This article is part of the Guardian’s World Cup 2014 Experts’ Network, a co-operation between 32 of the best media organisations from the countries who have qualified for the finals in Brazil. theguardian.com is running previews from four countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 12 June.
This summer, during the “Mundial do Brasil”, there will be few footballers that can claim to have a “rags to riches” story better than Greece’s charismatic left-wingback José Holebas. The German with the Greek origin or, alternatively, the Greek with the German origin, made his first professional appearance on 21 September 2007, at 23 years old, even though he had stopped playing football some years earlier, in 2001.
His father came from Trikala, in Greece and his mother from Uruguay. José grew up and started learning football in Germany. His first club was local team Südring when he was seven. José played at non-professional football clubs until 2001 when his partner got pregnant and José, at age 16, decided to give it up. He had to work the double shift as a warehouse assistant in order to financially support his family’s rising expenses.
A year later, he was back into playing football. This time for good. In 2005, José got his first break. He scored 15 goals in 33 appearances with Viktoria Kahl, playing as a striker. That’s what took him to 1860 Munich’s second team and then a year later to his first professional contract with the first team.
It was the summer of 2009 when his coach Ewald Lienen, a radical-thinking individual even from his early days as a footballer when he wore pro-peace and anti-nuclear energy t-shirts after his game, advised the 25-year-old Holebas to stay back and play as a defending left-winger.
Moirai, the three goddesses of fate in ancient Greece mythology, still had a lot of surprises to add to the thread of Holebas’ football career.
A year after he was advised to change positions, Lienen left to become the coach of Olympiakos. They were also in need of a left-back that could defend but also had the abilities and the mind frame to assist the attack from the left flank.
Lienen immediately signed Holebas and gave him the chance to play at a top club with the potential of Champions League football. Two months after that, during the summer qualifications, Olympiakos got knocked out of the Champions League and Lienen paid the price for it.
Holebas was newly signed by a coach that was no longer there. He came under heavy criticism during his first months in the club, while he was struggling to find his form and having to carry the burden of being the signing of a failed coach. Four months was all he needed until he began to make a good impression while the new coach, Ernesto Valverde, used him both as a defending and an attacking left winger, depending on the opponent.
He had Fernando Santos’s, the Portuguese coach of Greece, attention. In November 2011, José got Greek citizenship as “Iosef Holevas” and on the 11th of the same month he played in his first friendly match, even contributing to the goal that tied the match against Russia 1-1.
In 2012, José was part of the Greek national team for the Euros. He was dropped for the third match due to heavy criticism that his attacking tendency was becoming hazardous to the usually solid defensive tactics of Greece. He did come on in the game for the final 30 minutes, playing admirably and assisting Greece in holding on to the 1-0 win against Russia.
Holebas has 20 appearances for Greece and is expected to start his during this summer’s World Cup.
Stavros Drakoularakos is a sports writer at Sport24.gr