A good impression, then fatigue and a bench in Pardubice. Zafeiris meets Slavia. The question is when he will start

A week ago, he had a grand welcome in front of the fans at Eden before the first game of the spring. Accompanied by club boss Jaroslav Tvrdík, he waved to the fans in the stands and they are looking forward to what Christos Zafeiris will show them. For now, he is catching up on his lack of fitness, getting to know his teammates, the game system and the whole club. “In Pardubice, he was on the bench to be with the team, to see its progress and preparation. And a place became available on the roster,” explained Trpišovský’s coach, why he took the native of Athens to the bench.

Zafeiris did not play in the new Pardubice CFIG Arena. A good constellation did not come together for him to fly into the match for the first time. The result was open until the last minute, moreover, the young prodigy is not in ideal condition. They have to work on adaptation and fitness. The Norwegian league, from which he came from Haugesund, does not start until April, so the teams there are currently in a completely different mode.

“He was in training for a week before he joined us. The first two days he looked very good with us, the next two days he was very tired. In training, we even took him out of the game in one case. He needs to play with intensity, and he has a problem with that at the moment,” Trpišovský described.

There is no reason to push the rookie, to throw him into matches unprepared. The Red and Whites have plenty of options in the midfield, where the member of the Norwegian twenty-one belongs. Ondřej Lingr, Petr Ševčík, Lukáš Provod, Petr Hronek or Oscar also claim a place in the lineup, which Zafeiris will want to take. “None of them will give him anything for free, neither will we. They must be better than those who play. They have to fight their way through the competition,” the coach of the current league leader sent a clear message.

But the Norwegian with Greek roots is not afraid. He seems determined, confident. “Definitely. He has that Canadian hockey confidence, healthy confidence. But he has a reason, he has the skills,” glossed Trpišovský’s nature of the young foreigner.

Reputation precedes Zafeiris excellent. When you find clips of his actions, you see that he has an overview, a move on goal. He controls the ball very well, he can give a nice pass. “This type of player doesn’t run around much in the Czech Republic. He’s likeable, someone told me and I have to agree, he’s a bit like Nico Stanciu. By game expression, ideas, the way he sees the situation. He always wants to play up,” the chief strategist of the team from Vršovice indicated that it was Zafeiris who could provide the superstructure that was sometimes missing when conquering strong opponents’ defenses after the departure of Nicolae Stanciu to China.

“He believes in himself. He went to penalties, he was at the decisive moments. This is the thing that caught our attention the most on first impression. He is a winning type of player, he takes balls in difficult positions. Even if he doesn’t do well in a match, he still wants to play. This is his great advantage. As well as hard work and a large radius of action, but for that he needs to catch up and be able to play with intensity. His potential is huge, he will be a great player,” the head of the Slavist coaching staff praised Zafeiris, who scored four goals and provided five assists in the last season of the Norwegian league.

“On the other hand, he has completed his first season among the adults. He’s nineteen, he’s still a teenager just like Matěj Jurásek,” Trpišovský warned at the same time that he can’t be expected to start shining right away. “He has to learn everything, get along with the team, get to know the system, which is different from what he played.” added another important condition for the arrival of a young reinforcement. “In addition, he left the family circle for the first time, took another step. Before that, the family went with him from Greece to Norway at the age of seven for football, his biggest coach is probably his dad, even though he is a car mechanic,” the coach mentioned.

So the question remains when Zafeiris will show his skills on the field. “It’s a complicated question, I can’t guess right now. I think he’ll be a substitute for the foreseeable future. We count on him in the position of eight or ten, in the role of an offensive player,” Trpišovský prefaced.