Dimitrios Grammozis (; born 8 July 1978) is a Greek-German professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager and former player who last coached

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine ...

. During his playing years, he was known as a versatile defender and

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Playing career

Early years

Grammozis was born in

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...

and grew up in

Velbert Velbert ( Low Rhenish: ''Vèlbed'') is a town in the district of Mettmann, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The town is renowned worldwide for the production of locks and fittings. Geography Velbert is located on the hills of 'Niede ...

. He began his football career in 1984 with local side TuS Neviges in the Velbert neighborhood district. After four years, in 1988, Grammozis moved to SSVg Velbert, where he played for three years. His next and final stop in Velbert was a two-year stint at Borussia Velbert. In 1992, Grammozis returned to his hometown. After a year in the youth teams of

Wuppertaler SV Wuppertaler SV is a German association football club located in Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia. The city was founded in 1929 out of the union of a number of smaller towns including Elberfeld, Barmen, Vohwinkel, Cronenberg and Ronsdorf – e ...

, he moved in 1994 to

KFC Uerdingen 05 KFC Uerdingen 05 is a German football club in the Uerdingen district of the city of Krefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. The former Bundesliga side enjoyed its greatest successes in the 1980s but now plays in the fifth-level Oberliga. History The ...

, where he played two more years in the A-youth. In 1996, aged 18, Grammozis played his first senior season in the 2. Bundesliga with KFC Uerdingen. In 1998, after another season in the 2. Bundesliga, he was transferred to

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

side

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

for €350,000.

Senior career

Grammozis spent two years with Hamburger SV, contributing to a third-place

1999–2000 Bundesliga The 1999–2000 Bundesliga was the 37th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. It began on 13 August 1999 and ended on 20 May 2000. FC Bayern Munich were the defending champions. Competition modus Every team played two game ...

finish and subsequent qualification to the Champions League. However, he did not manage to permanently assert himself as a regular, and in addition to the arrival of quality players, Grammozis moved to 1. FC Kaiserslautern in 2000. He spent five years with ''The Red Devils'', characterized by injury problems and difficulties with his coaches, especially in his last two seasons. At the start of the season 2005–06 season, Grammozis moved to newly promoted side 1. FC Köln on a two-year deal. However, after the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

, the club prematurely terminated Grammozis' contract. As a result, on 20 July 2006 he moved on a free transfer to 2. Bundesliga newly promoted side

Rot-Weiss Essen Rot-Weiss Essen is a German association football club based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club currently plays in the 3. Liga, at the Stadion an der Hafenstraße. The team won the DFB-Pokal in 1953, and the German championship in 195 ...

, signing a contract until 30 June 2008. In June 2007 Grammozis left Germany and moved to

Super League Greece The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...

side

Ergotelis The Gymnastics Club «Ergotelis» Heraklion Crete ( el, Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος «O Εργοτέλης» Ηρακλείου Κρήτης, Γ.Σ. Εργοτέλης), commonly known simply as Ergotelis ( el, Εργοτέλης), ...

, signing a one-year contract with an option for another year. After a successful 2007–08 season with Ergotelis in which he played in 23 games and scored once, the club opted to extend his contract. However, after falling out with coach

Nikos Karageorgiou Nikos Karageorgiou ( gr, Νίκος Καραγεωργίου; born 8 December 1962) is a Greek professional football manager and former player. Club career Karageorgiou began his football career at his local village football club Aetos Eratino ...

in November 2008, Grammozis was transferred out to

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας) is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Since February 2016, it is sponsored by Cyta and is thus officially ...

side

Omonia Nicosia Athletic Club Omonia Nicosia ( el, Αθλητικός Σύλλογος Oμόνοιας Λευκωσίας, ΑΣΟΛ; ''Athlitikos Sillogos Omonias Lefkosias'', ''ASOL''), commonly known as Omonia Nicosia, or simply Omonia (" Harmony"; also tran ...

in December for a reported €150,000. He spent 2.5 years at Omonia, where he became Cypriot champion in 2010, and won the

Cypriot Super Cup The Cypriot Super Cup is a Cypriot football trophy, contested in an annual match between the previous season's Cypriot First Division champions, and the Cypriot Cup winners. The match is contested at the beginning of the football season, and is us ...

against

Apollon Limassol Apollon Limassol FC ( el, Απόλλων Λεμεσού, ''Apollon Lemesou'') is a Cypriot sports club, based in Limassol. It has football, basketball and volleyball teams. Founded in 1954, Apollon FC currently plays in the Cypriot First Divisi ...

