Giorgos Giakoumakis was born in Crete on 9 December 1994 (age 31) and came through the Greek game as a centre-forward rather than a polished academy product. His early career included loan spells that gave him senior football and some hard edges before he began to settle more fully at Platanias.
The move that changed the scale of his career came at VVV-Venlo. In 2020-2021 he scored 26 league goals in 30 appearances, a return that rather forced the issue. Celtic signed him from VVV in August 2021 for around £2.5m.
At Celtic, Giakoumakis was a direct, penalty-box striker, useful in a side that often needed a different sort of problem for defenders. His stay was not especially long, but it was productive enough: he arrived as a proven scorer from the Netherlands and left with his reputation intact.
He moved from Celtic to Atlanta United in February 2023 for around £4.5m. After that came spells with Atlanta, Cruz Azul and Al-Ain, with his career taking on the shape of a well-travelled striker who has found work wherever goals are valued and patience is usually short.
Giakoumakis is now a striker for Al-Ain, wearing squad number seven. His current market value is around £5m, according to Transfermarkt. His career has run from Crete through Greece, the Netherlands, Scotland, the United States, Mexico and the Gulf, with Celtic one important stop rather than the whole story.
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