Giorgos Giakoumakis

Georgios Giakoumakis (; born 9 December 1994) is a Greek professional footballer who plays as a striker for Liga MX club Cruz Azul and the Greece national team.

Club career

Early career

Giakoumakis was born and grew up in Heraklion, Crete, where he started his career in local teams. He began his professional career Atsalenios in his hometown, Heraklion. In 2012, he signed for Platanias, in Chania and he debuted for the club in a 3–2 win against Skoda Xanthi, coming in as a substitute in the 78th minute.
In January 2014 he signed for Episkopi in Rethymno on loan until the end of the season and he made a total of 11 appearances and scoring two goals. He returned to Platanias, starting playing more often in the 2014–15 season and on 26 April 2015, he scored his first Superleague goal, in a 2–0 home win Panetolikos.

AEK Athens

On 26 June 2017, Giakoumakis left Crete to join one of Athens' major clubs, AEK Athens on a four-year contract. On 20 December, he scored his first goal with the club in a 4–0 away Greek Cup win against Panetolikos. On 4 February, he scored as a late substitute in stoppage time in 2–1 away win game against champions Olympiacos. It was his first goal in Super League with AEK.

He scored his first goal for the 2018–19 season, in a 2–1 home win against Lamia for the Greek Cup, taking advantage of Lucas Boyé's excellent solo effort.

Loans to OFI and Górnik Zabrze

On 24 January 2019, after a year-and-a-half with AEK Athens, Giakoumakis returned briefly to his hometown in Crete to join the island's biggest team, OFI. He signed a six-month contract as part of the club's effort to avoid relegation, with an undisclosed purchase option for the summer of 2019. On 17 March 2019, he scored his first goal with the club in a crucial 2–0 home win over fellow strugglers Levadiakos to climb above their SuperLeague rivals, however both clubs still sit in the relegation zone.

On 3 March 2020, he was loaned out to Ekstraklasa club Górnik Zabrze for the remainder of the current football season. On 30 May 2020, Giakoumakis scored the winning goal for Górnik Zabrze against ŁKS Łódź sealing a vital 1–0 away win for his club. On 23 June 2020, Giakoumakis scored his third goal for Górnik Zabrze in the Ekstraklasa, while teammate Stavros Vasilantonopoulos registered his second marker for the club in the same match. The Greek striker connected with a low pass across the box, neatly turning the ball beyond the goalkeeper into the far right corner, sealing a 3–1 away win against ŁKS Łódź.

VVV-Venlo

On 11 August 2020, Giakoumakis moved to VVV-Venlo. He signed a two-year contract with an option for an additional year with the Dutch club, while AEK Athens received a transfer fee of €600,000. On 12 September, in his first game for VVV, Giakoumakis led his new club to win against FC Emmen by scoring a hat trick in the 2020–21 Eredivisie opener. The Greek forward scored all his goals in the second half, overturning the score, as the hosts were leading up to that point with 2–0.

On 14 January 2021, Giakoumakis scored all four goals in a 4–1 away victory at ADO Den Haag. Two weeks later, on 28 January 2021, he again scored all four goals in a 4–1 victory: this time at home to Vitesse, and joined former Ajax striker Luis Suárez as the only players in the 21st century to have twice scored four goals in a single Eredivisie game. He was voted Eredivisie Player of the Month for January, having scored the most goals in Netherlands in a calendar month since 1985, and the second-most to Marco Van Basten's 12 with Ajax.

On 14 March, VVV-Venlo may have suffered its seventh consecutive defeat in the Eredivisie, however Giakoumakis with the goal he scored against Fortuna Sittard in an 3–1 home loss, made history as he caught Hans Sleven, who in the 1958–59 season had scored 24 goals in one year, rising to the fifth place of the scorers of all times for the club. On 13 May, Giakoumakis scored in VVV-Venlo's defeat in a crucial match against champions Ajax. After a reasonably good start to the competition, the club was unable to win the last fourteen matches in the league and was relegated while Giakoumakis became top scorer of Eredivisie.

Celtic

During the summer window, Giakoumakis was wanted by various clubs, with German club Werder Bremen agreeing a transfer fee with Venlo. On 31 August 2021, the last day of the summer transfer window, he signed for Scottish Premiership club Celtic on a five-year contract for a fee of £2.5 million. A month later, he made his debut as a substitute in a 4–0 home loss against Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Europa League. On 23 October, Giakoumakis scored his first goal for Celtic, opening the scoring in a 2–0 league win against St Johnstone. On 22 January 2022, Giakoumakis started for the first time in three months and rewarded Ange Postecoglou with a goal in a 2–1 away win over Alloa Athletic in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup