Apostolos Stamatelopoulos hasn’t had the easiest of start to life with Motherwell. Arriving in the UK just days after the birth of his new born son back in Australia, he suffered an injury that kept him out for over a month.
Now, though, the 25-year old has netted his first goal for the Steelmen in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Hibs, been rewarded with a call up to Tony Popovic’s Australia squad and has been reunited with his family.
“I left after three days of my little one being born and it was 2 months exactly until they came over” he revealed. “These last 10 days have been unbelievable it takes the injury and everything away so it’s great to have them at home.”
Despite his partner Soffey and son Leo just arriving, Stamatelopoulos is already looking forward to a trip back to the Southern hemisphere to represent the Socceroos, even if it came as a surprise:
“My missus and the little one just got here, obviously she’s not very happy that I’m leaving straight away!” he said. “With the injury and being out for such a long period of time I kind of gambled that I wasn’t going to be in the squad for this one but I’m extremely proud and honoured to get the call up.
“We’ve got China at home In Adelaide which is where I’m from. So I’m buzzing to play in front of friends and family and then Japan away so that’ll be a very competitive tough game. Me being Greek I reckon there will be a lot of friends and family out there to see me.”
The forward opened his account for Stuart Kettlewell’s side in spectacular fashion when he latched on to a clever Lennon Miller free kick.
“We worked on it in training” he said. “We saw the space, locked eyes and knew we were going to do it. I’m just happy it worked out.
“It was euphoric hearing them cheer after a while now getting my first goal it was a relief.”
