Emilios Theofanidis ( el, Αιμίλιος Θεοφανίδης; 30 November 1939 – 7 February 1999) was 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 ...

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

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 ...

and a later manager.

Club career

Theofanidis started football from Aris Ptolemaidas where he distinguished himself competing in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

, while in 1963 he emerged as the top scorer in his respective group. In the summer of 1963, he took the big step of his career by transferring to the then Greek champion,

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 ...

. With the yellow-blacks, he played for 2 years, making his debut in the first division and remarkably, participated in both matches against

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for the qualifying phase of the

European Cup 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 competit ...

, even scoring and 1 goal in the second leg in

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 ...

on 2 October 1963 which ended 1–1. During his spell in the club he won a

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 im ...

in 1964. In the summer of 1965, he transferred to PAOK, where he played for 5 seasons and played in the first 2 European matches in the history of the club against the

Wiener Sport-Club The Wiener Sport-Club, sometimes abbreviated as WSC, was established in 1883 in Vienna, Austria and is one of the country's oldest athletics clubs. Their traditional home is in the Dornbach quarter of the city ( 17th district). History At vari ...

for the

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in 1965. He was also a finalist of the Greek Cup in the period 1970.

After football

After the end of his football career Theofanidis worked as a coach and among other things, in the infrastructure departments of PAOK and at Aris Ptolemaidas He died on 7 February 1999 at the age of 59. The Municipal Stadium of

Ptolemaida Ptolemaida ( el, Πτολεμαΐδα, Ptolemaïda, Katharevousa: Πτολεμαΐς, ''Ptolemaïs'') is a town and a former municipality in Kozani regional unit, Western Macedonia, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of th ...

has been named in his honor.

Honours

AEK Athens *

: 1963–64 Individual *

Beta Ethniki The Football League ( el, Φούτμπολ Λιγκ) was the second highest professional football league in Greece since its inception in 1962 as ''Beta Ethniki'' and until 2019. It then served as a third tier after the creation of the Super Lea ...

top scorer: 1962–63 (4th Group)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Theofanidis, Emilios 1939 births 1999 deaths Greek men's footballers Super League Greece players AEK Athens F.C. players PAOK FC players Men's association football midfielders Footballers from Ptolemaida