Vasilis Barkas has came in a very respectable third in a poll of Utrecht fans for their Player of the Year.
It is the first time that a loan player has featured in the top three with the players presented with their awards before the final regular match of the season at home to Emmen.
Barkas has a year left on his Celtic contract but after an impressive year in the Eredivisie there should be a good chance of a permanent move after two highly disappointing seasons at Celtic.
At the age of 28 the former AEK Athens keeper should be approaching his peak but his summer 2020 never worked out for the player or the club.
Ange Postecoglou attempted to have a fresh start but after losing a very soft goal at home to Midtjylland in a Champions League qualifier the process got underway to bring Joe Hart to Celtic.
The Utrecht website reports:
FC Utrecht’s top scorer Tasos Douvikas is the winner of the David di Tommaso Trophy for the 2022/2023 season. The Greek striker stayed ahead of American Taylor Booth and his compatriot Vasilis Barkas. Douvikas is the first foreign winner of the audience award organized by SupportersVereniging FC Utrecht since Sébastien Haller in 2015.
Douvikas is working on his second season in Utrecht service and this year is by far the most productive player of Utrecht FC. However, that is usually no guarantee for a high final ranking in the David di Tommaso Trophy ranking; two of the previous ten winners have been forwards: Haller in 2015 and Gyrano Church in 2020.
Striker Douvikas is the first Greek winner of the David di Tommaso Trophy, which was previously won by football players from the Netherlands, France, Ghana, Belgium and Denmark.
The stage is completely foreign this year, with two Greeks and an American. The last time the three highest ranked players all came from abroad was in 2010, when Belgian Dries Mertens won, ahead of Romanian Mihai Nesu and Dane Michael Silberbauer.
Douvikas succeeds Quinten Timber, who finished on the highest podium last season ahead of Bart Ramselaar and Willem Janssen.
Booth, runner-up, is the first American to finish on the podium in David di Tommaso Trophy history; a prize named after FC Utrecht player David di Tommaso, who died in his sleep in 2005.
Keeper Barkas has secured a spot in the Top 3 as a mercenary: a first. The Greek is the first goalkeeper since David Jensen in 2017 to end up among the three most popular FC Utrecht players.
This week Utrecht face Sparta Rotterdam home and away in the semi-final of a Play Off for a place in the Europa League.
View this post on Instagram
Well done Peter, don’t call us, we’ll call you.