Kyziridis Sets Up Moukoko Winner as Çorum Beat Rizespor 2-1

By Taki Panos

Some players need a few months to settle in a new country. Alexandros Kyziridis apparently needed about six games. The Greek winger carried the ball out of his own half and set up Youssoufa Moukoko for an 80th-minute winner as Arca Çorum FK came from behind to beat Çaykur Rizespor 2-1 on Friday night, October 16, at the Çorum Şehir Stadium, as Anadolu Agency reported. It was the opening game of the eighth round of the Turkish Süper Lig, and it gave the newly promoted side a second straight win.

If the name is new to you, here is the quick introduction. Kyziridis, 26, came through the youth ranks at PAOK and has built most of his career outside Greece, with stops at Iraklis, Volos, Zlaté Moravce, Debrecen, Mura and Zemplín Michalovce, according to Vox Haber. A big scoring season in Slovakia earned him a move to Scotland's Heart of Midlothian, and on August 10, 2026, he joined Çorum for a reported fee of around £1.7 million, per his Wikipedia profile. He is also a Greece international, something Gazzetta rarely forgets to mention.

The night did not start well for the hosts. Rizespor went ahead in the 32nd minute when a cross from Ibrahim Olawoyin was only half cleared and Qazim Laçi finished cleanly from around the penalty spot, Anadolu Agency wrote. Çorum answered six minutes later through Cengiz Ünder, who struck a free kick from just outside the area hard into the far corner. T24 called it a superb free kick, and it is hard to argue. It was 1-1 at the break.

Kyziridis had already warned Rizespor before the decisive moment. In the 57th minute he found space on the right and tried a side-footed shot with his right foot, only for goalkeeper Yahia Fofana to push it away, per Anadolu Agency. Fofana kept the visitors level for a while longer. Çorum kept pushing, though, and coach Burak Yılmaz went to his bench, sending on Moukoko for Jesús Ramírez in the second half, as FotMob's match log shows. It turned out to be the change that mattered.

Then came the moment that will be on every Greek highlight reel this weekend. Çorum broke quickly, and Kyziridis picked up the ball in his own half, drove all the way into the Rizespor box and slid it across to Moukoko, who hit a low, hard shot inside the near post from the left side of the area, as Anadolu Agency described it. Gazzetta summed it up nicely, writing that the Greek winger crossed the whole pitch and served the winner (translated from Greek).

There is a nice footnote here too. Moukoko is the forward who became the youngest player in Bundesliga history with Borussia Dortmund in 2020, and he has represented Germany, per Wikipedia. Friday's goal was his first in a Çorum shirt, as beIN Sports Türkiye pointed out in its highlight post, which is embedded in the Gazzetta report. If you are a young striker trying to restart your career in a new country, a winger who keeps handing you chances is a very good friend to have.

The numbers are what make this more than one pretty assist. According to Vox Haber, Friday was Kyziridis's sixth Süper Lig appearance, and he has now produced a goal or an assist in every one of them, with four goals and four assists in total. Gazzetta counted four goals and three assists after five games when he scored in the 3-0 win at Gaziantep on October 11, so the new assist takes him to eight direct goal contributions. For a winger in his first weeks in a new league, that is a frankly ridiculous pace.

Greek media have certainly noticed. Gazzetta headlined its report with a Greek phrase that roughly means he is dazzling in Turkey, called him "our own" Alexandros Kyziridis and said he remains in tremendous form (translated from Greek). Vox Haber added that his first goal in Turkish football came away at Galatasaray, which is not a bad place to open your account. Both sides of the Aegean are paying attention.

For Çorum, the win continues a bright run under a famous name on the bench. Burak Yılmaz, the former Turkey striker, has won both of his first two matches in charge, the 3-0 win at Gaziantep and now this one, Haber 7 reported. The result lifted Çorum to 13 points and sixth place, at least until the rest of the round is played, according to T24, while Rizespor stayed on 10 points, per Haber 7. For a newly promoted side, that is real ground gained early in the season.

It has been a good week for Greek players abroad in general. On the same Friday night, Christos Almyras scored his first Djurgården goal in Sweden, and earlier in the week Vangelis Pavlidis came off the bench to score for Benfica. Kyziridis's road has been longer and less glamorous than most, through smaller leagues in Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia before Scotland and now Turkey. Vox Haber noted that he scored six goals in 45 official games at Hearts, per its career summary, so the jump in output this autumn is striking.

My take: I would not get carried away yet, but I would definitely pay attention. Eight goal contributions in six games will not continue at that exact rate, because almost nothing does, and the Süper Lig has plenty of tougher nights ahead. What I like is how this one happened. It was not a lucky bounce. It was a winger taking responsibility late in a level game and making the right pass at the end of a long run. Players who do that in a demanding league tend to keep getting picked, for club and, hopefully, for country too.

Next up for Çorum is a trip to Göztepe in Izmir, the old Smyrna of so much Greek history, scheduled for Sunday, October 25, at 19:00 local time, according to the published fixture list and the Turkish Football Federation. That is 18:00 in Athens, since Greek clocks go back an hour that morning. For more on Greek players around the world, keep an eye on our Greek Sports section. Six games, eight goal contributions. Keep going, Alexandros.

Sources: Anadolu Agency, Gazzetta, Vox Haber, T24, Haber 7, FotMob, Wikipedia.

Image: Flag of Greece, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).