Apostolos Giannou
Apostolos Giannou ( el, Απόστολος Γιάννου; born 25 January 1990) is a Greek-Australian professional footballer who plays as a forward. He represented various Greek and Australian youth national teams, including one friendly with the Greece national team, before appearing competitively for the Australia national team. Club career Early life and career Giannou was born in Naousa, Greece, but moved to Australia at a young age and grew up in Melbourne, Victoria. In Australia he was known as Paul. Giannou played junior football for Oakleigh Cannons and South Melbourne. Following state representative honours at under-14 and under-15 level, Giannou was selected for the VIS by Ernie Merrick. At the Victorian Institute of Sport, he trained alongside Andreas Govas, Matthew Spiranovic, Adrian Leijer, Leigh Broxham, Milos Lujic, Dimitri Hatzimouratis and Matthew Theodore. He took part in Melbourne Victory's pre-season friendlies prior to the 2006–07 A-League season wi ...
[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  

Australia National Soccer Team
Australia national soccer team may refer to: * Australia men's national soccer team ** Australia men's national under-23 soccer team ** Australia men's national under-20 soccer team ** Australia men's national under-17 soccer team ** Australia men's national soccer B team * Australia women's national soccer team ** Australia women's national under-23 soccer team ** Australia women's national under-20 soccer team ** Australia women's national under-17 soccer team See also * Australia national beach soccer team * Australia national football team (other) * Soccer in Australia Soccer, also known as football, is the most played outdoor club sport in Australia, and ranked in the top ten for television audience as of 2015. The national governing body of the sport is Football Australia (FA), which until 2019, organised ...

Australia National Under-17 Soccer Team
Australia national under-17 soccer team may refer to: * Australia men's national under-17 soccer team * Australia women's national under-17 soccer team See also * Australia national under-23 soccer team * Australia national under-20 soccer team * Australia national soccer team Australia national soccer team may refer to: * Australia men's national soccer team ** Australia men's national under-23 soccer team ** Australia men's national under-20 soccer team ** Australia men's national under-17 soccer team ** Australia ...

Adrian Leijer
Adrian Leijer (born 25 March 1986) is an Australian footballer who plays as a centre back. Leijer played on one occasion for Australia and made over 100 appearances for Melbourne Victory in the A-League. Club career Early years Leijer was born, and largely grew up in, the New South Wales town of Dubbo to a family of Dutch and English heritage. He played from Under 10 - Under 14 with SASS Strikers Junior Soccer Club in the Dubbo & District Soccer Association. Whilst with SASS, he represented Western New South Wales and New South Wales Country in football. In 1998, Leijer was a co-captain of Orana Heights Public School in Dubbo. When Leijer was 15 years old his family moved south to Jan Juc on Victoria's surf coast and attended Belmont High School where he joined Geelong SC and represented the U-15's Victorian Country team. Ian Greener, then Head of Coaching & Development at the Victorian Soccer Federation, spotted his talent and recommended him to the head coach of the Victoria ...
[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  

Matthew Spiranovic
Matthew Thomas Spiranovic (born 27 June 1988) is a former Australian soccer player who played as a defender. Spiranovic started his career with Melbourne Victory, making one competitive appearance before being released with the consent of coach Ernie Merrick to join German Bundesliga club 1. FC Nürnberg. Spiranovic struggled in his new climate with both injuries and form, making just 28 first team appearances over four seasons with the German club, playing more frequently for the club's second side. In search of more consistent playing time, Spiranovic then joined Urawa Red Diamonds making 13 league appearances and scoring 1 goal during the 2010 J-League season. At the end of his loan spell, Spiranovic signed permanently for the club in 2011 for a fee of €450.000. Spiranovic has made appearances for Australia during the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. He has also represented Australia at the 2005 OFC U-17 Championship, the 2005 FIFA U-17 World Championship, the 2 ...
[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  

Andreas Govas
Andreas Govas (born 21 July 1989) is an Australian former footballer. During the 2007–08 season, he was a member of Portsmouth's Academy. He played for Greece's national youth team with Greek-Australians Dean Bouzanis and Paul Giannou. Club career Govas trained at the Victorian Institute of Sport alongside Paul Giannou, Matthew Spiranovic, Adrian Leijer, Leigh Broxham, Milos Lujic, Dimitri Hatzimouratis and Matthew Theodore, where he was coached by Ernie Merrick. Following his apprenticeship at the Victorian Institute of Sport, Govas was invited for a one-day trial with the Australian Institute of Sport and was not ultimately not selected, however, this followed by earning a contract with Portsmouth's Academy and Reserves. Portsmouth Govas signed his first professional contract with Premier League outfit Portsmouth F.C. for the 2007–08 season, joining the club's Academy and Reserves teams under director Paul Hart. On 27 October 2007, he appeared in a game for the Academy. ...
[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  

