Three players from Olympiacos Melbourne’s set-up have secured professional contracts in Europe, marking a momentous occasion in the history of the organisation in what could be the beginning of a bright future for many aspiring players in their ranks.
The organisation has been running for 18 years (four years under the name ‘Olympiacos Melbourne’), operating as a cheaper football association compared to the standard academies and football clubs of Australia.
“We’re here to make football affordable again for families and individuals, as well as giving chances to children from poor families,” CEO Steve Papadopoulos told Neos Kosmos.
Mr Papadopoulos stated that the high costs associated with football has only been magnified further after the economic effects of COVID-19, making their organisation a far more appealing proposition for many aspiring footballers.
“We started out with just helping kids and then as they started to improve, they started looking at career pathways. They found they couldn’t afford the conventional pathways out there so we took it upon ourselves to find a solution and create a career pathway for kids and adults,” he said.
With this goal in mind, Olympiacos Melbourne have been making greater efforts to give their players opportunities abroad with overwhelming success.
“We sent three of our senior boys over to Europe for European trials and all three are now signed up to play professional football. We’re pinching ourselves to be honest. It’s an absolute honour to be able to achieve that,” Mr Papadopoulos told Neos Kosmos.
All three players have found their way to Lithuania, as Cristhian Garcia (31) joined second division side FK Minija, while Ahmed Almajidy (22) and Jack Yousif (24) both signed with third division club FK Tauras.
“It’s allowing them to experience full-time European professional careers and it’s opened up the gateway for them to further progress,” Mr Papadopoulos said.
Olympiacos Melbourne’s CEO stressed the significance of their players landing deals in Lithuania, a country which has shown willingness to give chances to players who would have otherwise been ignored.
“The challenge that we face is that Australian players are not very highly recognised in Europe and they have to go through limited channels in order to be recognised. We have managed to find some people that were willing to basically look at these boys based on their merit and not judging them prematurely on the fact that they are from Australia,” he said.
“These guys said ‘We’ll give them a go. We’ll have an honest look. If they’re really good, we’ll sign them up’ and from our point of view, we would have been extremely happy if even one of them had signed with a club. We’re over the moon that all three found teams. We honestly did not expect it.”
Building such a strong connection to the Lithuanian leagues has put Olympiacos Melbourne in good stead as they strive to help other footballers in their association achieve similar results.
“They’ve seen three of our players and liked all three so they know that there is a methodology that’s come from us where we’re creating multiple players and not just one,” Mr Papadopoulos said.
Olympiacos Melbourne also organised a tournament in Senegal last October to showcase their talent to European football agents, again demonstrating their determination to help their players find pathways into professional football.
They played against professional and semi-professional teams at the stadium of one of Senegal’s top division clubs, with matches recorded and televised, and it helped get numerous people noticed.
“We had six Australian players identified for Europe and we also had 12 African players identified for Europe. We’re in the process now of trying to get some of the African boys across for professional careers,” Mr Papadopoulos said.
“What that has done is put us on the map. They’ve seen the recordings and they like what we’ve got and, as a result, one of the African boys has gone to the first division league in Lithuania and has signed a professional contract.”
Mr Papadopoulos believes that big things lie ahead for Olympiacos Melbourne as they continue to build on these remarkable successes.
