AVGOUSTI NEXT TO LEAD CYPRUS

The Cyprus Football Association have hired Sofronis Avgousti as the new manager of the Cyprus national team. Avgousti replaces Timur Ketsbaia who held the job for a little over two years. Avgousti is now 47 years old, originally from Limassol, the first Cypriot manager to lead his country’s national team since Christakis Christoforou(2015-2017).

Avgousti has been a manager since 2016 for various Cypriot league clubs, two stints at Apollonas, his hometown club that he also played for, as well as AEK Larnaca, APOEL, Karmiotissa, and Omonoia. His main accomplishments as a manager have been winning the Cypriot Cup, in 2017 with Apollonas, and in 2023 with Omonoia.

Prior to his managerial career, he played for 15 seasons as a goalkeeper, mostly for Apollonas, but also AEK Larnaca, Aris Limassol and briefly for APOEL. He also played in goal for the very national team he will now coach, playing for Cyprus 11 times over a period spanning from 2004 until 2010, otherwise stuck behind Antonis Giorgallidis in his prime. His peak as a player was winning a championship with Apollonas in 2006.

Avgousti takes over at a critical juncture for the Cypriot national team. As minnows in the landscape of European football, Cyprus always face a lot of challenges, but even for that standard, Cyprus are in a down cycle. Ketsbaia left behind a team lacking confidence, belief, and motivation. Avgousti is known as a great motivator, even moreso than any tactical prowess. The best case scenario, is that he can restore pride to the national team, and inspire the team to play hard, and unafraid to take chances, following the very conservative Ketsbaia. He left Karmiotissa to take this job, and it’s clearly one he wanted for the aforementioned reasons. However, the risk is that his motivational tactics could backfire and he could wear out his welcome with the players quickly.

Avgousti will debut on the 12^th of October at home to Romania and then on the 15^th away to Kosovo in Pristina, both in the UEFA Nations League. He has made his first set of callups for these fixtures, which are as follows:

GOALKEEPERS: Joel Mall(Servette), Dimitris Demetriou(Apollonas), Neofytos Michael(Pafos FC)

DEFENDERS: Kostas Laifis(APOEL), Nikolas Panayiotou(Omonoia), Andreas Karo(Maccabi Petah Tikva), Stelios Andreou(Charleroi), Nikolas Ioannou(Sampdoria), Minas Antoniou(Karmiotissa), Marios Stylianou(Ethnikos Achnas), Kostas Pileas(Pafos FC)

MIDFIELDERS: Kostakis Artymatas(Anorthosis), Andreas Chrysostomou(Anorthosis), Danilo Spoljaric(Apollonas), Ioannis Kousoulos(Omonoia), Hector Kyprianou(Peterborough United), Alex Gogic(St. Mirren), Grigoris Kastanos(Hellas Verona), Charalambos Charalambous(Omonoia)

FORWARDS: Andronikos Kakoullis(Omonoia), Loizos Loizou(Omonoia), Ioannis Pittas(AIK Solna), Marinos Tzionis(Cukaricki), Pieros Sotiriou(Sanfrecce Hiroshima), Marios Ilia(Pafos FC)

Andrew Mantzas

Twitter: @MantzasNC