adminCollin Matiza Sports Editor
FORMER Zimbabwe youth international Trevor Mutero has been snapped up by a Greek League Two soccer side Glyfada FC. Glyfada are based at Glyfada in Athens and they are currently competing in that country’s League Two, the third tier of Greek football. And Mutero (20), who once turned out for English Championship side Reading, last week signed a three-year contract with Glyfada.
Mutero becomes the second Zimbabwean soccer player to ply his trade in Greece after defender Lincoln Zvasiya who recently joined that country’s top-flight club OFI Crete on a one-year loan from South African Premiership champions Kaizer Chiefs.
He (Mutero) has also followed the footsteps of former Zimbabwe midfielder Kennedy Nagoli who played for four top Greek sides – Aris Thessaloniki, PAS Giannena, Enosis Neon Paralimi and AEK Larnaca – between 1997 and 2006.
Mutero, who turned out for the Zimbabwe Under-20 side in 2011, told The Herald from his new base in Athens, Greece, yesterday that his main aim was to help his new club to gain promotion into that country’s top flight league.
“In fact, when I left Reading I came here to Greece and I have just signed a three-year contract with Glyfada FC who play in the Greek Championship and our goal is to get promoted at the end of this season.
“I always wanted to play abroad and this was a good opportunity for me to do so because now the people I work with (that is my agent ) is based in Greece and Germany so I thought Greece would be a better place for me.
“I only turned 20 last month and now I’m just going to concentrate on playing for Glyfada and help the team to win games but if the (Zimbabwe) national team call me up, it will be an honour to represent my country at senior level and hopefully we can bring the African Cup of Nations home… If Zambia can do it, why can’t we?
“I think the national team have a good technical team and now you can see that because the team is playing well and the understanding of players is good because now it’s a young team from the Under-23 and they know each other well and good things are starting to come out now and it will be an honour for me to be part of that,” Mutero said.
The young Zimbabwean striker becomes the fourth foreigner to be on the books of Glyfada as the club already have a Togolese, a Brazilian and a French player.
Mutero’s new side is based in Glyfada which is a suburb of Athens and situated in the southern parts of the Greek capital’s Metropolitan Area.
The area, which is home to many of Greece’s millionaires, ministers and celebrities, stretches out from the foot of the Hymettus mountain and reaches out to embrace the Saronic Gulf.
It is the largest of Athens’ southern suburbs.
This fashion-conscious suburb is known in Greece for its upmarket cafes, well-known restaurants, boutiques and cosmopolitan summer clubs; Glyfada has also been called “Knightsbridge-on-Sea”, “Hellenic Hamptons” or the “Beverly Hills of Greece”.
The club was founded, according to the old club logo, in 1976, as Keravnos Glyfada. The new logo of the club shows 1926 as its year of foundation.
In the summer of 2009 the management of the club, under George Kalogeropoulos, accounted the Themostokli Egaleo that had financial troubles and in the 2008-09 season fought in Delta Ethniki.
So, the Keravnos were promoted to regional championship taking the place of Themistocles and projecting as a name abbreviated as “PAOK Glyfada”.
In the new emblem of the club as marked, was founded in 1926. In his first season in the W. National Keravnos finished in fourth position. The second year won the title and climbed to the Triti Ethniki for the first time in history.
In 2011, they were promoted to League Two and renamed to Glyfada FC. The move was made after a referendum by the club’s fans, who “demanded” the rename in order to be more available to the municipality with the new name, according to wikipedia.
Online Reporter