In Part 2 of George Koumantarakis' Exclusive chat with Soccer Laduma's Fan Park, the ex-Bafana striker touches on his family's immigration to South Africa and growing up in Durban.
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The story
George Koumantarakis, the former striker who donned the colours of Manning Rangers, FC Basel and Preston North-End among others — opened up about the difficulties he faced when his family moved to South Africa.
The Greek-born Durbanite, who spoke about his football career and being a businessman in Part 1, also revealed why he's grateful for growing up in South Africa and how he turned down a major offer in Europe to finish his LLB studies.
Read: Koumantarakis: I Was More Than Just A Footballer...
Let's take a closer look...
Koumantarakis on moving to SA more
Former Manning Rangers, FC Basel and Preston North-End centre forward, George Koumantarakis reflected on his family's immigration to South Africa from Greece.
The move wasn't the smoothest one for the Koumantarakis family, with George revealing that initially he and his father headed to Durban, before his father could afford to fly down the rest of their family.
"My brother and my mom stayed for a year in Greece while my father worked and saved up to fly them over. We stayed in a 1 bedroom apartment and when the rest of the family came out, we stayed in a house in Reservoir Hills. At the time, especially during the apartheid era, it was an Indian area.
"It was tough, I must say it gave me a lot of important lessons and understanding of life and understanding the value of money," says the retired baller.
In time, George and his family settled in Durban, with his father starting a successful business — it's clear where the 50-year-old gets his business acumen from.
George is grateful to have grown up the way he did, it allowed the former Bafana striker to be humble and appreciate the value of hard work. More than anything, he's grateful for the life this country has afforded him.
"Life [growing up] in South Africa was good. I'm very grateful for South Africa, the county has given me education and a life that most countries doesn't give to other people," he says.
Koumantarakis broke through in professional football as a teenager at AmaZulu but announced himself in the South African top flight by helping the Mighty Maulers win the inaugural PSL league title in the 1996/97 season under Gordon Igesund, in his early 20's.
As mentioned in Part 1, Koumantarakis boasts a BCom Law degree and an LLB, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and revealed that during his LLB studies, he got a very handsome offer from an Austrian club but had to turn it down...
"So for me, it was never a doubt that I needed to complete my law degree. So, I had finished by BCom and I was in the first year of my LLB and I got an offer to go to Rapid Vienna in Europe and they offered me a three-year contract.
"I mean the money was ridiculous, I was earning R500 a month and I think was going to be earning something like R100 000 a month at the time. But in my heart, I knew that I could make it in Europe because as a youngster, I knew that if I wait like a year longer and improve my game here in South Africa, the transition to Europe would be easier," explained George, who added:
"It was a difficult deal to let go off, but it was also quite interesting because it gave me new self confidence."
Here's a look at George's finest career goals:
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