Greece veterans Gekas, Charisteas return to squad

Published Sep. 30, 2011 2:00 p.m. ET

foxsports

Veteran strikers Fanis Gekas and Angelos Charisteas have been called back to Greece's squad for its two remaining European Championship qualifiers against Croatia and Georgia.

Greece coach Fernando Santos called up Gekas after the 31-year-old forward publicly apologized last weekend for quitting the national team a year ago, citing animosity with teammates.

Charisteas, another 31-year-old Bundesliga veteran, was recalled despite his move back to lowly Greek club Panaitolikos.

Greece is hoping to regain its Group F lead from Croatia when the two meet in Athens on Oct. 7, before traveling to Georgia four days later. The Greeks are currently a point behind Croatia, which has 19 points from eight matches.

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Squad:

Goalkeepers: Alexandros Tzorvas (Palermo), Dionisis Chiotis (APOEL)

Defenders: Vassilis Torosidis (Olympiakos), Nikos Spyropoulos (Panathinaikos), Yiannis Zaradoukas (Olympiakos), Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Werder Bremen), Kyriakos Papadopoulos (Schalke), Avraam Papadopoulos (Olympiakos), Loukas Vyntra (Panathinaikos)

Midfielders: Costas Katsouranis (Panathinaikos), Giorgos Karagounis (Panathinaikos), Alexandros Tziolis (Racing Santander), Giorgos Fotakis (PAOK), Panagiotis Kone (Bologna), Grigoris Makos (AEK Athens), Thanos Petsos (Kaiserslautern)

Forwards: Stephanos Athanasiadis (PAOK), Angelos Charisteas (Panaitolikos), Georgios Samaras (Celtic), Dimitris Salpingidis (PAOK), Fanis Gekas (Eintracht Frankfurt)