Vasilis Barkas appears to have rediscovered his form and confidence with the goalkeeper helping Utecht into seventh place in the Dutch League.
The on-loan keeper has played in all 12 of Utrecht’s league matches this season, drawing praise yesterday in the 2-1 win away to Heerenveen.
After two seasons at Celtic Barkas looked a broken man when he left in the summer but a full pre-season and being made the first choice seems to have worked wonders.
Under the headline ‘Beautiful goals and Barkas bring Utrecht unexpected results’ Voetbal International reports:
After fifteen minutes, Fraser took advantage of injury treatment to give his team tactical cues and make some conversions. It was necessary for FC Utrecht, which had already escaped a deficit twice. Goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas had kept his side going by undoing the efforts of Rami Al Hajj and Amin Sarr.
Fraser’s interventions had no effect, judging by the new opportunity for Sarr, who once again found Barkas on his way to a Frisian lead. After more than an hour it was hit for SC Heerenveen. Sydney van Hooijdonk headed the 1-0 with his 25th Eredivisie goal.
That goal-scorer is the son of former Celt Pierre.
After the dismay of arriving at Celtic during the Lockdown season Ange Postecoglou attempted to give Barkas a fresh start but after losing a bad goal at home to Midtjylland the wheels were set in motion to sign Joe Hart.
A return to Celtic seems highly unlikely but if the 28-year-old can maintain his form there should be a couple of clubs prepared to table offers next summer with just one year left to run on his contract.
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Best of luck to him, the scrutiny he were under must of been immense.