Manolis Papadopoulos ( el, Μανώλης Παπαδόπουλος; born 22 April 1968) 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 ...

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 a defender and a manager.

Club career

Papadopoulos started his career in 1988 at Ionikos, where 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 Greece, Greek multi-sport club based in Nea ...

, in the summer of 1992, while before that he had also been from Olympiakos. He used in AEK most of the time as a substitute also having a few appearances as a starter, especially when

Dušan Bajević Dušan "Duško" Bajević ( sr-Cyrl, Душан Бајевић, ; gr, Ντούσαν Μπάγεβιτς, ''Doúsan Báyevits''; born 10 December 1948) is a Bosnian professional Manager (association football), football manager and former player. H ...

used formation with 3 stoppers. In the matches against

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

for 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 competit ...

qualifiers in the summer of 1994, when he was assigned to mark

Mark Hateley Mark Wayne Hateley (born 7 November 1961) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He started his career with Coventry City F.C. in the First Division of English football. A spell followed at English Second Divisi ...

, managing to contain him. During his spell with the "double-headed eagle" Papadopoulos won 2 consecutive

championships In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

. In the summer of 1995 he moved to

Apollon Athens Apollon Smyrnis Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Απόλλων Σμύρνης), or in its full name Gymnasticos Syllogos Apollon Smyrnis ( el, links=no, Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Απόλλων Σμύρνης, ''Gymnastics Club Apollon o ...

for two season and then to

Ethnikos Piraeus Ethnikos Piraeus (Greek: Εθνικός Πειραιώς) is a Greek multisport club based in Piraeus. It was founded in 1923. The full name of the club is Ethnikos Omilos Filathlon Pireos/Phalirou or Ethnikos OFPF (Greek: Εθνικός Όμιλ ...

for another two. In 1999 he signed for

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 ...

, for a while and then moved to

Kozani Kozani ( el, Κοζάνη, ) is a city in northern Greece, capital of Kozani (regional unit), Kozani regional unit and of Western Macedonia. It is located in the western part of Macedonia (Greece), Macedonia, in the northern part of the Aliakmona ...

. where he played until 2001. The following season he moved to

Chaidari HaidariFor the spelling, see thmunicipal website ( el, Χαϊδάρι, ''Khaidari'') is a suburb in the western part of the Athens agglomeration, west of central Athens. Geography The municipality has an area of 22.655 km2. The geography of ...

, where he played for one season before ending his career as a footballer.

International career

Papadopoulos played once for

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 ...

in 1992.

Managerial career

Papadopoulos started his coaching career in 2002, during which he sat on the benches of various teams, such as

Kerkyra Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...

Pamisos Messini The Pamissos Messini Gymnastic Football Club ( el, Gymnastikos Podosfairikos Syllogos Pamisos Messini, script=Latn) is a football (soccer) club in Messini, Greece currently competing in Gamma Ethniki. History The club was founded in 1929 in Mess ...

, AE Giannena and

Lamia LaMia Corporation S.R.L., operating as LaMia (short for ''Línea Aérea Mérida Internacional de Aviación''), was a Bolivian charter airline headquartered in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, as an EcoJet subsidiary. It had its origins from the failed ...

. In the summer of 2011, he was hired as the coach of the

youth team In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if t ...

of AEK Athens, while at the beginning of the following season he assumed the role of assistant to the coach of the first team,

Vangelis Vlachos Vangelis Vlachos ( gr, Βαγγέλης Βλάχος; born 6 January 1962) is a Greek former international footballer who played as a midfielder. He is the manager of AE Mykonos Club career Vlachos started his career from the academies of AEK A ...

. The club were going through the worst season in their history after Vlachos was sacked he was the first coach for a match at home against Kerkyra, which ended 1–1. Afterwards,

Ewald Lienen Ewald Lienen (born 28 November 1953) is a German football manager and former player. He is the current technical director of FC St. Pauli. Playing career Lienen began his professional career at Arminia Bielefeld of the 2. Bundesliga North in 19 ...

was hired and Papadopoulos continued to his duties as an assistant coach with the German technician until the end of the season. After AEK, he sat on the bench of

Proodeftiki Proodeftiki Football Club, also known as Proodeftiki Piraeus, simply as Proodeftiki, or with its full name as A.O. Proodeftiki Neolea ( el, Αθλητικός Όμιλος Προοδευτική Νεολαία, transliterated "Athlitikós Όmilo ...

for a few days and then at

Egaleo Aigaleo or Egaleo ( el, Αιγάλεω ) is a suburban municipality in the western part of Athens, belonging to the West Athens regional administrative unit. It takes its name from Mount Aigaleo. Its population was 69,946 at the 2011 census. Ge ...

, while in 2015 was at APO Kanaris Nenita for a season.

Personal life

Papadopoulos has a strong participation in the association of veteran football players of AEK to this day.

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 ...

: 1992–93, 1993–94

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Papadopoulos, Manolis 1968 births Living people Greek men's footballers Olympiacos F.C. players Ionikos F.C. players AEK Athens F.C. players Apollon Smyrnis F.C. players Ethnikos Piraeus F.C. players PAS Giannina F.C. players Kozani F.C. players Haidari F.C. players Greece men's international footballers Men's association football defenders Super League Greece players Greek football managers A.O. Kerkyra managers PAS Lamia 1964 managers AEK Athens F.C. non-playing staff Proodeftiki F.C. managers Egaleo F.C. managers Footballers from Livadeia