The systematic and efficient promotion of young football players
According to the recently published, highly interesting survey carried out by the International Observatory of Football (CIES), Omonia emerged as the team in Cyprus that proportionately used the most footballers under 20 years, in the last five years (2018-2023) in league matches.
In particular, the “clover” has used 17 footballers under the age of 20, i.e. 7.4% of the footballers used in this five-year period. Nea Salamina follows in the relevant ranking with a percentage of 6%.
Of the 17 footballers who were published in a text on 24sports on the 13th of this month, Charalambos Charalambous, Marinos Tzionis, Loizos Loizou, Andronikos Kakoullis, Michalis Gabriel, Konstantinos Venizelou, Kyriakos Chrysomilis, Andreas Evangelou, Andreas Savva, Andreas Asimenos, Konstantinos Christou, were promoted from the team's academies.
In other words, eleven of these children emerged from the nursery of Omonia. We remind you that Omonia did this in highly competitive conditions.
There are … and others though. Three of them, Charalampos Charalambous, Loizos Loizou, Andronikos Kakoullis are key players in Omonia, while at the same time they are footballers who are currently wearing the shirt of our representative team. With the oldest of the three (Andronikos Kakoullis) being born in 2001!
We remember that Marinos Tzionis (born in 2001) is also an international player who is also a “product” of the green academies. He became a regular at Omonia and was transferred from the “clover” in January 2022 for 1.6 million euros to Sporting Kansas City.
We have learned to say for years – and it is true – that there is a lot of talent in Cyprus , but we don't use it. However, in this particular case there is an exception. Omonia gives a base to the academies and we all see the results. This team has shown in practice how much it cares about its academies and has brought out children who are capable of progressing.
With what has been happening in Omonia in recent years – which I hope will continue, (lately he has not been working with the same rate), but also to extend it to other groups – of course we will never reach the advanced countries as Cyprus, but it is proving to be something important. That we can take steps forward.
