Charistea in “Diki”: “Jovanovic has the magic wand that the national team needs”

About the new era of the Greek National Team, the arrival of Ivan Jovanovic and whether the players can unite the world and bring the blue and white back to a major tournament after ten whole years, the European champion of 2004, Angelos Charisteas.

What he said in detail:

For the winning opener against Finland:“It was a stressful game and don’t be fooled by the 3-0 final. It was a premiere, it was Ivan Jovanovic’s first game on the national team’s bench, it was the first match after years at the “Georgios Karaiskakis” which only brings back good memories to us and I would describe the stadium as a gourd. It is important for the National Team to have a fixed headquarters. As far as Ivan Jovanovic is concerned, he is accepted by all the guys, after all he has worked with most of them at Panathinaikos and knows them very well. Also impressive in this National Team is that 16 of the 28 players on the roster play in major teams abroad. I’m very optimistic even though we didn’t play a good match against a tough team. I want to see these children have greater demands on themselves and bring great success to our country. Since my time we have seen so many Greeks competing abroad. However, they have the opportunity to take the big step further. They lack a big win and if you want to go further you have to get such a big win against England”.

For Fotis Ioannidis: “I like Fotis. He is developing and we are not used to him scoring with his head. He is a very athletic forward and I want to see him score more with his head because he seems to have it. He is a point of reference for our National Team and was the absolute protagonist in the victory against Finland. He can take over Greece with the help of his teammates. In the attack, we have excellent players – in addition to Ioannidis-Pavlidis and Douvikas – who can lift our representative team.”

For Ivan Jovanovic:“After Rehagel and Santos, he is the best coach who has taken charge of Greece. Not from a competitive point, from a personality point. Ivan is a coach who works with the personalities of the players, gives them peace, space and time and most importantly he came to the team and did not change it radically. He understood that he has a very good material on his hands that needs management. Also, he is communicative with the players and I wish him luck and results for Greece to return to a major tournament after ten whole years. I trust him a lot as the coach of our national team.”

For the test in Dublin:“Ireland will play completely differently against us than they did against England in the opener, who are a fearsome team for their opponents. Ireland will press us and look for a quick goal, but we for our part will have to take advantage of the spaces because we are a better team than the Irish even if our opponents don’t think so and get the three points. We are chasing first place, but if it doesn’t come, it’s not the end. Whatever happens, Greece is missing a major event and everyone must do their part to return to where it belongs.”

On the fact that we saw surprise faces in the lineup against Finland:“Jovanovic studies differently and don’t be surprised to see a different line-up against Ireland. To tell the truth, I also did not expect to see Bouchalakis as a starter, but in order to choose him, he sees something in training that we don’t. Coaches are for taking risks. What I noticed in the match against the Finns is that we have a lack of productivity in the midfielders. That’s where Ivan has to work, who works quietly and knows very well our strengths and weaknesses.”

And he concluded by characteristically saying:“Before the game against Georgia I had spoken to the lads and I noticed that everything is in good shape after years, lads with personality and ethos who had will, but what they lacked was a man to unite them and give them the confidence to to go the extra mile. Ivan Jovanovic has the magic wand that our National Team needs. In my time we managed to unite the whole world because we were healthy as a team. I repeat, these guys have the potential to do what we did years ago. In life, whatever you do, you need good mentors and good colleagues.”