Goulburn Valley Suns confirm arrival of UK import for next VPL2 campaign

Having made the great escape and avoided the drop from division two of the rebranded Victorian Premier League, head coach Craig Carley has made a move to secure Greek attacker Christos Papakonstantinou.

The 23-year-old arrives after multiple seasons in National League and Southern Premier football within the English pyramid.

Papakonstantinou started his footballing career in his native Greece at the PAOK and Olympiacos academies before moving to England and joining Bournemouth’s youth ranks for a period of time.

As one would imagine, Carley is pleased with what he’s bringing into the club.

“Each year, we get our recruits and we do that through a number of different contacts,” Carley said.

“I got him through one of mine in the UK who identified Christos as being keen to come over and it works with our plan to complement and improve our current squad.

“The footage that I’ve seen was encouraging and the reports I’ve got from other coaches over there were nothing but complimentary about him.

“He’s going to be a dangerous player for us in our final third and, hopefully, he brings more of the youthful dynamic in our forward line.”

With no question of his quality coming into McEwen Reserve, the question is how he fits into the XI if starting regularly.

The Suns have, of course, boasted some immense quality up front with Englishman Callum Schorah claiming the league’s golden boot as well as its best-and-fairest award.

“He can play in numerous spots around the front three,” Carley said.

“We’ll probably look to play him more as a winger, but it’s a less physical style over here which might help him in terms of moving into central areas.

“We’ll be working on it once he arrives here, but we’re really excited.

“The conversations have been really respectful and we’re looking forward to him coming out and working with this young group we’ve got.”