When the Goals Come Out of Nowhere

Marco van Basten, Ronaldo, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Luis Suárez and ... Giorgos Giakoumakis?Credit...Pro Shots/Sipa USA, via Associated PressGiorgos Giakoumakis had never scored goals. Not in great numbers, anyway. He had played 22 games, spread across three seasons, before he finally managed a single one for his first club, a team of modest ambitions and close horizons called Platanias, based on his home island, Crete.

In the early stages of his career, he broke into double figures for a single campaign only once, mustering 11 goals in his final season at Platanias. It appeared, at the time, to be his breakthrough. That summer, he moved to A.E.K. Athens, one of the three powers that dominate…