Georgios Efrem (, born 5 July 1989) is a former Cypriot professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who last played as a winger for

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division (), also known as the Cyprus League by Stoiximan for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Cyprus and the highest level of the Cypriot football league system. Operated by the Cyprus Fo ...

club APOEL and the Cyprus national team.

Club career

Early career

Efrem was born in

Limassol Limassol, also known as Lemesos, is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the Limassol district. Limassol is the second-largest urban area in Cyprus after Nicosia, with an urban population of 195,139 and a district population o ...

and began his career as a 15-year-old with

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

in 2004; he was a regular in their reserve and youth sides. However, he was unable to break into the first team, and so moved to Rangers in May 2007. He soon became a regular in the reserve team and was loaned out to

Scottish First Division The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. It was replaced by the Scottish Championship. History The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 in Scottish footb ...

side

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

to gain some first team experience on 1 February 2009. Efrem scored on his debut against Livingston a week later. He was released on 1 June 2009 by Rangers and signed with Omonia.

Omonia

Efrem had an excellent start with his new club in season 2009–10, leading Omonia to its 20th championship. In the same year,

Cyprus Football Association The Cyprus Football Association (CFA) (, ) is the governing body of football in Cyprus and is based in Nicosia. It organises Cyprus's football championships, whose top league is the Cypriot First Division. It also organises the Cypriot Cup, the ...

awarded Efrem the ''Best Youth Player Award'' for the 2009–10 season. During his five-year spell with Omonia, he managed to win one

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

, two

Cups CUPS (formerly an acronym for Common UNIX Printing System) is a modular printing system for Unix-like computer operating systems which allows a computer to act as a print server. A computer running CUPS is a host that can accept print jobs ...

and two Super Cups. He also appeared in 134 league matches and scored 25 goals.

APOEL

On 6 June 2014, Efrem signed a three-year contract with APOEL. He made his APOEL debut against

HJK Helsinki Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (), commonly known as HJK Helsinki (), or simply as HJK (), is a Finnish football club based in Helsinki. The club competes in Veikkausliiga, the top division of the Finnish football league system. Founded in 1907, the ...

at Sonera Stadium on 30 July 2014, in a 2–2 first leg draw for the third qualifying round of the

2014–15 UEFA Champions League The 2014–15 UEFA Champions League was the 60th season of Europe's premier club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 23rd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions Lea ...

. He scored his first official goal with APOEL on 30 November 2014, netting the only goal in APOEL's 1–0 win against his former team Omonia for the

. Efrem also appeared in five group stage matches in APOEL's

campaign. On 20 May 2015, Efrem scored two goals in APOEL's 4–2

Cypriot Cup The Cypriot Cup, formally known as the Cypriot Coca-Cola Cup of First and Second Division () for sponsorship purposes, is a Cypriot knockout football club competition, hosted annually by the Cyprus Football Association. First held in 1934, it i ...

final triumph over

AEL Limassol Athlitiki Enosi Lemesou () is a Cyprus, Cypriot sports club based in the city of Limassol, most famous for its football team. AEL Limassol also maintains a AEL Limassol B.C., men's and AEL Limassol B.C. (women), women's basketball teams, a wom ...

to win his first trophy with APOEL. Four days later, Efrem celebrated the

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

with APOEL, as his team beat 4–2

Ermis Aradippou Ermis Aradippou () is a Cypriot professional football club based in Aradippou, a settlement on the outskirts of the city of Larnaca. The club was formed in 1958, and currently plays in the Cypriot Third Division. Ermis' greatest success ca ...

and secured their third consecutive

title. Efrem received the best player of the

2015–16 Cypriot First Division The 2015–16 Cypriot First Division was the 77th season of the Cypriot top-level Association football, football league. It began on 22 August 2015 and ended on 15 May 2016. APOEL FC, APOEL were the defending champions. The league expanded from 1 ...

Award by

, as he appeared in 24 league matches and scored 11 goals during 2015–16 season, breaking his previous personal scoring record in a single season. The next season, he scored three times in APOEL's impressive run to the last 16 of the

2016–17 UEFA Europa League The 2016–17 UEFA Europa League was the 46th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the eighth season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The final was played between Ajax and ...

, opening the score in the away matches against Young Boys and

FC Astana Astana Football Club () is a professional Association football, football club based in Astana. They play in the Kazakhstan Premier League, the highest level of Football in Kazakhstan, Kazakh football. The club's home ground is the 30,000-seat As ...

for the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

and against

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

at San Mamés for the

round of 32 A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

of the competition. On 17 January 2017, Efrem signed a four-year contract extension with APOEL, running until 31 May 2021.

International career

He has represented Cyprus at all youth levels and captained the Cyprus under-21 team. In March 2009, he was called up to the Cyprus national team squad and in September 2009, he made his first two appearances. On 16 November 2014, Efrem scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

against

Andorra Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, is a Sovereignty, sovereign landlocked country on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees in Southwestern Europe, Andorra–France border, bordered by France to the north and Spain to A ...

in his team's 5–0 UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying home victory and made history by becoming the first ever Cyprus international player to score three goals in a single game.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Cyprus' goal tally first.''

Honours

Club

Omonia *

: 2009–10 *

: 2010–11, 2011–12 *

Cypriot Super Cup The Cypriot Super Cup is a Cypriot football trophy, contested in an annual match between the previous season's Cypriot First Division champions, and the Cypriot Cup winners. The match is contested at the beginning of the football season, and is ...

: 2010, 2012 APOEL *

: 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19 *

: 2014–15

Individual

*Youth player of the Season (

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

): 2009–10 *Best player of the

: 2015–16

References

External links

APOEL official profile
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Efrem, Georgios Living people 1989 births Footballers from Limassol Greek Cypriots Cypriot men's footballers Cyprus men's under-21 international footballers Cyprus men's international footballers Men's association football midfielders Arsenal F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Dundee F.C. players AC Omonia players APOEL FC players Scottish Football League players Cypriot First Division players Cypriot expatriate men's footballers 21st-century Cypriot sportsmen Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland