Why Arsenal’s summer signing Tzolis has earned the nickname ‘Leonidas’ | OneFootball

Arsenal’s summer signing Christos Tzolis revealed that he has been dubbed ‘Leonidas’ by his coaches after his outstanding performance in pre-season fitness tests.

The Greek winger joined Arsenal from Club Brugge last month and has caught the eye in pre-season, scoring in his side’s 4-1 win over Girona on Saturday.

He has also impressed on the training ground, with team-mate Ben White sharing how he had “beaten everyone” in the fitness tests so far.

His work rate has even led to him being compared to Leonidas from the film 300 – about a king who led an army of 300 Spartans against an enormous Persian army.

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“One of the fitness coaches called me Leonidas,” Tzolis said. “Leonidas from 300.

“I know I’ve won so far but there are not all the players here. There are still some players that have to do the tests, of course.

“But so far I’m first in the fitness test. It’s like 20 metres, go back, 40 metres, go back, 60 metres, go back, I think five times in a row. So it’s around 1.2k and it’s as fast as possible. Actually, it’s pretty hard.

“I had the advantage that I started pre-season also with Brugge so I was already training for two weeks and always I wanted to keep myself fit during summer so I was ready. I came here ready, my fitness level and I was happy that I could show it here as well.”

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This will be the 24-year-old’s second spell in England and the Premier League having previously played for Norwich City too, joining the club when he was 19.

It was a difficult period for the winger, who was relegated with the club, but Tzolis says he has learned a lot since then.

“The team I think was not really ready for the Premier League and that makes it also difficult for me to adapt and to play how I could play because I’m a more offensive player and a player that plays for a team that has a ball and creates a lot of chances,” Tzolis explained. “With Norwich, we had to defend more low and maybe to have some transition moments but that was not working. 

“Obviously the game time was not enough as a young player to develop and that was the bad thing of the Norwich situation because when you don’t have enough minutes you can throw yourself on the pitch and to improve as a player. That’s why I want also to go to other teams on loan to get minutes and in the end it was the best decision.”

Tzolis went on to have loan spells at FC Twente and Fortuna Dusseldorf before joining Brugge in a permanent deal, and scored 43 goals and assisted 45 times for the Belgian club in 108 games.

But he is aware of the step up that joining the Premier League champions entails – as well as the changes it will bring to his life off the pitch.

“It will be difficult as well to go out also in London as an Arsenal player, it’s not that easy to go out,” he laughed.

“It’s a great opportunity to be a player of this kind of level team because it’s one of the best in the world and that makes me very happy to be here and more hungry as well to develop.

“I think I’m in the right club to develop and to get to the highest level. I’m really happy that I have this opportunity and I want to take it.”