Ang Christou (born 16 January 1972) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er for Carlton in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling ...

Football career

Christou played for the

Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's top professional competition. Founded in 1864 in Carlton, an inner suburb of Me ...

and along with

Anthony Koutoufides Anthony Koutoufides (born 18 January 1973), also known by his nickname of Kouta, is a retired Australian rules footballer with the Carlton Football Club. Considered by many as one of the most powerful and athletic players of all-time, he played ...

was a popular figure as a

Greek Australian 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 an ...

. In 2001, Christou had a solid pre-season, but missed the first month of the AFL season due to a knee injury. After his return in Round 7, Christou was noted for his penetrating kicks from defence. However, he was dropped after Round 17 playing only 13 games for the season, including a recall for the finals series of 2001 (receiving limited game time). Christou was noted for his long, accurate left foot kicks, often upwards of 60–65 metres. Whenever taking a kick, short or long, a chant from the Carlton crowd of "WOOF!" would always be heard. Christou was the second Carlton player to receive this chant, after

Val Perovic Vladimir "Val" Perovic ( hr, Perović; born 25 September 1953) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with St Kilda and Carlton in the VFL. Born in Croatia (at the time part of Yugoslavia), Perovic emigrated to Ballarat in Austral ...

(another long, left-footed defender) during the 1980s.

Statistics

: , - , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 56 , , 1 , , 1 , , 2 , , 8 , , 4 , , 12 , , 5 , , 1 , , 1.0 , , 2.0 , , 8.0 , , 4.0 , , 12.0 , , 5.0 , , 1.0 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 39 , , 5 , , 1 , , 0 , , 38 , , 10 , , 48 , , 4 , , 10 , , 0.2 , , 0.0 , , 7.6 , , 2.0 , , 9.6 , , 0.8 , , 2.0 , , 0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 39 , , 18 , , 5 , , 1 , , 166 , , 83 , , 249 , , 58 , , 27 , , 0.3 , , 0.1 , , 9.2 , , 4.6 , , 13.8 , , 3.2 , , 1.5 , , 3 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 39 , , 24 , , 3 , , 4 , , 282 , , 123 , , 405 , , 85 , , 39 , , 0.1 , , 0.2 , , 11.8 , , 5.1 , , 16.9 , , 3.5 , , 1.6 , , 5 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" , style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;",

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

† , style="text-align:center;", , 39 , , 25 , , 6 , , 5 , , 339 , , 118 , , 457 , , 92 , , 50 , , 0.2 , , 0.2 , , 13.6 , , 4.7 , , 18.3 , , 3.7 , , 2.0 , , 7 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 39 , , 24 , , 1 , , 8 , , 283 , , 87 , , 370 , , 83 , , 26 , , 0.0 , , 0.3 , , 11.8 , , 3.6 , , 15.4 , , 3.5 , , 1.1 , , 3 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 39 , , 8 , , 0 , , 0 , , 99 , , 31 , , 130 , , 30 , , 14 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 12.4 , , 3.9 , , 16.3 , , 3.8 , , 1.8 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

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1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 39 , , 11 , , 0 , , 0 , , 87 , , 36 , , 123 , , 21 , , 10 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 7.9 , , 3.3 , , 11.2 , , 1.9 , , 0.9 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 39 , , 10 , , 1 , , 1 , , 80 , , 30 , , 110 , , 12 , , 11 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 8.0 , , 3.0 , , 11.0 , , 1.2 , , 1.1 , , 0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 39 , , 13 , , 1 , , 1 , , 116 , , 53 , , 169 , , 39 , , 19 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 8.9 , , 4.1 , , 13.0 , , 3.0 , , 1.5 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 39 , , 12 , , 1 , , 1 , , 127 , , 52 , , 179 , , 44 , , 24 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 10.6 , , 4.3 , , 14.9 , , 3.7 , , 2.0 , , 0 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 151 ! 20 ! 23 ! 1625 ! 627 ! 2252 ! 473 ! 231 ! 0.1 ! 0.2 ! 10.8 ! 4.2 ! 14.9 ! 3.1 ! 1.5 ! 18

Post-football career

Christou participated in the

E. J. Whitten Legends Game The E. J. Whitten Legends Game was an annual Australian sports entertainment Australian rules football match. It is played for charity played as an all-star game. Retired star players are reunited, along with selected non-footballing celebrities, ...

in 2003 and was awarded Man of the Match for his great game that night and was met with an enthused reaction from the crowd. There was talk of Christou trying out as a punter for the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

in early 2003, a three-man crew from a US club (the identity of which Christou refused to reveal) spent two weeks in Melbourne putting him through a series of stringent tests however no signing resulted. He co-owned the Souvlaki Hut restaurant in Templestowe Lower in Melbourne's north-east with former Carlton teammate

, until its closure in early 2011. He married his girlfriend Tammy on 14 May 2016.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Christou, Ang 1972 births Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Australian people of Greek descent Carlton Football Club players Carlton Football Club Premiership players All-Australians (AFL) Living people Victorian State of Origin players One-time VFL/AFL Premiership players