page_title: José Holebas
section_title: International career
hierarchical_section_title: José Holebas / International career
caption_attribution_description: Freundschaftliches Länderspiel Österreich - Griechenland am 14. August 2013 in Salzburg: Jose Holebas
context_page_description: José Lloyd Cholevas, known as José Holebas, is a German-Greek professional footballer who plays as a left back or a left midfielder for Olympiacos. He played for the Greek national team from 2011 to 2016.
context_section_description: Holebas being born in West Germany was eligible to represent Germany and through his Greek-German American heritage was also eligible to represent Greece or United States in international football. He never appeared for any of the countries at youth level. In an interview about his International ambitions with a Greek reporter, he stated, "My dream growing up was to play for Germany, but my father is Greek so I would be happy to play for Greece." In November 2011, he received Greek citizenship as "Iosif Cholevas," and on the 11th of the same month, he officially made his debut for Greece in a friendly match against Russia, which ended in a 1–1 draw at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus.
  In 2012, Holebas was part of Greece's 23-man squad for the UEFA Euro 2012 finals held in Poland and Ukraine. He started the first two group games against Poland in a 1–1 draw and against Czech Republic in a 2–1 loss and was dropped for the third match due to heavy criticism that his attacking tendency was becoming hazardous to the usually-solid defensive tactics of Greece. Nonetheless, he did come on for the final 30 minutes of the match, playing admirably and assisting Greece in holding on to the 1–0 win against Russia, which took them to the quarter-finals. Here, however, Greece fell to Germany by a score of 4–2, a defeat in which Holebas picked up a suspension for receiving another yellow card after his previous booking in the game against Russia.
  Holebas scored his first international goal for Greece in a 1–0 victory against the Republic of Ireland in November 2012, a friendly match played at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
  Holebas' impressive 2013–14 season with Olympiacos prompted his nomination from Greek manager Fernando Santos as a part of the final 23-man squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. He played in all of Greece's matches, which included a 3–0 loss to Colombia, a 0–0 draw with Japan, a 2–1 victory over Ivory Coast in the Group Stages, and the 1–1 (5–3 penalty shoot-out) defeat to Costa Rica in the last 16, during which he converted his penalty kick.
  On 27 March 2015, two days before the crucial Euro 2016 qualifier for Greece against Hungary, media reports claimed that Holebas had trained normally with his Roma squad after departing from Austria on Tuesday. "On Monday José underwent a radiographic examination of which it was diagnosed that he was suffering from a left rib case injury. The player trained in Austria under an individual program but was not fit to be available to play against Hungary," the Hellenic Football Federation (HFF) said in an announcement. The HFF added that reports out of Italy cited by the Greek media "lead to completely erroneous conclusions in regards to the willingness of the player to contribute to his commitments with the national team any further." This was probably the cause for the non-call-up of the player for the national team, creating tension with new Greek sporting director and former national team teammate Georgios Karagounis. On 4 September 2015, Holebas returned to the national side after being picked by caretaker coach Kostas Tsanas, where he appeared for Greece for the first time in 12 months in Greece's 0–1 home defeat against Finland in a Euro 2016 qualifier in Piraeus. The defeat officially ended Greece's hopes of qualification to the final tournament in France in a poor overall qualifying campaign for Greece.
  In 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification, Holebas played his 38th and last ever cap for Greece when he came on as a second-half substitute in the Greek 2–0 home win over Cyprus on 7 October 2016 in Piraeus. Then on 10 October 2016, after a 2–0 away win against Estonia, Holebas officially announced his decision to retire from International football because he feels that it is time for the younger footballers of Greece to step up and become Greek international regulars. However on 1 September 2017, Holebas admitted he had left the Greek national team due to his dislike of national team coach Michael Skibbe.
caption: Holebas playing for Greece against Austria in 2013
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