Former Celtic star Giorgos Giakoumakis has been made to wait for his Atlanta United debut with red tape holding up his American dream.
The 28-year-old traded the Scottish Premiership for Major League Soccer in a £4million transfer Stateside after the towering Greek international proved to be a success at Celtic Park where he scored 26 goals in 18 months and was a key component to the side which won the title in Ange Postecoglou's first season. He struggled for regular game time this term with Kyogo Furuhashi leading the line for Celtic, and opted to try his luck Stateside.
However, his big move to America is off to a faltering start with the frontman still waiting on approvals of a work visa ahead of Atlanta's friendly clash with Toluca. Giakoumakis will have to wait on his debut with the first game of the campaign rapidly approaching with his new club kicking off the season against San Jose Earthquakes on February 26.
He now faces a fitness race ahead of the new campaign, with the work permit delay meaning he has been unable to even train under boss Gonzalo Pineda and work alongside his new teammates. Giakoumakis has not played since his final Celtic appearance on January 14, where he netted his last goal for the Hoops' against Kilmarnock after climbing off the bench.
However, Pineda remained undeterred by the hold up and insisted the striker is the perfect fit for the club. He told the Atlanta Journal: “You can see immediately that he’s a guy that is passionate about scoring goals.
"And what I like about him is he’s always on the move, looking for gaps. And once he’s inside the 18, he has those double movements that I really like. So, he’s always pressuring, he goes to the near post, he goes to the far post, he’s going to the near post, he drops in and stays compact.
“And then another one is probably a different look, but he’s a big, big target guy. So he can give us a couple more variances in our attacking shape.
"And maybe at times, when teams try to pin us back and put pressure on us, maybe we can play the ball to him, he shields the ball, waits for the supporting runs, and then we start progression from there. So he can give us a little bit of that as well."
Sign up to our newsletters to make sure you never miss a beat throughout the season.
READ NEXT
