Efstathios "Stathis" Aloneftis ( el, Ευστάθιος "Στάθης" Αλωνεύτης; born 29 March 1983) is a Cypriot international

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 ...

. He is a winger who tends to play on the left wing, highly regarded for his speed and technique.

Club career

Omonia Nicosia

Born in Nicosia, Cyprus, Aloneftis began his professional career playing for Omonia, making his first appearance for the senior squad during the 2000–01 season however his real talent became apparent during 2003–04. His successes with Omonia include one

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

( 2003), one super cup (2001) and one cup in 2005.

Larissa

He then moved to the Greek club Larissa on 22 June 2005, for a transfer fee of CYP £136,000. The 2006–07 season was good for Aloneftis and in January 2007 he went on trial to

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

, but no move was materialised. At the end of the same season he played with his team in the Cup final, where he was in the starting lineup and his team beat 2–1 Panathinaikos and won the Cup.

Energie Cottbus

On 31 May 2007, German side

Energie Cottbus FC Energie Cottbus ( Lower Sorbian: ''Energija Chóśebuz'') is a German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany. After the reunification of Germany, Energie played six seasons i ...

announced the signing of Aloneftis on free transfer under the Bosman ruling, making him the first Cypriot to compete in the

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 ...

Return to Omonia

On 28 June 2008, he returned to Omonia and signed a five-year contract. He helped the club to win one

( 2010), two

cups CUPS (formerly an acronym for Common UNIX Printing System) is a modular printing system for Unix-like computer operating systems which allows a computer to act as a print server. A computer running CUPS is a host that can accept print jobs ...

( 2011,

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

) and one super cup (2010). He mutually terminated his contract with the club on 1 June 2012.

APOEL

On 8 June 2012, Aloneftis signed a three-year contract with

APOEL APOEL FC ( el, ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', literally "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") ...

. At the end of the season, he became a champion after helping APOEL to win the 2012–13 Cypriot First Division. During the 2013–14 season, he appeared in five 2013–14 UEFA Europa League group stage matches for APOEL and managed to win all the titles in Cyprus, the

Cypriot League 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 ...

, the

Cypriot Cup The Cypriot Cup () is the main cup competition in Cypriot football, run by the Cyprus Football Association (CFA). It began in 1934, the same season with the Cypriot Championship. It is the second most important competition for Cypriot club team ...

and 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 u ...

. On 26 August 2014, Aloneftis came on as a 61st-minute substitute and three minutes later he scored the third goal in APOEL's 4–0 triumph over

Aalborg BK Aalborg Boldspilklub is a Danish sports club based in the city of Aalborg. The club is also known as AaB for short (cf. logo) or Aalborg BK. Through time the club has had branches in cricket, tennis, ice hockey, handball, and basketball, but cur ...

for the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

play-off round The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

, helping his team reach to the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

of the

. Aloneftis appeared in five group stage matches in APOEL's

2014–15 UEFA Champions League The 2014–15 UEFA Champions League was the 60th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 23rd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The final was pl ...

campaign. In the 2014–15 season, he managed to add two more titles to his collection, as APOEL won again both the Cypriot

and the cup. On 2 March 2017, Aloneftis signed a one-year contract extension with APOEL, running until 31 May 2018.

International career

Aloneftis is a regular pick for the

Cyprus national football team The Cyprus national football team ( el, Εθνική ομάδα ποδοσφαίρου της Κύπρου) represents Cyprus in international football and is controlled by the Cyprus Football Association, the governing body for football in Cyp ...

. He is

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

60 times and scored 10 goals. He made his national team debut on 30 March 2005 against Switzerland in a

2006 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America) ...

match. He scored his first goal on 7 September 2005 against Switzerland in a

International goals

:''Scores and results list Cyprus' goal tally first.''

Honours

; Omonia *

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 ...

: 2002–03, 2009–10 *

: 2004–05,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

, 2011–12 *

: 2003, 2010 ; Larissa *

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup ( el, Κύπελλο Ελλάδος Ποδοσφαίρου), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Kypello Elladas is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second most ...

: 2006–07 ;

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19 *

: 2013–14, 2014–15 *

: 2013

References

External links

APOEL official profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aloneftis, Efstathios 1983 births Living people Cypriot footballers Association football midfielders AC Omonia players Athlitiki Enosi Larissa F.C. players FC Energie Cottbus players APOEL FC players Sportspeople from Nicosia Cypriot First Division players Super League Greece players Bundesliga players Cypriot expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Germany Cyprus international footballers