. In January 2011, Grammozis returned to the Super League Greece and joined newly promoted side

AO Kerkyra Kerkyra FC, also known as AO Kerkyra ( el, Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κέρκυρα - Athlitikos Omilos Kerkyra), the ''Athletic Club Kerkyra'', is a Greek association football club based on the island of Kerkyra ( Corfu), Greece. Histor ...

. In the summer of 2012, he moved to

VfL Bochum II VfL Bochum II (also known as VfL Bochum Amateure or VfL Bochum U-23) was the reserve team of German football club VfL Bochum. The team has made two appearances in the first round of the DFB-Pokal, in 1984–85 and 2005–06. Since 2008 the team ...

, signing for two years, but ended up retiring his career at the end of the

2012–13 Regionalliga The 2012–13 Regionalliga was the fifth season of the Regionalliga as the fourth tier of the German football league system. From this season onwards, the structure of this tier has changed. The three division format administrated by the German FA ...

, having played in 26 games.

Coaching career

On 25 January 2014, Grammozis was hired as assistant to head coach

Thomas Reis Thomas Reis (born 4 October 1973) is a German former professional Association football, footballer, who is currently the head coach of Bundesliga club FC Schalke 04, Schalke 04. Career statistics Managerial statistics References External ...

for

. At the start of the 2014–15 season, he took over the U-15 juniors of

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent 35 seas ...

in the

Regionalliga West The Regionalliga West is a German semi-professional football division administered by the Western German Football Association based in Duisburg. It is one of the five German regional football associations. Being the single flight of the Western ...

, his first youth team as coach. In March 2018, Grammozis successfully received his coaching license by the

German Football Association The German Football Association (german: Deutscher Fußball-Bund ; DFB ) is the governing body of football in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and is in charge of t ...

. On 24 February 2019, he was appointed as the head coach of

Darmstadt 98 Sportverein Darmstadt 1898 e.V., commonly known as Darmstadt 98 (), is a German football club based in Darmstadt, Hesse. The club was founded on 22 May 1898 as FC Olympia Darmstadt. Early in 1919, the association was briefly known as ''Rasen-Sp ...

until the end of the 2019–20 season. On 2 March 2021, he was appointed as the fifth head coach of

during the

2020–21 Bundesliga The 2020–21 Bundesliga was the 58th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football competition. It began on 18 September 2020 and concluded on 22 May 2021. The season was originally scheduled to begin on 21 August 2020 and conclude on 15 ...

season. He received a contract until 2022. On 6 March 2022, he was relieved from his duties.

Personal life

Grammozis parents hail from

Kefalovryso, Ioannina Kefalovryso (, rup, Migidei, Migidea) is a village and a community of the Pogoni municipality. Before the 2011 local government reform it was a part of the municipality of Ano Pogoni, of which it was a municipal district and the seat. The 2011 c ...

Career statistics

Club

Managerial

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grammozis, Dimitrios Living people 1978 births Association football midfielders Greek footballers Greek expatriate footballers Greece under-21 international footballers KFC Uerdingen 05 players Hamburger SV players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players 1. FC Köln players Rot-Weiss Essen players Ergotelis F.C. players AC Omonia players A.O. Kerkyra players VfL Bochum II players German people of Greek descent Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Expatriate footballers in Greece Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Super League Greece players Cypriot First Division players Greek football managers Bundesliga managers 2. Bundesliga managers SV Darmstadt 98 managers FC Schalke 04 managers Sportspeople from Wuppertal