Former Sydney FC player Bai Antoniou’s recent transfer to Cypriot First Division side Alki Oroklini will see the 21-year-old attacker spend this season playing in the same area where his parents are from.

Speaking to Neos Kosmos from his new home in Larnaka, the Australian youth international was thrilled to be spending his first campaign in Europe in the homeland of his parents.

“They are both pretty happy about me returning to Cyprus and being able to play professional football here,” revealed Antoniou.

“My mum is from the village of Troulloi, located only 15 kilometres away from Larnaka and my dad was actually born there. He’s already told me how much it means to him that I am playing here. I speak the language and there is a bit of family around to help me with the move, so it’s been pretty comfortable.
“My ambition was always to be in Europe, no matter where I was going to end up. But now that I think about it more and more, to be in Cyprus is unbelievable.”

While Antoniou’s journey to Cyprus’ top flight is somewhat of a home coming, getting there has been anything but a smooth ride. After being cut from Sydney FC’s Grand Final winning team at the end of the 2016-17 season, Antoniou was offered a trial with AEK Larnaka.

But unfortunately, he ended up missing out on a contract and returned to Sydney where he spent several months with NSW NPL side Rockdale City. But starting again did not deter Antoniou and it didn’t take long for overseas suitors to start calling again and in July this year he put pen to paper on his first European contract.

Ahead of the 2018/19 campaign, the Sydney-born youngster was raring to get involved with Alki Oroklini this season.

“I can’t thank them enough for giving me the chance to play professional football,” says the elated 21-year-old.

“That being said, the chance is given now and it’s time for me to work hard for them and return the favour. My main goal on a personal level is to obviously improve as a player but the most important thing for me is to be playing football.”

Compared to clubs such as APOEL Nicosia or Apollon Limassol, Alki Oroklini are a small club but Antoniou doesn’t believe its stature will make them easy to beat this season.

“There are many national team players and the standard is very high,” says the attacker.
“The quality is good. We have a very strong side and a lot of people who don’t know football will think because the club hasn’t spent a lot of money that it doesn’t have what it takes but I think they are completely wrong. When I come to training every day, I see the quality and its international football level. We are going to push a lot of teams all the way and catch a lot of people by surprise this season.”

Antoniou is also close with fellow Greek Cypriot Australian George Timotheou from their time together playing for Sydney FC, where both were released from the A-League club at the same time. In another coincidence, Timotheou also spent time with an NPL club (Sydney Olympic) before he recently signed with an overseas club, German side FC Schalke.

Antoniou says it’s no surprise that both players have found their way to Europe.

“I spoke to George about his move as we are good friends,” he says. “At Sydney FC we were competing with a tough team at the time. There was a lot of wins and records were being broken so we just didn’t really get our chance. But it’s good to see we both kept at it and we both worked hard and backed our ability and we are where we are now because of it.”

Meanwhile, Greek Australian defender Jacob Eliopoulos also knows what it’s like to be part of a top Cypriot Division One side. The former Northcote City defender was part of APOEL’s senior squad during the 2016-17 campaign until an injury cruelled his season. But despite that setback he looks fondly at his time with the Cypriot powerhouse club.

“It was amazing because I had come from Victoria where I was playing in the NPL and I went straight into APOEL,” he says speaking to Neos Kosmos.

“I was full-time with the squad and got very close to playing with the first team, but I had osteitis pubis and I was out for three months. It was a hard time for me, because I was in a situation that if I was healthy for one more week, I would have been playing.
“It was unfortunate as we were involved in the Europa League and I was part of the preparation and talking about what we were going to do against Athletic Bilbao.”

After Eliopoulos recovered, he left APOEL and joined Cypriot second division side PAEEK. The defender played regularly last season and says the highlight of the 2017-18 campaign was playing in the semi-final of the Cyprus Cup against a Socceroos’ striker.

“I got to play against another Greek Australian boy Apostolos Giannou and it was good to play against him,” he says.

“There are a few Aussie boys here in Cyprus so it was good to catch up. It was good to test myself and play against first division teams and see that I’m not far off that quality.”

The start of the 2018-19 season saw Eliopoulos move to ASIL Lysi FC and he believes that the Larnaka-based team has what it takes to push for promotion to the first division.

“They are a really good team with great quality and if we work hard we can have a good year,” he says.

“I just want to play as many games as I can and try and get us promoted to the first division. I do want to play for a first division club here in Cyprus and hopefully it falls into place. I know one day I will be back there. Europe is where I want to be at the moment.”

Eliopoulos has also been in touch with Bai Antoniou and revealed that he offered the youngster the benefit of his previous top flight experience.

“He’s in a first division team at the moment but he is also trying to work his way into the team. It’s a bit tough getting into a first team and start playing. If you are not playing then you are not really promoting yourself and no-one really knows you. Hopefully he can get some games this year. It will be good for him to get his career started.
“It’s good to have another Greek Aussie nearby.”