The strange story of Odysseas Vlachodimos

As recently as a couple of years ago, Odysseas Vlachodimos was a regular of European football elite. He was the undisputed first-choice goalkeeper at one of the giants of Portuguese football, SL Benfica, and he frequently rubbed shoulders with the likes of Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in the Champions League. He remains the key shot-stopper in his national team setup too, having played over 40 times between the sticks for Greece. Now, however, at club-level at least, he is resigned to a role which no goalkeeper favours.

For the first time since his curious arrival from Nottingham Forest for a fee in the region of 20 million pounds, the Greek had an impromptu opportunity to endear himself to the Geordie faithful. Thrust into action against AFC Wimbledon in United’s League Cup campaign due to an untimely injury to regular backup Martin Dubravka, Vlachodimos readied himself for the task ahead: to keep the plucky visitors goalless and see Newcastle seamlessly through to the next round of the competition. Even his introduction seemed odd and unexpected; the stadium announcer declared that John Ruddy was Dubravka’s replacement!

This is the story of the Greek God turned emergency reinforcement. This is the strange story of Odysseas Vlachodimos.

Born in Germany but of Greek Origin, Vlachodimos’ story began in the youth setup of his local side, VfB Stuttgart, where he made just a handful of senior appearances before departing, fittingly, for Panathinaikos of Athens, Greece. His stellar play in the Greek capital would pay dividends, with the goalkeeper catching the eye of Lisbon giants SL Benfica. Once settled in his new home, Odysseas would quickly usurp the starting job at the Estadio Da Luz, becoming a mainstay in a side that played some pretty good football in Europe.

Vlachodimos was on top of the world and, seemingly, it was only up from there. He was still very young (for a goalkeeper), and his potential was thought of to be through the roof. It was around this time when Odysseas would begin to play more regularly for his national side, becoming one of their most recognisable names even at a relatively young age.

So why is he now in his current predicament? How does a goalkeeper once so highly thought of go from being a star player to becoming an afterthought in the space of a mere year or two? Well, a lacklustre spell at the City Ground may be part of the answer.

Lacklustre, as it turns out, may be an understatement. Vlachodimos’ time in the East Midlands was, compared to the highs he had previously become used to, a disaster. He could not cement a place as Forest’s starting goalkeeper and, as such, made only 5 senior appearances for the Trees. Given Forest are presided over by a wealthy Greek businessman, the signing of Vlachodimos seemed nothing more than a low-risk publicity buy for the club.

It was this past summer, however, that Odysseas’ career took a really strange turn. In a baffling move, he became Newcastle’s record signing for a goalkeeper, joining the Magpies for a fee reported to be in the region of £20 million. In a world not governed by the absurdity that is PSR, any Forest fan would laugh in your face upon being told they made a profit of over £15 million on the goalkeeper who only played a couple of times. But this is a world governed by the absurdity that is PSR. Vlachodimos had become a pawn in the efforts of both clubs to stay below the incriminating threshold, with United youngster Elliot Anderson going the other way. As such, both players changed colours for highly inflated prices. As high as I am on Anderson’s talent and potential, he is not a £35 million player.

And with that, we arrived at Tuesday night, where the Greek - who made his first competitive outing for the club - will no doubt be hoping to build on that and become more known for his performance between the sticks than his bizarre transfer history.

Here’s hoping he can justify even a bit of his wild fee (albeit for PSR purposes) and mount a challenge to United’s goalkeeping hierarchy while adding a hint of Champions League experience in the process.