Giorgos Merkis played 55 matches for the Cypriot national team and won titles with Apollon Limassol and APOEL Nicosia. The former national team captain is an ambassador for Charity Idols Cyprus, which organises auctions to sell shirts and other memorabilia of professional footballers and athletes, and donates all proceeds to charities.
By Giorgos Merkis
I played close to 450 games in total for Apollon Limassol, APOEL and the national team. I had a nice career. I celebrated five championships and two cups, and I played in the Champions League and the Europa Legue, which is quite special for teams from Cyprus. I played against Real Madrid, and with APOEL we reached the last sixteen of the Europa League.
In the beginning of my career, I never exchanged shirts with any opponent. Sometimes you have players who are almost running to an opponent to swap a shirt. When we played Real, everybody wanted the shirt of Cristiano Ronaldo. At the time I was too proud for that. I was playing for a team from the small island of Cyprus, and our national team was not a top side. I was reluctant going up to these superstars to ask for their jersey and then risk hearing: "I don't want your shirt".
I changed after I started working for Charity Idols. From then on, I even approached opposing players before the game and asked them whether they wanted to change shirts with me for charity reasons.
Through Charity Idols we help people who are experiencing health problems, such as children with cancer, people with heart problems or those in need of a wheelchair.
Charity Idols started in Greece about ten years ago. It had some volunteers in Cyprus, who were helping them. After I became more involved, we decided to create a branch for our country: Chairty Idols Cyprus. We use the same platform as Charity Idols Greece, but we support charities in our country.
We ask footballers, basketball players, tennis players, referees and other athletes to help us with collectibles, such as shirts or balls. We put these up for auction and all the money we raise goes to charity. We check if the offered goods are authentic, to protect our reputation.
Years ago, Charity Idols contacted me through Instagram to ask me for a shirt. The first one I gave was one of my APOEL shirts. And then they asked me again for a national team shirt. I helped them and that is how our relationship grew.
I didn’t want to have shirts that I had swapped just lying at home. To me, it makes much more sense to help people and to give football fans the opportunity to buy such a shirt. Of course they have to pay for it, but that money will go to people who need it.
Since I joined Charity Idols, I've exchanged shirts with big players such as Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku, Hakim Ziyech, Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez. In fact, all players I asked to swap shirts for our charity said yes, and I am really thankful for that.
For me, the most special shirt was Hazard’s. With Cyprus we played against Belgium and, before the match ended, I asked if he wanted to swap shirts for our auction. After the game, he came up to me with his jersey. He told me it was special, as this was his 100th appearance for Belgium. He signed it as well.
Hazard's shirt did very well. I think it was one of the most lucrative shirts. The most expensive jersey auctioned by Charity Idols was from the Greek national team, signed by all their players after they beat England in Wembley earlier this year. It raised over 10,000 euro.
I personally gave close to one hundred shirts to Charity Idols, including my own shirts and those I changed with opponents. I think they all accounted for close to 10,000 euro.
I have become the ambassador for Charity Idols Cyprus and I am grateful for that role. I use my contacts to bring in more shirts from players and ex-players that I still know. Players will react more quickly when I ask them, instead of someone they don't know. They get so many requests on their social media accounts to give away their shirts. It is not so easy to do this, as Cyprus players are only allowed to give maybe up to 10 shirts per season, otherwise they have to pay for them.
We also have a good relationship with most of the clubs in Cyprus, and around ten of them each month offer us some signed shirts that we can use for our auctions. They loved to help and sometimes also give balls. And the Cypriot player union, PASP, is also supporting us with raising items.
We have a special committee to decide which people we are going to help with our auctions. A lot of people ask for our help, and sometimes we hear about someone in need of help. We check if they can prove they really need some financial support before we decide to help them.
Because of our experience with auctions, we know more or less how much money we will get per shirt. We always try to donate about 1,000 euro to each person, so we select the number of shirts to get to that amount. We don't think it is fair to help one person with 10,000 euro and nine others with nothing. I don't know exactly how much money we have raised through the years, but every 15 days, we give approximately 1,000 euro.
From 23 December to 6 January, we are doing a special auction with new items, including memorabilia from Mauro Camoranesi, Claude Makelele, Daniele De Rossi, and Johan Cruyff.
I gave most of my shirts to Charity Idols, but there are two that I will keep for myself. I still have the shirt of my first match as a professional for Apollon in 2001, and the one from the last game I played for APOEL in 2021. They are of enormous personal value as they remind me of who I was and what I did.
