Australian Nathan Burns has had one of the best weeks of his life after his side AEK FC wrapped up the Sydney Festival of Football with a 1-0 win over Scottish champions Rangers FC.
Burns found the back of the net against Rangers, scoring AEK’s only goal, had a hand in both of AEK’s goals in the 2-1 win over English Premier League side Blackburn Rovers and came on as a substitute in the Athens side’s 5-3 rout of Sydney FC.
But his call-up to the Socceroos for Australia’s friendly match against Slovenia later this month will have the 22-year-old grinning from ear to ear.
It appears that Burns will remain with AEK following discussions this week between coach Dusan Bajevic and President Stavros Adamidis, who are in agreement regarding the vast improvement of Burns since returning from his loan spell at Kerkyra FC, where he helped the Corfu club gain promotion.
AEK went undefeated throughout the friendly tournament, sending a strong warning shot to the Greek Super League and specifically, Kerkyra who lie in wait in Round One on the 28th or 29th of August.
AEK will pocket a reported 100,000 euros bonus after cementing top spot in the tournament with the win over Rangers, as Burns was optimistic about his future with AEK.
“I back myself and I want to give myself as big an opportunity as I can to play in this team. I don’t think I’ve done any harm (tonight), scoring the goal was good, you always want to see goals from strikers and attacking players,” said Burns.
“I am satisfied with the goal. It is good to score any type of goal. If it’s a tap-in, it’s a nice goal too. They are all the same,” he continued.
“Obviously I’m trying to impress the coach because I want to be in the starting line-up. I think the coach is happy to have me here and I have no intention of leaving.”