Galery

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Maria S. Topalova

    Dimitar Berbatov will not play in matches at least during the next three weeks due to a torn calf muscle to the second degree. The tests of another teammate, Stelios Kitsiou, are not "clean" either - the defender will be absent from the field for three weeks too.
    Today PAOK will be a visiting team in the match with Kalloni in Lesbos that is part of the Greek football championship. Players, coaches and shareholders are hoping for a victory against a relatively easy opponent, which will not only add 3 points to the assets of the Thessalonians but will also help them overturn the series of weak and unsatisfactory matches. "In football psychology is highly important," admits one of the key team players, George Tzavelas. Psychology is one of the things that PAOK is lacking the most at present.
    Coach Igor Tudor has been much criticized for his inability to create a good team and especially to integrate Dimitar Berbatov into the PAOK team. Instead of driving the three main strikers, namely Berbatov, Stefanos Athanasiadis and Robert Mak, to work together, he is seemingly giving way to intrigues and rivalries, which are favouring noone - neither Berbatov, nor the team nor Tudor himself. The Greek football analysts are giving the example of Barcelona’s trio of strikers in which the brilliant teamwork of Suarez, Neymar and Messi is apparent. If the coach is reliable and knows what he is doing, there is no reason not to see good work on the part of Berbatov, Mak and Athanasiadis in terms of attacks.
    Instead, we are witnessing how Athanasiadis’ reluctance to run on the same field with Berbatov is being tolerated and listening to open statements about a team of 10+1 players. Things have gone so far that some Greek media and commentators are even hinting of Berbatov’s "diplomatic" injury that will "give him time" to look for a new team. Hysteria has risen to such a point that even clubs in Peru are mentioned, with which the Bulgarian football star is in negotiations.
    Officially, what we know for sure is that now Dimitar Berbatov is in Bulgaria, having obtained permission from his coach. He will not be with his team in the match in Lesbos, he will be back tomorrow, 1 December, when he will continue his therapy.
 

   The personality of the Bulgarian football star continues to occupy the Greek media. The sports website gazetta.gr claims that "the absence of Berbatov is good news for PAOK." According to the website commentators, PAOK without Berbatov is a much faster, good and effective team. "Whenever Berbatov plays, his teammates are under stress how to find him on the field, they stop being a team that knows what to do and start to play in a chaotic manner," reads the publication. According to it, Berbatov’s appearance on the field confuses PAOK players and his way of playing, gestures and remarks to the players in no way help the situation.
    Unlike our Greek colleagues, we have known Dimitar Berbatov long before he started to wear the black-and-white jersey of PAOK and the claims that he is the evil genius of the team seem to be greatly exaggerated. By the way, not all Greek football commentators share them. In its analysis, another sports website, sport24.gr, claims that Dimitar Berbatov has never stated it publicly, not to offend his colleagues, but he is embarrassed because he expected to see one team in the face of PAOK but reality proved quite different.
    According to the newspaper, the Bulgarian player was told that he would join a new team, which was just forming its individuality and he could help it both as a player on the field and as an advisor and mentor to his younger teammates. Arriving in Thessaloniki the star is seeing gaps that are not supposed to exist. Something important is missing in his relations with Tudor, there are no players to cooperate with and with whom to win victories against strong rivals. In other words, Berbatov cannot demonstrate his professionalism without causing reactions on the part of his teammates and coach.
    In this situation, everything seems to be in the hands of president Ivan Savidis. He is the man who will decide between Tudor and Berbatov. Colleagues from Thessaloniki claim that the Bulgarian is a frequent guest in the hotel "Macedonia Palace" spending much more time with Savidis compared with the Croat.