Theofanis Gekas
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Categories: 1980 births | Living people | Greek footballers | Panathinaikos footballers | VfL Bochum players | Bayer 04 Leverkusen players | Greece international footballers | Kicker-Torjägerkanone Award winners | First Bundesliga footballers | Expatriate football players in Germany
Theofanis (Fanis) Gekas (Greek: Θεοφάνης Γκέκας, born May 23, 1980, Larissa, Greece) is a footballer who currently plays for German side Bayer 04 Leverkusen. He has been very successful in the last few years, being top goalscorer of the Greek League (17 goals) in 2005 and runner-up in 2006 (15 goals), and top scorer of the German Bundesliga in 2007 (20 goals). He has also won 14 caps of the Greek National Team. Gekas has been described as a prolific forward with a vision for goal.Gekas got his first hat-trick for the National Team with 3 goals against Malta.
In GreeceTheofanis Gekas started his professional career at his local club AEL 1964 (Greek Second Division). After three years there, he moved to Kallithea FC in the summer of 2001. In his first season Kallithea was promoted to the Greek first division. Gekas had scored 30 goals in 87 second division matches. Gekas kept scoring goals, so the Greek top clubs became interested in him. After scoring 32 goals in 73 matches Gekas moved to Panathinaikos during the 2005 winter break. At his new club Gekas kept up the scoring and became top goal scorer of the Greek league in 2005 (17 goals). He shot into the national squad, where he made his debut in the 2-0 World Cup qualifying victory against Albania in March 2005, despite never having represented the Greek national side at junior level. In the Confederations Cup 2005 Gekas was part of the team of the European champion. With Panathinaikos, Gekas scored 23 goals in 41 appearances. In the season 2005/2006 Gekas made his debut in the UEFA Champions League and came second in the Greek top goalscorers list. At VfL BochumThe 2. Fußball-Bundesliga club VfL Bochum already showed interest in Gekas in the spring of 2006, but Panathinaikos wanted €1.5 million for its forward, which was too much money for the German club. But in the summer of 2006 Panathinaikos signed Greek top scorer Dimitris Salpigidis from PAOK Saloniki - one of the reasons was that Gekas didn't want to sign a long-term contract. As part of the deal Gekas should have been transferred to PAOK, but Gekas refused to be transferred to the club. Panathinakos's owner Giannis Vardinogiannis felt personally insulted and loaned Gekas to newly-promoted VfL Bochum for only €300,000. VfL Bochum had the right to buy Gekas for €700,000 at the end of the season if they remained in the First Division. During the 2006/2007 season VfL Bochum was again fighting against relegation, but within a short period Gekas became one of the stars of the team and very popular among the fans. They called him the "Greek god" and his goals were celebrated with Sirtakis. Coach Marcel Koller accurately described him in November 2006 as their "life insurance," as Bochum in fact remained in the top German league due mainly to Gekas' many goals. Gekas finished the Bundesliga season as top scorer, with a final tally of 20 goals. Move to LeverkusenAt the end of April 2007 VfL Bochum intimated that Gekas would play for Bayer 04 Leverkusen starting in the following season. The transfer fee was not immediately certain because the two clubs chose a quite bizarre construction: Bayer 04 Leverkusen would pay €700,000 at the end of the season to Panathinaikos, and if Bochum were to be relegated, they would get €1.5 million from Leverkusen, but if they were to remain in the Bundesliga First Division they would get €4 million. Gekas' future salary at Bayer Leverkusen is estimated to be €2 million a year, four times what he earned at VfL Bochum. Gekas' first game for Bayer Leverkusen was a friendly which Bayer won 15-1; Gekas scored 7 of those 15. However despite a promising start and being the top scorer for Bayer Leverkusen and second highest scorer in the whole League this season, Gekas has been consistently dropped by coach Michael Skibbe making mostly sub appearances. Following an injury to teammate Dmitri Bulykin, Gekas was place back into the starting 11 and made quite the come back; scoring 3 goals in 3 games including 2 winners against SV Hamburg which earned Leverkusen a quater-final spot in the UEFA Cup. HonoursIndividual Links
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