(Digital coverage - Camera: Nikos Plaskasovitis)
Three living legends of Greek football are in Sydney, the first stop on their journey in the country.
On the occasion of the completion of 20 years since the European Championship in Portugal, they are visiting major cities of Australia.
National team captain, Theodoros Zagorakis, the player with the most appearances in the national team, Giorgos Karagounis, and the scorer of the "golden" goal that decided the fate of the 2004 final, Angelos Charisteas, are expected to be present at a series of events in their honour in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide.
The trip is being organised at the initiative of expatriate Nikos Mouzourakis, founder of the Football Brilliance football academy.
It is the greatest success on a personal level that we have achievedThodoris Zagorakis
The three footballers generously offered some of their time, and just a few hours after their arrival in Antipodes, they spoke to the microphone of the SBS Greek about their mission to pass on their love for football to young people, while they referred to big and small moments from the magical European summer of 2004.
Among them was the backgammon tournament that "ran" alongside the great European competition and in which - even though the big loser Angelos Charisteas had a hard time admitting it - George Karagounis emerged as the winner.
The captain of the National Team, Thodoris Zagorakis, spoke about the value of this success, stressing that it will never be forgotten by the protagonists themselves.
"We understand it and we see it when we especially make trips abroad. How important it was ultimately what we achieved and what we accomplished. We were blessed to be able to represent all of Hellenism wherever it is, whether in Greece, Australia, America, or Europe in general. It will certainly not be forgotten by us, because I think personally it is probably the greatest success on a personal level what we achieved."
Our colleagues Stergos Kastelloriou and Nikos Plaskasovitis among the three legends of Greek football Credit: SBS Greek
"We didn't take advantage of anything. Twenty years later and the European champions don't have their own home, a training centre. Even now I don't want to name smaller countries, but it's not nice. They all now have a training centres. I think we are the only country in Europe that doesn't have a home. So we didn't take advantage of anything in Greek football. There was no infrastructure. We didn't build on that success, so that we can see in the future that we will have young kids who will have infrastructure, good pitches, good facilities. Nothing."
The captain of the Greek national team, Thodoris Zagorakis poses for the camera with a young friend of the "blue and white"
"This thing that we have experienced cannot be bought with all the wealth, with all the billions of the world. People who have billions and trillions would love to have a moment like the one we had. We would never think of such a thing, because what we lived can't be described and valued. So there is no value in it, it's something priceless and something very big that not too many people will have the chance to feel. We are blessed as the Captain said before that we experienced it," said George Karagounis, with Angelos Charisteas not forgetting to mention his own goal that decided the final against Portugal of Louis Figo:
"I think it's every striker's dream to score an important goal that will decide a championship or anything. Now imagine me, my childhood dream of scoring something for my country, scoring it at 24, when you're still a young man. Imagine how I felt at that moment. But I was always one of those kids who looked at the team first. So I was looking at our team scoring something first and not looking at Angelo whether he was going to score the goal or not. And I think that was the success that this team had."
Listen to the entire interview by clicking play on the podcast that accompanies this story.
