Inside Alexandros Kyziridis’ move to Hearts and becoming fan favourite.

One of the most underappreciated aspects of watching this Heart of Midlothian squad is grabbing a seat while the first team warms up before a game.

When the forwards and midfielders are ushered over for shooting practice, one man consistently steals the show. Curled attempts and Daisy cutters. Volleyballs and half-volleys.

Bouncing balls or zipped-up feet. Left and right. Alexandros Kyziridis rarely fails to score a goal. Not simply the back of the net, but one of its four corners. Bottom bags or top bins.

Watching him in action, whether in shooting practice or on the pitch when the important stuff starts, it’s difficult to think that there were clubs who didn’t trust in him.

Managers that lacked trust in him. People who doubted him. “Of course, I experienced difficulties in my profession. “A lot, man,” he told the Hearts Standard.

That goes back to the beginning. He trained at one of Greece’s best academies, with PAOK, the team that knocked Hearts out of Europe two seasons ago. He was there for ten years. Until he was not.

“Then they decided to kick me out. They did it with a large number of players. They did not believe in me. So I had to find a means to advance my job,” he explained. “Of course, when I was this age, I wanted to play for PAOK.” But now I just want to play football. “Now I am here.

I’m quite happy. It has been an honour for me to wear this jersey. I constantly strive to do my best. Kyziridis is not one to dwell on terrible situations.

He approaches his life and work like he does the challenges on the game. He can be defined as “the guy who likes to look forward” and wishes “to find solutions about what’s next” .

When asked about his path to Tynecastle Park and becoming a fan favourite, he humours the Hearts Standard. At Volos, his native club, he starred for the team’s younger age groups but was never given a shot in the first team.

He decided to depart before turning 20 to go on a new experience in Slovakia. He poured himself into it with the naiveté of youth. “I was in Greece and didn’t play very much.

I was a member of one club, Volos, but I only played six to eight games. Then I chose to move to Slovakia. “I played two full seasons there and really enjoyed it,” he remarked.

“It was very easy for me to make this decision. When I moved to Slovakia, I didn’t even speak the s**t English I do now.

“I just wanted to play, so I moved there.” He would ultimately be able to make his impression at first-team level in Slovakia’s top flight while playing for FC ViOn. Kyziridis thrived. Debrecen, the Hungarian giants, came calling. With it came a new task.

Another test. “It was a good experience, but they never trusted me there,” he said. “I played one game and then sat out the next two or three. So they did not give me the opportunity to prove myself.

“But football works like this. It will occasionally look like this. Sometimes you need to get away from it.

And this kind of experience strengthens you. Now I believe I have a lot of experience with it. At the very least, his stay in Hungary resulted in the Spider-Man celebration that Hearts fans have come to expect.

It began with a sensation and ended with a recommendation from the player’s wife. “I was in a struggle. I went a year without scoring a goal. “I was on the couch with my wife, and I had a feeling I’d score tomorrow,” he added.

“What celebration should I have? She told me, “Do Spider-Man.” If I don’t score in this game, I’ll never do this celebration. But now I’ve done it, and I need to preserve it.”

The celebration is part of his football identity. As is No.89. He has worn it to every club he has been to. It is for his sister, born in 1989. It will remain his number until the end of his career.

A career that was revitalised in Slovakia once more. Kyziridis returned to the Nike Liga for the last time in 2024. He said the move was “one step back” from Debrecen.

Zemplin Michalovce is not a leading light in Slovakia. They only entered the top division in 2015 and have never finished higher than fifth.

However, it turned out to be the ideal location for Kyziridis. “It was a big challenge for me because I was in Debrecen and from Hungary to go back to Slovakia, it’s like one step back,” according to him.

“I choose to do it because I have a strong belief in myself. And I knew if I went back, I’d have to score goals. And I knew I was going to do it. Here’s what I did. I scored numerous goals there. I got my confidence back.”

He developed into a goal-scoring machine while primarily playing off the left side. Sixteen goals and eight assists in 30 games would propel him to Gorgie. “Yeah, so easy,” he stated about the decision to relocate to Scotland.

“My agent called me as soon as this club arrived and said, ‘We have this club’. I said, ‘OK, finish it’. It was really straightforward. “I was already aware of the club and everything here. So I said, “Just finish it and we’ll go there.”

Let us do our best there and continue to fight for anything. When he puts on the maroon and white, there is trust and belief. A revitalised player who is now idolised.

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