Ernie Merrick
Ernest Merrick OAM (born 15 January 1953) is a Scottish-Australian coach, who last managed A-League soccer club Newcastle Jets. He was released on 6 January 2020. He was the former head coach of the Hong Kong national football team and A-League clubs Melbourne Victory and Wellington Phoenix. He currently serves as the chief football officer for Football Australia. Coaching career Melbourne Victory In his first season at Melbourne Victory in 2005/06, the club failed to live up to its championship aspirations. With Socceroos Archie Thompson and Kevin Muscat in the squad, and the experience of 2 European internationals in Geoffrey Claeys and Richard Kitzbichler, expectations from the Melbourne fans were high. But they were left disappointed when the club finished the season 7th out of the 8 teams. After a promising start which saw them 1st after round 8, when they beat eventual champions Sydney FC 5–0, the team then won only 3 of the last 13 games. During the second season, ...
[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  

Oakleigh Cannons FC
Oakleigh Cannons Football Club is a soccer club based in the south-east Melbourne suburb of Oakleigh, Victoria, Australia. The club, established by members of Oakleigh's Greek Australian community, currently competes in the NPL Victoria. The club's home ground is at Jack Edwards Reserve, on Edward Street, Oakleigh. History South Oakleigh Soccer Club was established on 12 December 1972. The club soon changed its name to Oakleigh Soccer Club. In the 1970s and 1980s, the club steadily gained success by winning a number of Victorian Provisional, Metropolitan and State League divisional titles. The club won championships in both of its first two years of competition, taking out the Victorian District League East in 1973 and 1974. Oakleigh won its next title in 1978, when it took out the Victorian District League Division 1, winning promotion to the Victorian Provisional League Division 2, which it won in its first year in 1979, achieving promotion to Provisional League Division 1. ...
[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  

Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in Australia (28 per km2). Victoria is bordered by New South Wales to the north and South Australia to the west, and is bounded by the Bass Strait to the south (with the exception of a small land border with Tasmania located along Boundary Islet), the Great Australian Bight portion of the Southern Ocean to the southwest, and the Tasman Sea (a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean) to the southeast. The state encompasses a range of climates and geographical features from its temperate coastal and central regions to the Victorian Alps in the northeast and the semi-arid north-west. The majority of the Victorian population is concentrated in the central-south area surrounding Port Phillip Bay, and in particular within the metropolit ...
[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  

Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metropolitan area known as Greater Melbourne, comprising an urban agglomeration of 31 local municipalities, although the name is also used specifically for the local municipality of City of Melbourne based around its central business area. The metropolis occupies much of the northern and eastern coastlines of Port Phillip Bay and spreads into the Mornington Peninsula, part of West Gippsland, as well as the hinterlands towards the Yarra Valley, the Dandenong and Macedon Ranges. It has a population over 5 million (19% of the population of Australia, as per 2021 census), mostly residing to the east side of the city centre, and its inhabitants are commonly referred to as "Melburnians". The area of Melbourne has been home to Aboriginal ...
[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  

Australia National Football Team
Australia national soccer team may refer to: * Australia men's national soccer team ** Australia men's national under-23 soccer team ** Australia men's national under-20 soccer team ** Australia men's national under-17 soccer team ** Australia men's national soccer B team * Australia women's national soccer team ** Australia women's national under-23 soccer team ** Australia women's national under-20 soccer team ** Australia women's national under-17 soccer team See also * Australia national beach soccer team * Australia national football team (other) * Soccer in Australia Soccer, also known as football, is the most played outdoor club sport in Australia, and ranked in the top ten for television audience as of 2015. The national governing body of the sport is Football Australia (FA), which until 2019, organised ...

Association Football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is to score more goals than the opposition by moving the ball beyond the goal line into a rectangular framed goal defended by the opposing side. Traditionally, the game has been played over two 45 minute halves, for a total match time of 90 minutes. With an estimated 250 million players active in over 200 countries, it is considered the world's most popular sport. The game of association football is played in accordance with the Laws of the Game, a set of rules that has been in effect since 1863 with the International Football Association Board (IFAB) maintaining them since 1886. The game is played with a football that is in circumference. The two teams compete to get the ball into the other team's goal (between the posts and under t ...
[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  

Greek Australians
Greek Australians ( el, Ελληνοαυστραλοί, ) are Australians of Greek ancestry. Greek Australians are one of the largest groups within the global Greek diaspora. As per the 2021 census, 424,750 people stated that they had Greek ancestry (whether alone or in combination with another ancestry), comprising 1.7% of the Australian population.https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/community-profiles/2021/AUS/download/GCP_AUS.xlsx At the 2021 census, 92,314 Australian residents were born in Greece.https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/community-profiles/2021/AUS/download/GCP_AUS.xlsx Greek immigration to Australia has been one of the largest migratory flows in the history of Australia, especially after World War II and the Greek Civil War. The flow of migrants from Greece increased slightly in 2015 due to the economic crisis in Greece, with Australia as one of the main destinations for departing Greeks, mainly to Melbourne, where the Greek Australian co ...
[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]