Reason enough for bundesliga.de to take a closer look at a natural-born scorer, who has among other things shown that even Jose Mourinho doesn't get it right every time...
Olympic background
Gekas was born in Larissa, the capital of the Thessaly region, southwest of Mount Olympus. He recalls being "eight years old" when he started playing football and while he "never enjoyed school", he was not naturally enamoured of every facet of the game he would later make his profession either. Fancy footwork and crunching tackles were never his thing - right from the beginning, it was all about scoring goals for Gekas: "I trained every day and always wanted to be a striker." So it turned out, first with hometown club AEL in the Second Division, then in Athens with Kallithea FC, before one of the country's leading sides, Panathinaikos, snapped him up during the 2005-06 winter break. Come the end of the season, Gekas was top scorer in the Greek Superleague.
Fans and mentors
Those credentials sparked interest in the striker from further afield. Stefan Kuntz, who during his time as coach at LR Ahlen had first heard of Gekas' nose for goal, was now sporting director at VfL Bochum and had the money to sign him. The Greek striker proved an instant hit, so much so that Bochum's coach at the time, Marcel Koller, described him as "our life insurance". VfL finished the campaign in an excellent ninth place and Michael Skibbe subsequently signed Gekas up at Bayer Leverkusen. He struggled to establish himself there, but that did not prevent Skibbe signing him again for Frankfurt when the opportunity arose. "Skibbe was the deal-making factor in my decision", says Gekas, who has been repaying the coach's faith the best way he can – with goals.
One up on "The Special One"
Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho touched recently on the importance of integration, linguistic and otherwise, in the modern multinational squad set-up. Gekas, though, stoutly remains a man of few words, particularly in German. The little he had to say about his recent brace against Kaiserslautern was translated by team-mate and compatriot Ioannis Amanatidis. Asked why, his responses are honest and to the point: "I'm shy and prefer to let goals do the talking", or "I'm paid to score goals, not to talk German." He offered up a further variation when struggling Hertha BSC signed him last winter, saying, "I want to help Hertha avoid the drop, not become a language teacher." Gekas sets his own priorities, and with evident success.
The predator
Theofanis Gekas is an old-fashioned kind of frontman. For the most part he hangs around wherever the opposition defence happen to draw their offside line, his head slightly lowered, like a predator on the prowl. The closer he is to goal, the better. By way of comparison, Wolfsburg's Edin Dzeko is a forward in seemingly perpetual motion, creating chances for himself well outside the box and with more than 330 touches of the ball racked up already this season. Gekas meanwhile, in Skibbe's words, is "incredibly wily. He always knows when to start moving and where to go inside the box." While Dzeko has averaged 67 touches of the ball for each of his five goals so far this season, every 25th ball contact for Gekas has ended in the back of the net.
Efficiency personified
Of course it is the quality of those ball contacts that is the true defining factor, even more so for a striker. Gekas has had 17 attempts on goal this season. Seven of those went in, meaning just over one in two of his scoring efforts has been successful. It's an impressive ratio, above all in light of this one-time evaluation of his talents by current strike colleague Amanatidis: "He can't head the ball, he's not particularly strong, and he doesn't have a good shot." Gekas, it seems, can't do much – except score goals. In that regard, Skibbe has even likened him to an all-time great: "There are very few forwards like him. The way he moves and his scoring instinct remind me a little of Gerd Müller."
Records
Given those credentials, it comes as little surprise that the Greek international goalgetter has racked up a few scoring records down the years. His brace in the 4-0 victory at Borussia Mönchengladbach made him only the 17th player in the history of the Bundesliga to have scored twice in a game for four separate clubs. One particular record is all his own though: Gekas is the only Greek player to have topped the scoring chart in a major league outside his home country, a feat he achieved in his debut season at Bochum. On current form, he could be heading for a repeat performance.
The ritual
As poachers go, Theofanis Gekas is up there with the best of them. He has that rare and uncanny sense for getting into the right place at the right time. Or is it perhaps just a matter of luck? Like many other footballers, Gekas has a slightly superstitious streak when it comes to professional matters. "I shave before every game, two hours before kick-off. That's my ritual", he says. And just in case there should be any lingering doubt as to his mission out on the pitch, the striker has it – quite literally – etched into him. The Chinese character tattooed onto his right forearm stands for "clinical finisher".
The assistant
Gekas has netted 46 goals in his 108 Bundesliga appearances to date – a return of almost one every two games. When it comes to setting them up however, his statistics are rather less impressive: he has provided only eight assists all-told. A frequent criticism at Bayer Leverkusen was that his style did not always serve the best interests of the team. Indeed, the striker whose raison d'ètre is scoring goals is always vulnerable when they run dry for a while. As one very much in that mould, what are Gekas's views on the matter of assisting then? "I help my wife Vasso out around the house when I've got a day off – that goes without saying." It seems unlikely then that he will be setting any records at Frankfurt in the "assist" category, unless the club adds Mrs. Gekas to the books.
Hail King Otto
Former Greece coach Otto Rehhagel often relied on Gekas's poaching abilities as well, as testified by his record of 20 goals in 52 international appearances, making him the country's fifth-highest all-time scorer. The respect was mutual: "For me, he's the best coach I've worked with. Greece were nowhere on the international football map when he went there", said the striker of "King Otto". And when Rehhagel stepped down as national team coach following Greece's exit from the World Cup in South Africa, Gekas soon followed in his footsteps, leaving him free to focus on his club game at Eintracht. Under new coach Fernando Santos, Greece are looking to a younger generation of players now, although Gekas believes the national team "will find it difficult again without Rehhagel."
Tough
Being in the right place at the right time is not the whole story of course for the potential goalgetter. He also has the unwelcome but inevitable attentions of one or more defenders to deal with, often deploying tactics fine-tuned to stretch the rules of the game to the limit. That is no problem either for Gekas who, until the age of 15, was also a wrestler, and is no stranger to asserting himself by means of hard physical contact. Having played at Champions League and World Cup level, he has become acquainted with some of the toughest tacklers in the game. Asked recently who he considered the toughest of them all, he bestowed the honour on a club mate: "Maik Franz. I'm glad we're on the same side now."
