When Atlanta United signed Giorgos Giakoumakis in February, the Greek striker was a bit of an unknown in the U.S., despite successful stints in the Netherlands and Scotland. He was replacing Atlanta United club legend Josef Martínez, who is known for his goals, his brash attitude and a penchant for one-liners. They were big shoes to fill, but Giakoumakis welcomed the challenge. 

When he was introduced to the American press, Atlanta technical director Carlos Bocanegra downplayed any comparisons to Martínez. The Venezuelan scored over 100 goals in six seasons in Atlanta. “I don’t want to put those expectations on Giorgos. He’s going to come in here and write his own history,” Bocanegra said. 

That same day, Giakoumakis wasted little time when he laughed off this reporter’s mispronunciation of his last name. 

“I can tell my surname is not an easy one for you,” Giakoumakis said. “I hope you’ll keep repeating my name with the goals. Then you will learn about it.” 

There’s a familiar tone to Giakoumakis’ blunt delivery. He’s called Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic his role models —Ronaldo for his work ethic and Ibrahimovic for his mentality. After 10 months in Atlanta, Giakoumakis has not supplanted Martínez’s icon status, but he is already one of Major League Soccer’s best center forwards. 

On Thursday he was named the league’s 2023 newcomer of the year, beating out Saint Louis SC’s Eduard Löwen and Inter Miami’s Ballon d’Or-winning Lionel Messi to claim the award. His 17 goals (none from penalties) in 27 regular season appearances was just three shy of MLS golden boot winner Denis Bouanga. 

17 goals. No penalties.

So… did y’all learn his name? ⚡️

— x – Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) November 2, 2023

“I’m really happy and satisfied for winning this trophy,” Giakoumakis told The Athletic. “It has a different gravity when you win and you’re competing against Messi. So I think the gravity of this prize is even bigger right now.” 

Giakoumakis referred to the newcomer of the year award as a progression in his career. It’s also vindication. He said that he is finally enjoying his football again, after years of unfulfilled expectations and bouncing around Europe. Giakoumakis played for five teams in Greece’s first division at the start of his career. He landed at AEK Athens in 2017, which at the time was a career milestone. But he was loaned after less than two years to OFI Crete Football Club, which slowed his path to stardom. 

At the age of 25, Giakoumakis was desperate to test himself abroad and was open to practically any move. 

“I was locked up in Greece,” Giakoumakis said. “I was feeling like I was in a cage. Everything was going wrong, completely wrong. So I had to go. I had to escape.”

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He called his move to Polish side Górnik Zabrze his ticket to better opportunities in Europe. He had won a league title with AEK, but as he put it, he wasn’t the main man. He said that in Greece “they never took care of me and they never showed me the respect and appreciation that they were counting on me.” 

Giakoumakis admits that his emotions play an important part in the decisions that he makes, personally and professionally. Since becoming a professional, Giakoumakis, nicknamed “GG,” has been anxious to prove that he could be a club’s star player. A late bloomer, he finally found his groove in the Netherlands in the summer of 2020. 

Giakoumakis became the Dutch Eredivisie’s top scorer that season, but his 26 goals for VVV-Venlo couldn’t prevent the modest club from getting relegated. He had never before experienced that dreadful feeling of dropping down to second division football. An Eredivisie golden boot trophy was a massive achievement, however, proving to European scouts that Giakoumakis could be prolific. But Giakoumakis still couldn’t move past the terrible feeling that came with relegation. 

“That was my first relegation and then I took it personally because I scored 26 goals,” Giakoumakis said. “It may be somewhat cliché, but I was thinking that maybe I could’ve scored more. Maybe somehow my team would have avoided relegation. If I could change the trophy with the team staying in the Eredivisie, I would do it.”

Next though, came a move to Celtic, a well-established club in global football, and the level of exposure Giakoumakis hadn’t yet had. Despite leading the Scottish Premier League in goals during the 2021-2022 season, starting against Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League group stage and winning both a league and a domestic cup title, Giakoumakis never truly settled at Celtic Park. His passionate goal celebrations captivated the supporters, but Giakoumakis wasn’t the preferred No. 9 for then manager Ange Postecoglou, who has since moved to Premier League leaders Tottenham Hotspur. 

Last winter, Giakoumakis’ eventual transfer away from Celtic was the subject of much speculation in Scotland. Reports surfaced claiming that his expected move away from Glasgow was driven by money. Former Celtic midfielder Joe Ledley said that it was “a blow” to lose Giakoumakis after just 18 months at the club. 

“It’s certainly a surprise to leave one of the biggest clubs in the world for the MLS,” Ledley said last February. 

Ledley believed that Giakoumakis had accepted a move to MLS “for the lifestyle,” adding that Giakoumakis should have stayed in Scotland and earned a move to England. Then, as Atlanta United and Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds battled to sign the Greece international, Postecoglou said that Giakoumakis was “not on his radar,” which was seen as a dig at the player. 

Giakoumakis took a deep breath, leaned back in his chair and with an exhale, said that it was finally time to talk about his exit from Celtic. He spoke in generalities, without elaborating, but it’s clear that Giakoumakis remains bitter about how it all ended. Giakoumakis said that as transfer rumors swirled around him, he didn’t know that he’d end up being signed by Atlanta United. Today though, he’s grateful to the fans in Atlanta and to the people at the club for the warm welcome. 

“I wouldn’t think to leave Celtic if several things didn’t go wrong, and many of them were completely wrong,” Giakoumakis said. “I cannot lie. My relationship with the manager wasn’t great, at the end of the day. We never had a specific fight, but he didn’t trust me as much as I wanted to feel trusted.” 

