Dionysis Tsamis ( el, Διονύσης Τσάμης; born 21 May 1951) is a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
former professional
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...
who played as a
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 ...
.
Club career
Tsamis started his football career at
Panetolikos
Panetolikos Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Παναιτωλικός), or with its full name Panetolikós Yimnastikós Filekpedeftikós Síllogos ( el, Παναιτωλικός Γυμναστικός Φιλεκπαιδευτικός Σύλλογος'' ...
youth team, at the age of 16. The team's coach at the time,
Lukas Aurednik
Lukas "Harry" Aurednik (20 February 1918 – 2 June 1997) was an international Austrian football player and football manager.
He coached AEK Athens F.C., Pierikos F.C., 1. Wiener Neustädter SC, Royal Charleroi SC.
From 1963 to 1965 he managed ...
immediately recognized his rich talent and expressed flattering words about the youngster to the club's managers. The following year the coach of the team Sotiris Karpodinis took him to the preparation of the men's team. He played as a substitute in a friendly against Arta and impressed with his performance and thus established himself in the first team. He soon became an international player with the Youth and Hope national teams. A law of the regime at the time that allowed the transfer of players only within a prefecture or in a neighboring prefecture stopped the transfer of Tsamis to a team from
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
. His common spell with
Apostolos Toskas in the squads of the youth national teams contributed to his desire to transfer to
AEK Athens
A.E.K ( el, AEK , formally Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople''), known as A.E.K, is a major Greece, Greek multi-sport club based in Nea ...
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