Germany – Greek Diaspora History
Konstantinos Mitroglou
Konstantinos (Kostas) Mitroglou
Konstantinos Mitroglou, also known as Kostas Mitroglou, is a Greek professional footballer. Mitroglou was born in the northern Greek city of Kavala in 1988. His family left Greece for Germany while Mitroglou was still a young child and he grew up in Neukirchen-Vluyn, a town near Duisburg. Mitroglou’s family are members of the Greek diaspora community in Germany and have watched as he has become one of the greatest Greek footballers of all time.
The club career of Kostantinos Mitroglou
Konstantinos Mitroglou began his junior career at age 11 with Maura Poulia. In 2001, he joined MSV Duisburg and in 2005 joined Borussia Mönchengladbach.
2006–2007
Mitroglou’s senior career began with Borussia Mönchengladbach II, where he made 23 appearances.
2007–2014
Identified as a strong talent, Mitroglou moved back to his country of birth to join Olympiacos. Although Mitroglou had started banging in the goals for Olympiacos, during Ernesto Valverde’s two spells as coach, Mitroglou received limited game time as Valverde preferred to play a faster paced offensive style of football.
As a result, he was loaned out to Panionios and Atromitos between 2011 – 2012. After successful spells with both clubs, including being named as Superleague Greece Footballer of the Year for the 2011/2012 season, he returned to Olympiacos. The next two years would be arguably the most successful of his career, with Mitroglou scoring 37 goals for Olympiacos in all competitions and becoming the first Greek player to score a hat-trick in the UEFA Champions League.
2014–2016
In what was the highest transfer fee in Fulham’s history, they pinned their hopes of staying in the Premier League on the signing of Mitroglou. Unfortunately, this would prove one of the worst moves for both player and club. As Mitroglou struggled to recover from a niggling injury, he was only able to make three, unimpressive appearances for Fulham.
Once Fulham was relegated, Mitroglou was loaned back to Olympiacos for the 2014–2015 season and then Benfica for the 2015-16 season. Mitroglou resurrected his career during this period, scoring 16 times in 24 appearances for Olympiacos and scoring 20 times in 32 appearances for Benfica, as well as reaching the Champions League quarterfinals.
2016–2017
After a successful loan spell at Benfica in Portugal, he signed for the club the following year. Here Mitroglou had another successful year, scoring 16 goals in 28 appearances.
2017–Current
In 2017, Mitroglou moved to French Ligue 1 club Marseille. After a slow start in his first season, he found some form, scoring a total of 11 goals in 23 appearances. At the beginning of 2019, Mitroglou was loaned out to Turkish Super Lig club Galatasaray where he scored 1 goals in 7 appearances. Then in August of 2019, Mitroglou was loaned out to Dutch Eredivisie club PSV Eindhoven. So far, Mitroglou has scored 1 goal in 13 appearance at PSV.
The international career of Kostantinos Mitroglou
Junior national teams
Konstantinos Mitroglou began his international career for Greece in 2005, when he was called up to the under 19 national team. After scoring an impressive 12 goals in 14 appearances for Greece’s under 19 team, in 2007 Mitroglou was called up to the under 21 national team. Here he scored 5 goals in 16 appearances.
Senior national teams
In 2009, Konstantinos Mitroglou was selected for the Greece’s senior national team. As of 2020, Mitroglou has scored 17 goals in 65 appearances for Greece. His most important goals and performances came in the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign, where Mitroglou scored 5 goals, including 3 goals against Romania in the two leg play-offs for the World Cup. Although Mitroglou played a pivotal role in qualifying Greece for the 2014 World Cup, he unfortunately missed the tournament due to injury.
The Greek diaspora has produced many talented footballers and Konstantinos Mitroglou is certainly one of the finest.
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