Do You Remember Them #19- Stelios Giannakopoulos

Biodata

Full Name: Stylianos Giannakopoulous

Nationality: Greek

Date of Birth: 12 July 1974

Position: Attacking Midfielder/ Right Winger

Former Clubs:

1992- 1993 Ethnikos Asteras

1993- 1996 Paniliakos

1996- 2003 Olympiakos

2003- 2008 Bolton Wanderers

2008- 2009 Hull City

2009- 2010 AEL

International Career:

1997- 2008 Greece

Achievement:

Paniliakos

1995 Beta Ethniki

Olympiakos

1997 Super League Greece

1998 Super League Greece

1999 Super League Greece

1999 Greek Cup

2000 Super League Greece

2001 Super League Greece

2002 Super League Greece

2003 Super League Greece

Greece

2004 UEFA Euro Cup

Career

In 2004, Greece shocked the world when they beat Luis Figo and young Cristiano Ronaldo inspired Portugal to win Euro 2004 on their opponent’s home turf. The pinnacle moment of the Greece national team has brought a lot of Greek players to the limelight and gained more attention than they did in the past. One of the players went on to further establish his reputation in the English Premier League too. He is Stelios Giannakopolous.

Stelios started his footballing career as a youth player in his hometown club, Ethnikos Asteras. He made his first-team debut for Ethnikos Asteras in 1992, aged just 18. His 6 goals contribution in his debut season as a professional football player had helped his hometown club to gain promotion to the third division. At the same time, the third division side Paniliakos had signed him permanently after his impressive performance in the lower division.

Stelios slowly developed into an effective striker as he helped Paniliakos to achieve back-to-back promotion from Greek third division to Greek Super League in just two seasons, scoring 19 goals in the process as well. At the age of 21, Stelios finally had his first taste of top-flight football in his nation. Despite playing in a more competitive and stronger league, Stelios is still managed to score 7 goals in 27 games in his first attempt in Greek top flight, helping his team to escape relegation with 6 points above the relegation zone.

In the summer of 1996, Stelios signed for a Greek giant, Olympiakos after just one season in the Greek top flight. This is the turning point of his career as he started to gain more attention from not just in Greek football but also in Europe. His cult hero status in Olympiakos has been established in his second season in the team. Stelios scored his team’s first-ever Champions League goal against Porto which helped the team to record their first-ever victory in this competition. His performance in club level had earned him a national team call-up in December 1997 and get his first national team appearance in a friendly match against Cyprus, where he replaced fellow Greek striker, Georgios Georgiadis for the last 10 minutes.

Stelios career had reached a new height when he helped Olympiakos to reach the quarterfinals in the tournament, only lost to Juventus by just a one-goal margin. Since then, Stelios has achieved double digits in terms of goal contributions and won every single league title when he played for Olympiakos. His finest form in Olympiakos came in his last season in Piraeus, where he scored 17 goals and 6 assists in all competition. His cult hero status in Olympiakos is standing still even until today. The impressive performance in Greece had certainly attracted the attention of several clubs in Europe. After ten successful years in Greece, Stelios was snapped up by Sam Allardyce’s Bolton Wanderers on May 2003.

There were some fun facts when Stelios joined Bolton Wanderers. Firstly, it was at Bolton that he adapted his name ‘Stelios’ as the name at the back of the jersey as his surname ‘Giannakopoulos’ was too long and unconventional for the English commentator. Secondly, the game between Bolton Wanderers and Manchester United at the first matchday of 2003-2004 season is special too. It was not only his first appearance in English Premier League, but there is also another Premier League debutant in the red side of the pitch named, Cristiano Ronaldo. However, this was his highlight in his first season in England. His performance in Bolton wasn’t statistically impressive, but his influential performance in overall helped Bolton finished eighth in the league and reaching the League Cup final.

With the impressive performance in England, Otto Rehhagel called up Stelios to his Greece national team for the Euro 2004 tournament. However, nobody in the squad, including Stelios himself realised that they are in the route to a miracle in this tournament. He had played in 4 out of 6 games in the victorious team at the Euro 2004 tournament, including the beautiful night in Lisbon. Following this success, Stelios confidence has boosted as he helped Bolton to reach the top-half finish in the next three seasons in Reebok Stadium. His performance also attracted the attention of Manchester City and Liverpool as well. However, things get a little sour in 2007-2008 season as Sam Allardyce left Bolton at the beginning of the season. Despite not being a regular since Allardyce left, Stelios still scored some crucial goal for his club. Especially his last goal for Bolton that earned a much needed three points for Bolton to avoid relegation against Tottenham Hotspur in White Hart Lane.

Stelios left Bolton to join Hull City on a one-year deal. However, injuries had limited him to only be a squad player. He only made two appearances in his short spell in Hull City. Stelios was frustrated by his lack of game time in Hull City and finally moved back to Greece after six years in England, this time to AEL on a one-and-a-half-year deal. His impact on AEL is almost immediate as he scored a brace in just his second match for the club. At the end of the season, Stelios helped this Greek minnows to a top-five finish in the Greek Super League, which he also admitted that it is a great achievement. However, things get sour as Stelios faced fitness issue in his second season and even courted controversy with some comments he made to the Greek press. This caused him to part away with AEL and subsequently hung up his boots at the age of 35.

Post Retirement

Stelios is still heavily involved in Greek football after his retirement. He was voted as the president of Greek Professional Footballers Association in 2010. Besides that, he also took part in the managerial and coaching career, mostly in Greece. He is also very vocal towards how football is run in his home nation as he voices out his concern about how violent will ruin football in Greece when the Greek government had suspended professional football three times in a single season in 2015.

#Stelios #Greece #Olympiakos #Bolton #Hull