Countdown to 22-23: George Timotheou’s life was turned on its head when a heart condition threatened to end his flourishing career. It proved to be just another opportunity for the young defender to prove people wrong, writes Matt Comito.
He’s sampled the entree – now it’s time to dig into the main course.
It’s the analogy still ringing in the ears of Melbourne Victory defender George Timotheou after meeting with Tony Popovic for a pre-season coffee on the Gold Coast.
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The Victory boss laid down the challenge to his new signing to resurrect his career at the club – a career which began with ascension from the NPL to the German Bundesliga within the space of one year, but has since stalled after a life-altering medical setback which was predicted to put an end to his playing days.
As “the hardest pre-season of his life” concludes, the 2022-23 Isuzu UTE A-League season begins, bringing with it the opportunity for Timotheou to flourish under the coach whose reputation grows with each young Australian talent he turns into a Socceroos bolter.
“While we were on the Gold Coast I sat down and had coffee with the boss, and really got an insight into his plans for me, his ambitions for me,” Timotheou told KEEPUP. “We got to know each other on a personal level, which I found very different and I enjoyed thoroughly. I’ve never had that with a coach before.
“He (said) I’m a fantastic player, he thinks I can achieve great things in the game, and to make it to the Socceroos eventually and hopefully go back overseas after a good year or two here.
He used the analogy of: ‘Right now you’re starting the entree. I want you to eat the main meal. I want to take your game to the next level. If you do the things I say and you work hard and keep going on the track you have been the last couple of months, basically the sky’s the limit’.
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Timotheou has seen the template. The likes of Chris Ikonomidis, Jake Brimmer, Ben Folami and Nick D’Agostino have all thrived under Popovic’s guidance in recent years, and are now in and around the Socceroos frame – at the very least featuring in the conversation.
“To see what he did with the likes of Daggers, Jake ( Brimmer) and Ben Folami in such a short period of time was incredible,” he said. “To put themselves in the shop window for the Socceroos and potentially getting on a plane to Qatar is outrageous.
“I guess we all saw what happened last year – not just last year, but pretty much every club he’s been to, he’s gotten the best out of his players.”
In some ways it’s remarkable that Timotheou is in a position to take Popovic’s advice, after being told less than two years ago his career was over due to complications of a heart condition he’s had since birth.
A normal aortic valve, which controls blood flow in the heart, has three flaps – or cups – which pump blood in the heart’s main artery. Timotheou’s heart had just two flaps in its “bicuspid” aortic valve, and hence had a decreased ability to pump blood.
Despite his heart condition, Timotheou attracted the interest of German giants Schalke 04 in 2018, departing NPL club Sydney Olympic to receive regular minutes with the Schalke U23’s, which equipped him to make his Bundesliga debut on the last day of the season.
Timotheou marked VfB Stuttgart’s German international Mario Gómez out of the 0-0 draw in front of more than 60,000 fans.
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He departed Schalke the following season for Belgian side Zulte Waregem, before attempting to sign for Isuzu UTE A-League club Western United on loan in early 2020.
A standard medical test on return to Australia turned his world upside down.
“The craziest thing was, I had only done my medical in Belgium six months prior,” he said. “In the space of six months my world was flipped. Being told in January that you’re going to be a couch potato by doctors saying you’re going to retire and never play again was something that was really, really hard to take.
“I was training the morning before being told this news, having no symptoms or problems. It was baffling to me. It was a crazy few days in January, and something I don’t want to relive.”
Refusing to accept the possibility that his career was at its end, Timotheou elected to go under the knife in March of 2020, with a valve from a cow’s heart grafted onto his own.
“I was so determined not to let it be the end,” he said. “If after so many opinions and specialists telling me the exact same thing, that it’s a problem they can’t fix and I’d have to value my life over playing sport, then that’s a different kind of test I’d have to go through.”
Timotheou suffered complications from the initial surgery, but by the end of the year had recouped his strength, signing with Adelaide United ahead of the 2020-21 season and resuming his professional career.
“I think I’ve found a new level of fitness that I wasn’t able to achieve pre-surgery, and with the complications I did have for basically my whole life playing elite football.
The surgeon said something to me before the surgery that really stuck out. He said: ‘You played in the Bundesliga on three quarters of a tank’.
“I still find it crazy to think about, because although I never experienced anything physically and was asymptomatic with all my heart problems, to know I had something more, and that quarter left in the tank to achieve, after a few years I’m starting to get to that full tank now. That’s really exciting.
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Timotheou made 14 appearances in his first campaign under Carl Veart, starting 11 times. He was pleasantly surprised to play so many games on the road back to fitness. But alarm bells were ringing the following season, as he made just five appearances for Veart’s Reds.
“I’ll always be grateful to Adelaide United for giving me the opportunity after heart surgery to come back into a professional team environment,” Timotheou said.
“Unfortunately, with any club there’s no guarantee you’re going to play. Coaches opinions and other things that go on in a football club that we can’t really speak about.
“Yes, it was disappointing. I had the mindset to come back in the second year and be the starting centre back. I think I proved enough to do that. For whatever reason things happen, and I didn’t play as much as I would have liked in the second season.”
He added: “The reason why I came (to Victory) is to play, and have a coach who really believes in me, and will give you the chance if you work for it.
“That’s the biggest message I’ve learned in my career: I’m playing my best football when I’m playing under a coach who believes in me, and I’m playing consistently. In Germany I was able to go from NPL to the Bundesliga in under a year because I played 44 games in a year. I was valued as a starting centre-back and played every game possible for the U23’s, which was the best thing for my career at the time.
“I think that moving to Victory is probably the second best move of my career (behind Schalke); I can work with someone who truly believes in me and get consistent game time, and (play) with (Roderick Miranda and Matthew Spiranovic) who are two of the best centre-backs in the A-League.”
Timotheou receives his first opportunity to push for a league start under Popovic when Victory commence the 2022-23 A-League Men season against Sydney FC at Allianz Stadium on Saturday, October 8.
Once a Young Socceroo whose European dream came to life, Timotheou hopes to find consistency at Victory he hasn’t felt since a breakout campaign in Germany to return to similar heights.
Popovic’s belief in his ability to do so has helped to fuel his own – as have the words of doubt delivered to him by doctors, coaches and all of those who, at varying stages of his life, have attempted to curtail his own expectations.
“My whole life I’ve dealt with adversity and setbacks, with injury and coaches telling me I’m not good enough for a lot of different reasons,” he said.
I built this mindset and mentality that it can only make me stronger, and hungrier to prove people wrong – and to prove to myself that I can do it. Doubt motivates me.
