Πέτσος (vid)". 3 May 2015.
  13. ↑ "Champions-League-Sensation: Rapid eliminiert Ajax". Die Presse (in German). 4 August 2015. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  14. ↑ Wintner, Senta (5 August 2015). "Glanzpunkt im grün-weißen Reifeprozess". Die Presse (in German). Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  15. 1 2 "Rapid mehrere Wochen ohne Petsos". Kurier (in German). 7 September 2015. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  16. ↑ Huber, Alexander (1 October 2015). "Bei Rapid stehen wichtige Gespräche an". Kurier (in German). Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  17. ↑ ""Χρυσοί" σκόρερς οι Ταχτσίδης και Παπάζογλου". 18 October 2015.
  18. ↑ "Rapid Rapid Wien - Plzeň 3-2". 22 October 2015.
  19. ↑ "Petsos to leave Rapid Wien in summer". 8 January 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  20. ↑ "Φεύγει ο Πέτσος από τη Ραπίντ!". 8 January 2016.
  21. ↑ "Werder Bremen sign Petsos". 11 January 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  22. ↑ Baltes, Michael (11 January 2016). "Der Grieche mit dem rechten Hammer". Kreiszeitung (in German). Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  23. ↑ Τραυματίστηκε ο Πέτσος και χάνει Φινλανδία και Ρουμανία Retrieved 3 September 2015
  24. ↑ Ελλάδα - Μαυροβούνιο 2-1 Retrieved 24 March 2016
  25. ↑ "Thanos Petsos". www.skrapid.at.

External links

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