A great sportsman, an excellent person in the service of our Olympiacos. In the past as player, now as strategic advisor to the administration.
Christian Karembeu has his own… history with Manchester United. Back in 2001 and 2002 he had faced the English team as a player and speaking to our official website he recollects these games, talking at the same time about the future and the great matches to come against the Englishmen.
What is that that you remember the most from these two games against Manchester United?
“That it was so crowdy! I remember that the first game was in OAKA stadium. A big stadium and the fans were numerous! They came to cheer us up and one of my best, but also sad memories, is that the game was postponed due to the attacks on the Twin Towers. Before that, we were in good shape to face Manchester United, but after that – that brought a revolution, as they say, to the world in terms of security – we had problems on the pitch. It was a sad moment, but also that period we were ready to face Manchester United, but two weeks later, when they came to our stadium, unfortunately we had to fight against a big team, with Mr. Ferguson of course and great players, such as Veron, Van Nistelrooy… It was a tough game and we couldn’t win even if we tried hard, it was a 0-0”.
Do you think that Olympiacos has now more chances to celebrate his first win against Manchester United?
“Ι hope so! I think that, of course we need to be ambitious, but also we need to be careful because of the history of this team. As of today they’re having troubles in the English championship, but Premiership is a completely different level. But we did great performances against Paris Saint-Germain, Benfica and Anderlecht, so, yes, we have the possibility and the capacity at this game at home to try to challenge this big opponent, but we need also to respect Manchester, because, as I said, if we think of what they have achieved, it’s a lot! We need to be prepared to fight against them and of course to impose our game and our mentality and to show them that in “Karaiskakis” it will be very difficult for them. It will be their first game in “Karaiskakis””.
You think that the fact that now Olympiacos will play at «G. Karaiskakis», his natural «home», while in the past played at OAKA and Rizoupoli, will make a big difference?
“Of course! Every stadium needs its fans! When we talk about Dortmund with «the wall», we have also here ours. Maybe it’s not a wall, maybe it’s waves, because we are part of Piraeus and we make waves, we make storms and hopefully we gonna do this and I hope… Poseidon will be with us!”.
The only player who played the 4 past matches between the two teams in 2001 and 2002, Ryan Giggs, is very likely that he’ll play also at «G. Karaiskakis». A comment about that?
“He made also this record. He is still a great player, now I know that he is going to be a manager. It’s good to have this legend with us in “Karaiskakis”. Hε can also see the atmosphere in “Karaiskakis” stadium and we are proud to play against Manchester, proud to have some great sport personalities coming to see those games and of course Ryan Giggs. We need to congratulate him on his career, he is a great legend, not only in England, but also in his country”.
How important is the fact that two great teams choose to work with UNICEF to improve the life of children?
“This is something we have in common, the sense of charity. It’s great that two big teams, one from England and one from Greece, are trying to help children and also give them a better future. I think it’s also one of the values of our sport, football and hopefully we can care more and bring more people with us. I’m talking about partnership, sportsmanship, games and financial institutes that can help us, for this game, but also for many other actions that we want to develop with UNICEF”.
Finally, a prediction for the first match Olympiacos – Manchester United?
“For me, hopefully, a victory here in “Karaiskakis”! If we can achieve this goal, we can think about further. It’s legitimate that we can have ambition and what we have achieved until today shows that we have done big steps and we would like to continue. After that, we know that the parameters are always changing, it’s a new game. Hopefully the guys will be ready and also focused on that game to give us again the opportunity to dream, because the “gate” of Lisbon is too close! Why not? The Greek national team has done it already, so why not? One club of Greece could achieve that goal also”!