Giakoumakis said that his relationship with his teammates was never a problem, but that he had “issues” with Celtic executives, who he said backed Postecoglou. That prompted his decision to leave the club. 

Being at Celtic felt like a job, Giakoumakis said. The type of job where “you don’t feel happy at the end of the day.” 

“I had to go. I had to go,” he stressed. “I never regretted a moment. I was sad that I had to leave Celtic. I was living a life there. I was like a god for the fans. My connection with them was really special, and it was sad, but I had to make my decision. My last month in Celtic I was suffering because of some people at the club. I didn’t receive the respect from the people or from the club. So actually, I think they forced me to go out.”

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Celtic’s loss was Atlanta United’s gain. Atlanta secured Giakoumakis at the close of MLS winter transfer window. In February, Giakoumakis told reporters that Atlanta United technical director Carlos Bocanegra had traveled to Scotland to reiterate the club’s interest in him. He revealed last week that when Bocanegra arrived, the prospect of signing with Atlanta United was a long shot, as the final hours of the transfer window neared. 

“They traveled all the way to Scotland just to meet me,” said Giakoumakis. “And they traveled at the point in the transfer window when there was no hope that I could make this transfer here. It was just something to make me feel important, to show me that, you know what, we are here for you and we really want to sign you. That was something amazing for me.”

Giakoumakis has since delivered on that confidence. He said that had he not missed games through injury, he would’ve won the MLS golden boot. Giakoumakis played in 27 of 34 regular season games, starting 21 times. Out of a possible 3,060 minutes, Giakoumakis played 1,791 minutes. LAFC’s Bouanga totaled 2,533 minutes in 2023. 

OPA! Unreal from our Tank 🇬🇷

— x – Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) May 18, 2023

“I cannot say I did extremely well because I know my abilities, but I cannot complain at all,” Giakoumakis said. “I cannot be sad. I cannot have second thoughts. I’m happy and proud of what I did at the end of the day. I think I did okay.”  

Giakoumakis confirmed that a recurring hamstring injury kept him from playing more minutes in his debut season in Atlanta. “It wasn’t a tear. Just a strain,” he said. Yet, that strain caused Giakoumakis to hobble off twice mid-game during the regular season. The second time, against the Philadelphia Union on July 2, nearly broke him. 

“I was literally crying in the dressing room,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it. I was depressed for two days. I was depressed. My wife said, ‘Come on, it’s a tiny injury. You’ve been under worse stresses in your life, in your career, and you cry for this?’ Yes because I cannot accept for myself to get injured and because I’m not used to getting injured.”

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When Giakoumakis was out injured, Atlanta United didn’t have a reliable backup striker. They had no choice but to lean heavily on 22-year-old MVP finalist Thiago Almada. Together, Almada and Giakoumakis combined for 28 goals. Of Almada’s 19 assists, seven went to Giakoumakis. On the whole, Atlanta United scored 66 goals during the regular season — four shy of the total from Tata Martino’s 2017 and 2018 teams. 

But defensively, Atlanta under Gonzalo Pineda have struggled. Their 53 conceded goals was among the highest totals in the league. Last Wednesday’s 2-0 loss to the Columbus Crew in the first game of Atlanta’s first-round playoff series further highlighted the team’s defensive frailties. Those realities aren’t lost on Giakoumakis, who offered his own assessment of the 2023 Atlanta’s United season. 

“I think there have been some, if I can call them mistakes, in the past,” he said regarding the first part of Atlanta’s year. “The team now is trying to recover from that. So it’s a transitional season and if you see, we have a totally different team than the first (half of the season). This second (half), with all the new players who came, we’re a totally different team. We’re more competitive. We play better than before. We can score against any club within MLS.” 

He said that the season wouldn’t be a failure if Atlanta United ended the year without a trophy. If they lose Tuesday night at home to Columbus, they’ll crash out of the first round of the playoffs after failing to make the postseason in 2022. 

“I know that next season is going to be really promising for us,” Giakoumakis said. “If we stick with the same group, with one or two quality additions, with key players, I think we can do great things in this league and we can really be competitive to win the title.” 

Giakoumakis signed with Atlanta United through the 2026 season. He’s been a revelation, and will begin the 2024 season as both a golden boot and MVP candidate. His family is happy in the U.S., although being so far away from loved ones and friends in Greece, with two young children, has been difficult. 

An impressive first year in MLS has made Giakoumakis a regular call-up for Greece during their Euro 2024 qualification process. His powerful header against Ireland on October 13 kept Greece alive in Group B.

🇬🇷 Giakoumakis with a powerful header 💥#EURO2024

— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) October 16, 2023

The Greeks are third behind France and the Netherlands, but level on points (12) with the Dutch. A playoff berth looks certain for Greece, and a solid start in MLS and a trip to Euro 2024 would likely put Giakoumakis back in the conversation for a return to European football. But after the highs and lows he lived through in the Netherlands and Scotland, would he be open to that?

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“It has to be something special,” Giakoumakis said. “I have a dream. I’m almost 29 but I never stopped dreaming for myself or for my career. If it were one of the top five leagues, I would. I would think about that because it’s something that I haven’t achieved yet.”

A player who has been top scorer in the Netherlands and Scotland, and now nearly a 20-goal striker in MLS, will continue to get interest from abroad. 

Giakoumakis has been the ideal replacement for Josef Martínez. A big personality with big dreams. And he’s not finished in Atlanta just yet. 

“I came here to play,” said Giakoumakis. “I came here to offer many things to my team. I’m here to win.”

(Photo: Perry McIntyre/ISI Photos/Getty Images)