PLAYER PROFILE

Georgios Samaras

Position: Forward

Height: 6'4

Weight: 12st 13lbs

Date of Birth: 1985-02-21 Heraklion, Greece

Georgios Samaras

Greek international striker Georgios Samaras joined Manchester City from Dutch side Heerenveen for £6m in late January 2006. The 20-year-old had been a long term target for Manchester City and had also attracted the interest of Arsenal, following a strong two seasons in the Dutch top flight, where he scored 25 goals in 88 appearances.

City boss Stuart Pearce was keen to get his new acquisition into the starting line-up, but also said he felt he'd bought a player for the future: "It's the overall package that you get with him. He's 20 years old, we feel that we have someone at the right end of their career, someone who will mature and get better and better."

He made a promising start to his career at City, scoring five goals in 14 appearances in 2005/06, but struggled to really improve on that in 2006/07.

He will be hoping to make more of an impact in 07/08.