We signed him in January from Greek First Divison side Iraklis. A search on the club's official website then seemed a good place to start, but even with the help of Google Translate it was, quite literally, all Greek to me.
I bashed his named into Google like a schoolboy with an assignment due in the next day and landed on his Wikipedia page. He is a 6ft 3inch 19 year old, which suggests he is physically strong enough for the Premier League. But is he any good?
His stats say he scored just 4 times in 22 appearances for Iraklis, but this is justified by the fact almost all those appearances have been from the bench. The authenticity of those stats is also in doubt as Wikipedia claims he has scored 112 goals in just 270 minutes of football for Everton.
Either we've signed the next Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney, Drogba and Eto'o combined, or some Evertonian has gotten just a little ahead of themself. Moyes' track record at unearthing gems is good, but not that good!
The same set of stats say he has a ratio of one goal every other game for the Greece U-19s, although no doubt they will have come against obscure Eastern European nations created from the fall of the Soviet Union's iron curtain.
Australian forward Archie Thompson once scored 13 goals in one match against American Samoa but notched just 8 in his other 32 international matches, so a plateful of salt is needed with Vellios' impressive stats.
Wikipedia also claims Everton beat Fulham, Olympiakos, AEK Athens and Bologna to his signing. Maybe, just maybe he will be successful here one day. I wish him the best of luck with us and in his career.
After all, I'm sure he would like to add to the, ahem, prestigious award he won in his homeland - the Most Valuable Player of the 10th Round of the Greek Superleague.
Good luck to you, Apostolos! Καλή τύχη σε σας, Απόστολος!
