Lazaros Papadopoulos ( el, Λάζαρος Παπαδόπουλος; born 16 August 1950) is 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 ...

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

right 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 manager.

Club career

Papadopoulos started his career at the club of his hometown,

Veria Veria ( el, Βέροια or Βέρροια), officially transliterated Veroia, historically also spelled Berea or Berœa, is a city in Central Macedonia, in the geographic region of Macedonia, northern Greece, capital of the regional unit of ...

. He was transferred to

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 Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadel ...

, in the summer of 1974. At the time, the presence of many notable footballers in the team's roster did not leave much room for his establishment in the basic squad. However, Papadopoulos manage to help the club in contributing to the club to their glorious days both domestically and internationally. On 1 October 1975 he scored his first goal in the

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

competitions in the 3–1 home win against

Vojvodina Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Војводина}), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia. It lies within the Pannonian Basin, bordered to the south by the national capital ...

for 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 ...

. He was a part of the squad that reached to the

semi-finals A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

of the

in the 1977. In fact he scored the only goal of his team in the first leg of the semi-finals against Juventus in the 4–1 defeat at Stadio Comunale on 6 April 1977. His last goal for AEK was on 21 February 1979, in the 4–0 victory over Acharnaikos for the round of 16 of the Cup. With the yellow-black jersey, he won 2 consecutive Championships, 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 ...

including a domestic double in 1978. Papadopoulos left AEK at the age of 29, in the summer of 1979 to continue his career at Rodos where he played for a season. Afterwards, he competed in teams of smaller categories, before he retired as a footballer.

Managerial career

Papadopoulos after the end of his career as a football player, he followed a career as a coach, but without special distinctions. In 2008 he worked at the bench of Veria as a caretaker manager after the resignation of Vasilios Papachristou. In 2012, he had been the coach of the women's football second division side, Agrotikos Asteras Agia Varvara.

Honours

AEK Athens *

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 ...

: 1977–78, 1978–79 *

: 1977–78

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Papadopoulos, Lazaros 1950 births Living people Greek men's footballers Super League Greece players Veria F.C. players AEK Athens F.C. players A.E. Rodos players Men's association football midfielders Greek football managers Veria F.C. managers Footballers from Veria