George Koumantarakis
Georgios "George" Koumantarakis (born 27 March 1974) is a South African former soccer player of Greek descent. He was born in Athens, Greece but grew up in Durban, South Africa. He studied to be a lawyer and has BCom,LLB degrees from the university of Kwazulu Natal. He is mostly remembered for his time at FC Basel where he played in the Swiss Super League and UEFA Champions League. He played for the South African national team and was a participant at the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Club career Koumantarakis started out at South African team AmaZulu F.C. in 1992. He left the club after six months, however, to join Manning Rangers where he won the South African title. He joined one of South Africa's most successful teams, Supersport United FC, in 1996 for a then record South African club to club transfer. He was a success at Supersport and his big move to Europe came in 1998 when he signed for Swiss club FC Luzern. He had a good debut European season in Luzern and did enough to impress FC Basel. Koumantarakis joined Basel's first team for their 1999–2000 season under new head coach Christian Gross. After playing one test