Alexandros Kyziridis has made Scottish football sit up and take notice since arriving at Hearts. And his fine form hasn’t gone unnoticed in his homeland – but a cap call continues to elude the 25-year-old.
The Greek winger has quickly become an integral player for Derek McInnes’ side, scoring five goals and contributing five assists in league and cup for the Premiership leaders.
Kyziridis, a summer arrival from Slovak side Zemplin Michalovce, has never played for his country – but should he be lining up against Scotland this weekend?
With Greece already out of the running for a World Cup place, they complete thier qualification campaign at home to Scotland and away to Belarus in the coming days.
And Kyziridis’ omission from Ivan Jovanovic’s squad is a “surprise”, according to Greek football expert Stephen Kountourou.
He told the BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast: “I was quite surprised he didn’t get called up, to be honest.
“He was one of the few players that wasn’t given an opportunity this time round. I hope that Jovanovic does [call up Kyziridis].
“Hearts this season is a fantastic story and he’s been brilliant for them. And just to have that option on the wing where we, even with really talented players who have a lot of potential, we still lack a lot of depth in that position.
“I would have loved Kyziridis to come for this international break to give him some really valuable experience.
“I can understand Jovanovic not wanting to kind of disrupt the team so much by bringing in loads of new players out of the blue and excluding players who have been there under him since he took charge.
“But yeah, he hasn’t been called up this time and I really hope he does in the near future.”
