Georgios Savva (; 22 October 1933 – 9 August 1992) was a Cypriot

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

striker and was the first foreign footballer ever to play professionally in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. He was also the first ever

Greek Cypriot Greek Cypriots (, ) are the ethnic Greek population of Cyprus, forming the island's largest ethnolinguistic community. According to the 2023 census, 719,252 respondents recorded their ethnicity as Greek, forming almost 99% of the 737,196 Cypri ...

that played in a football championship outside Cyprus. Georgios comes from a working class Greek background mixed with Jewish heritage from one of his grandfathers. He played football during the 1950s and he was one of the best ever Cypriot footballers. Sometimes he could play even as a defender. He began playing football for APOEL youth team in 1949 and one year later he became a member of the senior squad. Scoring two goals for his team in the

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 in 1951 against

EPA Larnaca EPA Larnaca (, ''Enosis Pezoporikou Amol'') was a Cypriot football club based in the city of Larnaca. Founded in 1930 with the merge of two local clubs, Pezoporikos and AMOL, the club was a founding member of Cyprus Football Association and part ...

, APOEL won the final 7-0 (a record in a Cypriot Cup final until today) and he won the first trophy in his career. In

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...

, he helped his team to win the Cypriot Championship and then, as the first professional Cypriot player he played

football in England Association football, Football is the most popular sport in England. Widely regarded as the birthplace of modern football, the first official rules of the game were established in England in 1863. The country is home to the world's first footba ...

with

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...

for one year and he also played for the representative team of London.

Arrival to Israel

For the season 1955-56 he played for a year for Maccabi Haifa. Before Georgios, the only foreign players that played in

were British soldiers that were stationed in

during the British Mandate. The Cypriot striker was the first player ever to be brought in from abroad to play professional

football in Israel Association football, Football (, ''Kaduregel'', ), also known as soccer, is the most popular sport in Israel. Football as an organised sport, first developed in the United Kingdom, who controlled Mandatory Palestine during the days of the M ...

. Three offers from Israeli clubs were on the table though Georgios ended up only playing for

Maccabi Haifa Maccabi Haifa () is one of the biggest sports clubs in Israel and a part of the Maccabi association. It runs several sports clubs and teams in Haifa which have competed in a variety of sports over the years, such as Football, Basketball, Weightl ...

. Acclimation was difficult but eventually he settled in the port city and scored some goals to go down in the annals of history in Israeli football.

Back to Cyprus

In 1956, he was brought back to Cyprus and he was the most important player of APOEL. In 1959, he beat by himself the

Greece national football team The Greece national football team (, ) represents Greece in men's international Association football, football matches, and is controlled by the Hellenic Football Federation, the governing body for football in Greece. Greece is one of only ten ...

, playing with a representative team of both

AC Omonia Athletic Club Omonia Nicosia (; ''Athlitikós Sýllogos Omónoia Lefkosías''), commonly known as Omonia Nicosia, or simply Omonia (also Romanization of Greek, transliterated as Omonoia), is a Cyprus, Cypriot professional multi-sport club, esta ...

and APOEL. He died on 9 August 1992.

References

*
Article about Savva by Simerini

External links

*
Profile and biography of Savva Georgiou on Maccabi Haifa's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Georgiou, Savva 1933 births 1992 deaths Greek Cypriots Cypriot men's footballers Cyprus men's international footballers Men's association football forwards Footballers from Nicosia APOEL FC players Bristol City F.C. players Maccabi Haifa F.C. players Liga Leumit players Expatriate men's footballers in Israel Cypriot expatriate sportspeople in Israel Expatriate men's footballers in England