Greek clubs active as transfer window opens

Greeek soccer clubs have been active as the winter transfer window haas opened up for season 2009-2010.

Olympiakos, Aris and Kavala have brought in strikers to join their squads while Panathinaikos have sent one of their strikers out on loan to Cyprus.

Congolese striker Lomana LuaLua has returned to Olympiakos after a stint in Qatar.

The former Newcastle and Portsmouth player signed a six-month contract with the champions with an option for Olympiakos to extend the deal by two more years.

LuaLua may not be ready yet to help the team in terms of his physical condition, as he will need some weeks before he gears up to speed, but he stated he is prepared to do all he can to see his club keep winning trophies.

“I should have never left,” he added.

He had been with Olympiakos for the 2007-08 season before being transferred to the Al-Arabi side in Qatar. He said he has now repented that move.

League leader Panathinaikos agreed on Thursday to lend striker Vangelis Mantzios to Cypriot side Anorthosis Famagusta.

Mantzios has signed a six-month loan contract, with an option for Anorthosis to buy the player for a further three seasons.

Mantzios aspires to be in the Greece squad for the 2010 World Cup and needs to get some action in the mean time as he has not played a single competitive game with Panathinaikos since last season.

He had been transfer-listed since last summer after falling out with the then Panathinaikos manager Henk ten Cate, but he never got to agree on a deal to leave Panathinaikos.
Kavala have signed a Anorthosis’ sensational striker Lukasz Sosin on a two year contract.

The Polish player who starred last season with the Famagusta club in the Champions League adds his name to a star-studded roster for the newly-promoted Macedonian club that flies high in the Super League after the first half of the season.

Sosin scored no fewer than 122 goals for Apollon Limassol and Anorthosis in his seven-and-a-half years in Cyprus.

American forward Eddie Johnson  joins Aris on loan for six months after the 25-year-old has just four appearances for the English club this season. Johnson lsigned with Fulham in January 2008, then was loaned to Cardiff City for the 2008/09 season.