With the new Cyprus football season getting underway top-flight clubs are looking to spend big to add quality to their squads as they aim for a lucrative qualification spot in European competition.
Most teams have increased their budgets this season and there are still players to get over the line before the transfer window shuts on 31 August.
Despite Cyprus not being an attractive destination for top-quality players, Cyprus teams have pulled off some impressive transfers.
APOEL FC’s past success in the Champions League, including progress to the quarter-finals in 2012, is a beacon for teams which are eyeing similar feats. For most teams its Europe or bust.
With budgets raised, the only way they could sustain them is to profit from European competition such as the Champions League and the Europa League.
A Cypriot team participating in the group stages of the Champions League can pocket around €15-20 mln. APOEL FC being the team with the most appearances in the CL group stage has a budget the dwarfs the rest of the Cyprus league.
The 28-times Cyprus champions have made tens of millions from participation in European group and knock-out stages over the past decade.
However, the seven times in a row champions found themselves in a tight spot after being knocked out early from the lucrative Champions League last summer by unfancied Lithuanian outfit FK Suduva in one of the biggest shocks the club has experienced.
Following its failure in the CL qualifying rounds, APOEL was demoted to the Europa League where it was knocked out by Kazakhstani outfit Astana – this contributed to €7 mln loss in revenue.
APOEL is looking to do its best to get into the CL group stage, to overturn last year’s losses.
The Nicosia team must knock-out Dutch champions Ajax with whom they drew 0-0 in the first leg at home.
If APOEL fails to get past last year’s CL semi-finalist, they will have to make do with the €6-7 mln from participating in the Europa League group stages.
In their quest for CL success, APOEL has dug deep into their pockets to attract players like Vujadin Savic and Uros Matic – the brother of Manchester United midfielder Nemanja Matic – with a market value of €3 mln and €1 mln respectively.
The Nicosia side also signed Andrijia Pavlovic, Linus Hallenius and Alef, all three carry a transfer value of €1 mln.
Although Savic and Hallenius were free transfers, and the other players brought in on loan, APOEL, not having to spend a euro on their transfers, are paying these players salaries close to, if not exceeding, half a million euros.
APOEL also hung on to 22-year-old Jordanian star Al Tamari, who after impressive performances against Qarabag FC and Ajax has raised his market value significantly above his previous price of €3 mln.
Well-known Turkish Cypriot agent Tekin Birinci said that winger Al Tamari is now worth €20 mln and is reportedly the middleman between Turkish side Besiktas who appears to be preparing a bid to buy the player.
It is understood that APOEL’s budget will be more or less the same as last year’s at around €18-19 mln.
Also increasing their budget from €6 mln last season to €10 mln is Apollon Limassol hoping to finally get their hands on the title and enter the CL.
Apollon has signed the likes of Serge Gakpé, a Togo international who played for France under-19s. Gakpe, a 32-year-old attacker also played for Italian sides Genoa and Atalanta and French teams Nantes and Monaco.
Apollon has also signed Emilio Nsue with a market value of €1.25 mln while keeping Romanian international Christian Manea who is worth €4 mln and Sasa Markovic €1.25 mln. The value of Apollon’s squad is €18 mln, remaining at the same levels as last season.
Omonia Nicosia
Also starting the season with high hopes and a bigger budget is Omonia Nicosia. New York-based Cypriot investor Stavros Papastavrou has invested serious money in rebuilding the team after they had found themselves in financial trouble due to bad management over the last decade, with results being below expectation.
However, Omonia Nicosia’s multimillionaire president is not discouraged by a disappointing first season and appears to be willing to honouring his commitment to the club.
Understandably the club’s budget will exceed last season’s €6 mln, as Omonia’s new managing team, handpicked by Papastavrou, have brought in top quality players.
At the same, time Omonia had to compensate over a dozen players as their contracts were terminated. Almost the entire squad was replaced, as last season’s lineup paid the price for the club’s worst season in over 60 years, coming sixth.
The Green half of Nicosia preferred not to spend money on transfers but rather offer better wages for quality players.
The club has managed to bring in some good talent with experiences from some of the world’s toughest championships such as the English Premier League, Spain’s La Liga and France’s Ligue 1.
Their biggest signing is French winger Eric Bautheac who carries an impressive CV as he played for three French Ligue 1 teams. Lille paid €2.4 mln to sign him from Nice in 2015.
Omonia also signed Colombian international midfielder Michael Ortega, 28, with a market value of €750,000. Also joining the squad is Israeli international winger Hen Ezra also worth the same amount, and Nigerian international keeper Francis Uzoho, remembered for his impressive performance in the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Venezuelan striker Miku Fedor, 34, who played for Getafe, Valencia and Celtic also joined the greens on a free transfer.
Omonia also wants to add another quality defender to their squad, with Frenchman Valentin Roberge being the main target. He is valued at €1.5 mln and played for Ligue 1 side Reims and in the Premier League for Sunderland.
The club’s new players are reportedly earning an annual sum of €250,000.
It’s not only big teams improving their squads with big names. Pafos FC has signed Jason Puncheon, a veteran Premier League midfielder, with the club heralding the move as a historic signing.
Puncheon, 33, joins Cyprus First Division Pafos FC after spending the second half of last season at Huddersfield on loan from Premier League side Crystal Palace where he spent the previous six seasons.
Puncheon won't be the only former Premier League player competing in Cyprus this season, as he will be facing recent Salamina recruit Jay Simpson a former Arsenal academy product in the first game of the season.
