Giannis Skopelitis (

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 ...

: Γιάννης Σκοπελίτης; born 2 March 1978) is a Greek 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 ...

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 ...

Career

Portsmouth

Skopelitis joined FA Premier League club

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

on 28 January 2005 from Egaleo FC for a fee of £1 million, as a replacement for Amady Faye, who had been sold to Newcastle United. However, it later transpired that the transfer deal was structured as a year's loan with an initial fee of around £300,000 with the remaining £700,000 being paid if the club desired to keep the player after this period. Skopelitis made his debut for Pompey as a 73rd-minute substitute for Ricardo Fuller in a 2-1 home win over Middlesbrough. Coincidentally, he had already faced

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

in 2004-05 when facing them for Egaleo in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

. Having reached the end of his trial period for

at the turn of the new year 2006, Skopelitis had made only a few substitute appearances, failing to impress, and returned to Egaleo.

Greece and Cyprus

Skopelitis has played for

Egaleo F.C. Egaleo Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Αιγάλεω 1931) is a Greek professional football club based in Egaleo, a suburb of Athens, Greece. Founded in 1946, it uses all documents of previous club (Ierapolis F.C., founded in 1931). The team curren ...

and Atromitos F.C. in the

Greek Super League 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 ...

. Skopelitis joined

Anorthosis Famagusta FC Anorthosis Famagusta ( el, Ανόρθωση Αμμοχώστου, translit=Anorthosi Ammochostou), commonly known as Anorthosis in English or Anorthosi in Greek, is a Cypriot football club, part of the Anorthosis Famagusta multi-sport club fo ...

in the 2007-08 season. He left the Cypriot club due to personal problems and transferred for a year to Atromitos F.C. . In the 2008-09 season Skopelitis transferred back to Anorthosis, and in the same year played with them in 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 ...

group stage, and was made captain. On 3 July 2013, Skopelitis and

Anorthosis Anorthosis Famagusta ( el, Ανόρθωση Αμμοχώστου, translit=Anorthosi Ammochostou), commonly known as Anorthosis in English or Anorthosi in Greek, is a Cypriot football club, part of the Anorthosis Famagusta multi-sport club fo ...

decided (for the 3rd time) for a mutual contract termination . On 6 July, Skopelitis returned to Larnaca, signing a one-year contract.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Skopelitis, Giannis 1978 births Living people Greek expatriate footballers Premier League players Portsmouth F.C. players Anorthosis Famagusta F.C. players Egaleo F.C. players Atromitos F.C. players AEK Larnaca FC players Nea Salamis Famagusta FC players Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Expatriate footballers in England Super League Greece players Cypriot First Division players Association football midfielders Footballers from Athens Greek footballers