Sporting Kansas City winger Marinos Tzionis has been selected to the Cyprus Men’s National Team for four matches in the 2022-23 UEFA Nations League next month.
Tzionis and Cyprus are slated to play their opening fixtures in UEFA Nations League C—the third tier of the marquee international tournament—during FIFA’s two-week international window, hosting Kosovo on June 2 and Northern Ireland on June 5 at AEK Arena in Larnaca, Cyprus, before traveling to face Greece on June 9 and Northern Ireland on June 12.
Cyprus MNT: UEFA Nations League matches in June
- Thursday, June 2 vs. Kosovo (1:45 p.m. CT)
- Sunday, June 5 vs. Northern Ireland (11 a.m. CT)
- Thursday, June 9 at Greece (1:45 p.m. CT)
- Sunday, June 12 at Northern Ireland (8 a.m. CT)
One of Cyprus’ best young players, Tzionis scored his first senior international goal on March 29 to spark a 2-0 win over Estonia as the Cypriots avoided relegation to UEFA Nations League D for the 2022-23 cycle. The 20-year-old has already earned 14 caps at the senior level and will join his national team squad following Sporting’s MLS regular season home match on May 28 against Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
Now in his first MLS season, Tzionis has bagged goals in two of Sporting's last three matches. The versatile attacker scored a dramatic 98th-minute equalizer in a 4-2 extra-time win over FC Dallas in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on May 10—the latest regulation-time goal in club history—before finding the back of the net again four days later in a road loss to the Portland Timbers. He has started three of 12 appearances for the club in all competitions, logging 507 minutes of action in his debut campaign with Sporting.
Tzionis previously represented Cyprus at the U-17 and U-19 youth levels—featuring in qualifying competitions for the European U-17 Championship in 2018 and the European U-19 Championship in 2019—before breaking into the senior national team in September 2020. In the two months that followed, he made five starts and six total appearances in the 2020-21 UEFA Nations League as the Cypriots finished with a 1-4-1 record. Tzionis started four of six appearances in FIFA 2022 World Cup qualifying over the course of 2021.
Tzionis joined Sporting in January following an excellent spell at hometown club Omonia Nicosia, where he scored 15 goals in 88 appearances from 2018 until his departure for Kansas City. During his time with Omonia, he won a Cypriot First Division title and featured in 18 matches across Europe’s three most prestigious club tournaments: the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League.
