Former Haringey Borough full-back Stelios Demetriou revealed he is ‘bitter’ about his international experience but hopes he can one day get another chance.
The 29-year-old has one cap for his native Cyprus – where he came on as an 87th-minute substitute and was booked the following minute in their 3-0 defeat to Jordan.
Since then he has suffered a number of set-backs including injury problems, but is hoping he can find his feet once again to earn another call-up.
“It’s a little bit bitter my Cyprus international career because I got called up when I won the league with St Mirren,” he said.
“I played my first friendly then I got a move to Ross County, I wasn’t playing that much and I didn’t get called up again.
“To be honest a cap is a cap, so I’ll take it. When you get a game for your country it’s a different feeling and an honour for every player. I’d like to wear that shirt again, but I have to be realistic, the level I’m at right now it’s not going to happen.”
Aside from his international appearance, Demetriou has played in Cyprus, Turkey, Bulgaria, Scotland and England in his career and prefers UK football.
He added: “It’s different. If you play in different countries you see the different ways of coaching, but the most I’ve enjoyed my career is in the UK because you see only the good parts.
“When you play in countries like Bulgaria or even Cyprus, you see some bad sides of the game that you don’t see in the UK, and it’s things you don’t miss.
The full-back won the Cypriot Super Cup in 2014 against APOEL with Ermis Aradippou and also won the Scottish Championship with St Mirren.
“In Cyprus, it was a big thing when we won the Super Cup because we were a club that got promoted from the second tier, a small community club with not a lot of fans, but we managed from the first season to qualify for a European spot,” he said.
“We played against Young Boys in Europe which was another big experience to play in the Europa League and we beat APOEL – the biggest club in Cyprus for the last 10 years in the final.
“At the end of the day if you’ve got memories like that, trophies, or even what we did at St Mirren was another big achievement.
“When I first signed we were in the Championship, I signed in January, and we were bottom, so everyone thought we were going to get relegated but we stayed up on the last day of the season and the next season we won the league.
“I enjoyed staying up more than winning the league as everyone thought St Mirren might win it.”
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