Eredivisie

Giakoumakis named as Eredivisie Player of the Month

4 February 2021

On Thursday, the Eredivisie named Georgios Giakoumakis as Player of the Month. The VVV-Venlo striker was the best-performing player in January according to the statistics and fans.

Giakoumakis is lining up a few records

Georgios Giakoumakis launched himself out of the winter break with two goals against Willem II, and in the matches against ADO Den Haag and Vitesse, he accurately found the goal four times. Last Saturday, the striker from VVV-Venlo hit home once again in the Limburg derby against Fortuna Sittard. With his exceptional goal average, the 26-year old Greek has set his sights on various records.

In January, Giakoumakis scored eleven goals in six matches, the last player to achieve this was Ajax player Marco van Basten (12 goals in 1985). Giakoumakis was also the second player ever to score four goals in one Eredivisie match for VVV-Venlo, after Hans Sleven in 1958/59.

With 21 goals in 20 matches, Georgios Giakoumakis is a genuine sensation. In the 1956/57 season, which was the first Eredivisie season, the VVV-Venlo striker was bettered in the first 20 matches only by Tonny van der Linden (DOS) en Coen Dillen (PSV). They both scored 22 times. The Greek player is ahead of Mateja Ke~man (20 goals), Romário (19) and John Guidetti (19).

Viewers of ESPN were also convinced about the quality of the Greek striker; in the Man of the Match selection, Giakoumakis received 72.9% of all the votes cast for players from VVV-Venlo. The votes from the fans have been included in the Player of the Month selection as of this month.

For both Giakoumakis and VVV-Venlo, this is the first Player of the Month prize this season. Previously, Thorsten Kirschbaum (February 2020) and Patrick Joosten (January 2019) from Venlo have been awarded the prize.

New structure: 40,000 fan votes included

Just like previous months, the scores for Player of the Month are drawn up for players objectively, based on over 60 statistics. Only players who have played at least two-thirds of the total number of game minutes are eligible for the title. What is new this time, however, is that fan votes which are submitted via the Man of the Match selection, will now also be included in the count. In January, a total of 40,360 votes were submitted for Man of the Match.

The Eredivisie Player of the Month award is an initiative of Eredivisie CV in collaboration with ESPN and KPN, main sponsor of the Eredivisie.

Georgios Giakoumakis - Photo: VVV-Venlo