Giannis Petrakis ( gr, Γιάννης Πετράκης; born 20 May 1959) is a Greek 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 Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

and former player, who is the current manager of

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

club

Levadiakos Levadiakos Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Λεβαδειακός) is a Greek professional football club that plays in the Super League Greece. Based in Livadeia, Greece, the club was promoted to the Alpha Ethniki, forerunner of the Super League, afte ...

Playing career

Petrakis began his football career with his local side Asteras Perama, before moving to

Heraklion Heraklion or Iraklion ( ; el, Ηράκλειο, , ) is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in Greece with a population of 211,370 (Urban A ...

and

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

in 1978. In 1981 Petrakis moved to local rival OFI, playing in the

Alpha Ethniki 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 ...

, the top level football league in Greece before returning to a

Gamma Ethniki The Gamma Ethniki ( el, Γ΄ Εθνική Ερασιτεχνική Κατηγορία, C National Amateur Division) is the third highest football league in Greece. History The Gamma Ethniki began in 1965 as an amateur championship, while in 198 ...

side

in 1985, where he reached the 1985–86 Greek Cup quarterfinals. In 1988, he returned to his hometown

Rethymno Rethymno ( el, Ρέθυμνο, , also ''Rethimno'', ''Rethymnon'', ''Réthymnon'', and ''Rhíthymnos'') is a city in Greece on the island of Crete. It is the capital of Rethymno regional unit, and has a population of more than 30,000 inhabitants ( ...

to play for EAR Rethymnou, before ending his career with

-based Poseidon, with whom he won his only title, the 1990–91 Delta Ethniki championship.

Coaching career

Petrakis began his coaching career in 1991 at Asteras Perama. He took over

in 1992, before returning to Asteras Perama in 1994. Up next in 1997, Petrakis was hired by Heraklion-based club Irodotos, whom he promoted to the

, the third tier of the

Greek football league system The Greek football league system includes four levels in which teams can possibly make it to the Super League 1, Greece's highest division of football. Cup eligibility Greek Football Professional Cup: Levels 1 to 2 Greek Football Amateur Cup: L ...

. He then took over management of Malia local club PANO Malia, whom he promoted to the

Delta Ethniki Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also r ...

(the fourth tier of the

) for the first time in their history and managed to win the

Greek Football Amateur Cup Greek Amateur Cup (Greek: Κύπελλο Ερασιτεχνικών Ομάδων Ελλάδος) is one of the most known competitions for amateur teams in Greece. Amateur Cup Finals See also *Amateurs' Super Cup Greece *Football records and st ...

in 2000. He then managed to also promote the amateur department of

OFI Crete OFI may refer to: * Overseas Filipino Investors, Filipino expatriates who contribute to the economy of the Philippines through remittances, buying property, and creating businesses * OFI Crete, a Greek association football club based on the island ...

, OFI 94 to the

, and was manager from 2000 until 2002, when the club appointed him assistant to OFI's head coach

Zdeněk Ščasný Zdeněk Ščasný (born 9 August 1957) is a Czech football manager and former player. Ščasný has won the Czech league championship five timesthree times as a player and twice as a coachand the Czech Cup three timestwice as a player and onc ...

. In 2003, Petrakis returned to Irodotos, and managed to promote the club to the

once again. In 2004, Petrakis left

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

for the first time in his career, taking over management of

Arcadia Arcadia may refer to: Places Australia * Arcadia, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * Arcadia, Queensland * Arcadia, Victoria Greece * Arcadia (region), a region in the central Peloponnese * Arcadia (regional unit), a modern administrative un ...

n club

Asteras Tripoli Asteras Tripolis Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Αστέρας Τρίπολης), commonly referred to as Asteras Tripolis (meaning "Star of Tripoli"), is a Greek professional football club based in the city of Tripoli in Arcadia, Peloponnese, G ...

, whom he also promoted to the

. He then returned to

and led local club Asteras Rethymno to the

as well. Petrakis went on to coach

Nea Ionia Nea Ionia ( el, Νέα Ιωνία, meaning New Ionia) is a northern suburb of Athens, Greece, and a municipality of the Attica region. It was named after Ionia, the region in Anatolia from which many Greeks migrated in the 1920s as a part of the ...

(2009–2010), Ionikos (2010–2011) and

Chania Chania ( el, Χανιά ; vec, La Canea), also spelled Hania, is a city in Greece and the capital of the Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast of the island Crete, about west of Rethymno and west of Heraklion. The muni ...

(2011–2012), before returning, and being appointed head coach of OFI on 7 January 2013, where he made his debut as a Superleague manager. Petrakis coached the club in 15 matches, managing to avoid relegation, and terminated his contract with the club at the end of the season on mutual consent. In the summer of 2013, Petrakis was hired as head coach of the other local Superleague side

. The season took off with an impressive start, in which the club remained undefeated for 8 consecutive matches (the best undefeated record in the club's history in the league). At the end of October however,

began struggling, and as a result, the club's board of directors decided to replace Petrakis on 14 January 2014.

PAS Giannina

Fourteen days later, on 28 January 2014, Petrakis was hired by

Epirus sq, Epiri rup, Epiru , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = Historical region , image_map = Epirus antiquus tabula.jpg , map_alt = , map_caption = Map of ancient Epirus by Heinrich ...

-based Superleague club

PAS Giannina PAS Giannina Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ ΠΑΣ Γιάννινα 1966), or with its full name Panepirotikos Athlitikos Syllogos Giannina ( el, Πανηπειρωτικός Αθλητικός Σύλλογος Γιάννινα, ''Panepirotic Athleti ...

. Petrakis managed avoid relegation at the end of the season, and subsequently went on to secure a 6th-place finish in the 2014–15 and 2015–16, thus leading

to their first ever

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

campaign. For this feat, Petrakis was named "Best Manager in Greece" for the 2014–2015 season. Further contributing to the club's history, Petrakis managed to advance

to the Third qualifying round of the competition, after eliminating

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

club

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4–3 on aggregate. He was a candidate for "Best Manager in Greece" for the 2015–2016 season but he didn't voted again. His contract was not renewed because

were relegated from

Honours

Managerial

;Asteras Rethymno * Championship Delta Ethniki: 2007 * Championships at A'Local League of Rethymno: 2009 * Rethymno Cups: 2006 * Rethymno Super Cups: 2006 ;Asteras Tripolis *

: 2005–06 *

: 2004–05 ;Apollon Limassol *

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 ...

: Runners-up

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Individual

* Best Manager in Greece: 2014–15 with

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Petrakis, Giannis 1959 births Living people Greek footballers Ergotelis F.C. players OFI Crete F.C. players Greek football managers Ergotelis F.C. managers Asteras Tripolis F.C. managers Ionikos F.C. managers OFI Crete F.C. managers PAS Giannina F.C. managers A.O. Nea Ionia F.C. managers Association footballers not categorized by position Footballers from Rethymno