Vasilis Barkas has been rewarded with a recall to the Greek International side following his fine form on loan at FC Utrecht. The 28-year-old left Celtic in the summer to join the Dutch side after two seasons of struggle with the Glasgow giants.
The goalkeeper joined from AEK Athens in a deal worth £4.5m in the summer of 2020 but Barkas has previously stated that the COVID-19 restrictions in place at the time really hampered him. The fall-out of Barkas dropping out of the Celtic team was that he lost his International place but now he has earned his place back in the squad.
Η αποστολή της Εθνικής μας 🔵⚪️ για Κύπρο και Βόρ. Ιρλανδία #OneTeamOneNation #bluefootland #nationalteam pic.twitter.com/LoT06YN4WY
— Ethniki Omada (@EthnikiOmada) September 13, 2022
Also included in the squad is Celtic centre forward Giorgos Giakoumakis. The striker will be hoping to hit his best form this weekend with Celtic after missing a chance against Shakhtar Donetsk last night.
Barkas made just two appearances for Celtic last season and found himself down the pecking order at Celtic. The arrival of Hart as well as Scott Bain being given a new deal suggests that the prospect of ever breaking back into the first team is slim. The former £4.5m man will be keen to get his career back on track by sealing a move away from Celtic, it would be in everyone’s best interests if this could be achieved on a permanent basis with some of the outlay returning to Paradise.
It will be interesting to see how Barkas gets on, considering that he was a Greek Internationalist as well as a top performer for Athens.
