Kyriakos Stamatopoulos (born 28 August 1979) is a

Greek Canadian Greek Canadians ( el, Ελληνοκαναδοί) are Canadian citizens who have full or partial Greek heritage or people who emigrated from Greece and reside in Canada. According to the 2021 Census, there were 262,140 Canadians who claimed Gre ...

former

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 ...

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

who is the head goalkeeper coach for

AIK AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...

. He is nicknamed "Stam" () and he is also often referred to as Kenny Stamatopoulos.

Early life

Stamatopoulos moved with his family from

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

when he was a small child. He started playing

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

at the age of 2 in Canada and only picked up football at the age of 13.

Club career

Sweden

Stamatopoulos' clubs were relegated every year he played with them in Sweden. First

Enköping Enköping is a locality and the seat of Enköping Municipality, Uppsala County, Sweden with 30,000 inhabitants in 2018. Geography Enköping is situated near Lake Mälaren, about 78 km west of Stockholm. A comparably large number of Swedi ...

twice in a row, then Boden while he was on loan there. His relegation-run did not end before he moved to Norway.

Tromsø

His career at

Tromsø Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Tromsø (city), city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies ...

got off to a rough start, after he was given a two-match suspension for his involvement in a group fight, which he described as "a little hockey brawl" that occurred during his debut match against

Molde Molde () is a town and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Romsdal. It is located on the Romsdal Peninsula, surrounding the Fannefjord and Moldefjord. The administrative centre of the m ...

. He became a fan favourite as a result of this incident.

On loan

Toronto FC

On 3 August 2007 it was announced that Canada's

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club (commonly known as Toronto FC or TFC) is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matches at BMO ...

manager

Mo Johnston Maurice John Giblin Johnston (born 13 April 1963) is a Scottish football player and coach. Johnston, who played as a forward, started his senior football career with Partick Thistle in 1981. He moved to Watford in 1983, where he scored 23 leag ...

had loaned Stamatopoulos in the middle of their "keeper crisis". He made his debut against

Los Angeles Galaxy LA Galaxy, also known as the Los Angeles Galaxy, are an American professional soccer club based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Galaxy competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), as a member of the Western Conference. The club began play ...

on 5 August.

Lyn

In April 2009, Stamatopoulos was loaned out from Tromsø to Lyn.

Fredrikstad

On 20 July 2009, it was announced that Stamatopoulos joined

Fredrikstad Fredrikstad (; previously ''Frederiksstad''; literally "Fredrik's Town") is a city and municipality in Viken county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Fredrikstad. The city of Fredrikstad was founded in 15 ...

on loan for the rest of the season. Stamatopoulos will join the club 1 August, and make his debut for Fredrikstad 2 August, at home against

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

AIK

Stamatopoulos signed a season-long loan deal with the reigning

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

champions on 6 March 2010. AIK's goalkeeper Nicklas Bergh became injured during the pre-season, leaving the team with only one goalkeeper. Stamatopoulos made his debut with the club in the quarterfinal of

Svenska Cupen Svenska Cupen (, ''The Swedish Cup'') is a knockout cup competition in Swedish football and the main Swedish football cup. Svenska Cupen usually refers to the men's tournament, although a women's tournament is also held. Each year 96 teams compe ...

in July 2010 against

Helsingborgs IF Helsingborgs IF (full name Helsingborgs Idrottsförening), commonly referred to as HIF (), is a Swedish professional football club located in Helsingborg. They play in the Swedish first tier, Allsvenskan, following promotion in the 2021 Superet ...

. He only let in one goal in the 1–1 draw, but AIK lost in the penalty shootout. He became first choice following the tragic death of

Ivan Turina Ivan Turina (3 October 1980 – 2 May 2013) was a Croatian footballer who played at both professional and international levels as a goalkeeper. Club career Turina started his professional career with his youth club Dinamo Zagreb in 1998. Before ...

in May 2013, but was subsequently the club's second-choice goalkeeper. On 22 November 2017 AIK announced they prolonged Stamatopoulos's contract until 31 December 2020. In addition, he was appointed as head goalkeeping coach for the club and would continue to be registered as a player in the squad.

Career statistics

International career

Stamatopoulos was a member of the under-23 national team in July 2001 at

Jeux de la Francophonie The Jeux de la Francophonie (Canadian English: ''Francophonie Games''; British English: ''Francophone Games'') are a combination of artistic and sporting events for the Francophonie, mostly French-speaking nations and former colonies of France, ...

. He made his senior debut for

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in a November 2001 friendly match against

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. - CanadaSoccer His last cap came in 2016. In total, he made 21 caps.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stamatopoulos, Kenny 1979 births Living people Soccer people from Ontario Canadian people of Greek descent Greek emigrants to Canada Naturalized citizens of Canada Association football goalkeepers Canadian soccer players Canada men's international soccer players 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Canadian expatriate soccer players Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Norway Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Greek footballers AIK Fotboll players Kalamata F.C. players Bodens BK players Tromsø IL players Toronto FC players Lyn Fotball players Fredrikstad FK players Eliteserien players Major League Soccer players Expatriate footballers in Sweden Expatriate footballers in Norway Allsvenskan players Canada men's under-23 international soccer players Allsvenskan managers Greek football managers