"The Greek knows." It is an attack that we have all said or thought and is used as a confirmation of how right we are about what we are discussing at the moment. Whatever it is. Politics, economy, cinema, cuisine, sports, how a couple on the other side of the world spend their time at home, nuclear physics, music, everything Έλλη The Greek knows everything and has an opinion on everything, despite the fact that for decades his life probably does not improve but gets worse.
And for this, however, the Greek knows that it is not his fault but the fault of some others who want to destroy him. Because the Greek, we said, always knows. Today, however, it celebrates the 16th anniversary of its conquest Euro 2004, the 16th anniversary of the day when the whole planet really spoke with admiration for the Greek, it would be good for him to know that… he did not know. Because if the decisions are based on what the Greek wanted then, the National team would never have become European champions, making the biggest surprise of all time in football.
First of all, it is doubtful whether he would have been hired in the national team Rehhagel. The German coach was, of course, a very respected name in his homeland, having won two championships and the Cup Winners' Cup with Werder Bremen, to follow the miracle with Kaiserslautern, which he promoted to the Bundesliga and led to the title. He therefore had a CV. In addition, he had patience, a word unknown in Greece and it appeared from the first moment. From the first match. From that 5-1 from Finland in September 2001, which was enough to start the negative comments and the devaluation of the German.
But it was not just the 5aras from Finland who brought complaints about Otto from the beginning. It was also the. Loss of a player. His misunderstanding with him Grigoris Georgatos that day, when the ace of Inter reacted learning that he would be used as a left midfielder and not as a left back, as a result he was left out of the national team for the sequel. Fair enough; Purely football, if what counts in a team is purely the abilities of each player, unfair. Georgatos knew crazy ball and if he was more professional or less crazy, he would have made a great career in Italy with the Nerazzurri. No one disputes, therefore, that in football, he always had to be in the national team. There is no doubt, however, as the result proved, that Rehagel's decision was correct.
The German received a national team that could not achieve anything at all and in his debut he lost by 5 points to Finland and at the same time he "lost" one of its best players. To make the scene even stranger, the "loss" of another playfulness would come a few months later. Of Akis Zikou. Two months after Finland, in a friendly with Cyprus, Rehagel put him as a substitute in the 85th minute and… end. We never saw him again with the coat of arms on his chest. Here, as in the case of Georgatos, the same things apply. Zikos was a player who made a difference in the center field and proved it both in AEK and (even more) in Monaco, with which he reached the final of the Champions League in 2004.
The fact, therefore, that in his first months in the national team, Rehagel had to show… nothing remarkable in the game and at the same time the losses of two important players, was enough to start and intensify the controversy. And it would grow slowly but steadily due to some of his other choices, which also did not have the approval of the press or the world. Like, for example, the fact that he spent most of his free time in his homeland and not in Greece.
Otto did not show a willingness to settle here permanently, as a result of which he was accused of not being very interested, since most of the time he was in Germany and watched Bundesliga matches. And the Greek knew that this was wrong and would be proven by the bad results that would follow and which would ultimately result in Rehagel failing and simply getting his compensation. Exactly, that is, as the forecasts and the analyzes said when he had signed his contract with the EPO.
A compensation, however, that he would not "enjoy" on his own. With his failure, the German would make both his partner and his "friend", the Giannis Topalidis. The man who was his voice, since he was his translator. At the same time, of course, he was his assistant, but this never bothered anyone much. To be honest, Topalidis really was not something special as a coach, despite the fact that he had attended the school of Mainz and then that of Cologne, getting high grades, after completing his football career in the smaller categories of Germany. .
Can anyone imagine him as the first coach in a big Greek team? No. And not unjustly, either. His course proves this, he did not have a coaching career anywhere. For Rehagel, however, he was the right person to be by his side, he was the Greek who knew German fluently, he was the one he could blindly trust, the one who could explain better than anyone exactly what the coach wanted from them. his players. And at the same time the one who could calm the coach down and explain to him how things are in Greece in all areas. How the actors think, how the footballers work, how much the journalist knows, how right the Greek is always in everything.
Elements, all of which, which would have gone completely unnoticed and for which no text would have been written, such as this, if exactly 16 years ago that corner was not executed by Basinas at 56 ′ and o did not take that head Charisteas, making Portugal-Greece 0-1 and raising the national team to the top of Europe! And the fact that this would happen, paradoxically, the Greek did not know…
ΥΓ: To avoid misunderstandings, the man who wrote this text did not believe that Rehagel would succeed, he considered it tragic that a team with limited talent "burned" two players such as Zikos and Georgatos, did not understand the reason for the existence of Topalidis in technical team and was sure that Greece would not make a single victory at Euro 2004.