Luigi Cennamo

Date and Place of Birth 7th February 1980 - MUNICH   Transfers to and from Burnley from OLYMPIAKOS - 10th July 2001 released - 23rd April 2002   First and Last Burnley Games CHELTENHAM TOWN (a) - 27th January 2002 sub: replaced Nik Michopoulos   Other Clubs OLYMPIAKOS ---------------------------------------- EGALEO

Burnley Career Stats

Profile by Tony Scholes

Burnley were going all Greek in 2001. Nik Michopoulos was first choice goalkeeper, we were rumoured to be about to splash out on Under-21 striker Dimitrios Papadopoulos and as the Clarets returned to training manager Stan Ternent revealed a second Greek goalkeeper.

Greek only tells half the story. He was half Greek/half Italian, but just to confuse matters even further he'd been born in 1980 in Munich in Southern Germany.

Luigi Cennamo signed from Olympiakos on an initial six month deal, the 21-year-old would be understudy to Michopoulos but was expected to offer genuine competition for the first team role following the sale of Paul Crichton to Norwich.

The first sighting of him for Burnley fans was at the cricket match against Burnley CC next door when both he and Michopoulos looked bemused at the very British summer game. Once the season kicked off the regular reserve supporters saw him turn in some excellent displays for the second string, alternating with youngster James Salisbury, and also some less than impressive performances.

On first team days he was always named on the bench as the substitute keeper, and in December was almost called upon at Preston when it looked as though Michopoulos would be sent off.

Into the New Year and there were big changes for Luigi. Firstly the club announced they had signed him from Olympiakos and he would be with us at least until the end of the season. The information in July had not strictly been true, he had initially only joined us on loan.

The fact that the Clarets were keen to make it permanent suggested he might have a long term future with the club but just under two weeks later his world came crashing down, as did Burnley's hopes in the FA Cup.

We were favourites to beat Cheltenham at Whaddon Road but with just under twenty minutes gone Michopoulos suffered a serious injury and Luigi got his big chance. Five minutes after coming on he was picking the ball out of the net, and he was repeating that after another five minutes. He looked like the rabbit caught in the headlights in what was a shocking Burnley performance as we went out.

There was no way Stan was going to trust him to replace Michopoulos and before the next game he brought in Marlon Beresford on loan from Middlesbrough. Cennamo didn't even make the bench, in fact was never on the bench again and was released at the end of the season.

He returned to Greece and after playing for a number of clubs is currently with top division club Egaleo who he joined in the summer of 2004. He was in their squad against Middlesbrough in the UEFA Cup during the 2004/05 season.

For Burnley fans though, he'll always be remembered for that disastrous and nervous first ten minutes of the cup tie at Cheltenham.