Vassilis Karapialis

Vassilis Karapialis ( el, Βασίλης Καραπιάλης; born 13 June 1965) is a Greek retired footballer who played as an attacking midfielder for Larissa, Olympiacos Piraeus and the Greece national football team. He is considered as one of the best Greek midfielders of the 1990s.

Youth years at Toxotis

Born in Ambelokipoi, Larissa Karapialis
started off with street football and in 1979, aged 14, he joined Toxotis Larissa youth team where Giorgos Agorogiannis, later Karapialis's teammate at AEL, was also playing. After a year, in 1980, thanks to his notable skills, he moved to Toxotis first team. He made some exceptional appearances with Toxotis at Larissa Prefecture Amateur League and many Top League's clubs got interested for him. In 1984, OFI was paying Toxotis 2,1 million Greek Drahmas (almost 6,200 Euro's) for him, but Karapialis did not want to leave his hometown and refused the transfer. His greatest dream was to play for Larissa's "queen", AEL.
After an outstanding 1984–1985 season with Toxotis, when he scored 30 goals playing as a midfielder, the time had come for the dream to become true.

AEL wonder

When Karapialis was transferred to AEL for 1 million Greek Drahmas in 1985, just after AEL had won the very first Greek Football Cup in the club's history, he became very popular among the fans. Soon he had his own fan club watching him playing every single week, holding a "''Karapialis, You Are Magic''" banner. For the first two seasons, Karapialis was used mainly as a substitute. When he managed to become a basic player in 1987–1988 season, the club won its only Greek Football Championship in the club's history, with Karapialis being the MVP of the season, and that league title remains until today (6 June 2021) the only top league title won by a club that is not based in one of the two biggest cities of the country, Athens and Thessaloniki. The next seasons were bad for club, as the club faced serious bankruptcy problems. Three seasons after the Championship, Karapialis left his favourite AEL for Olympiacos.

The favourite "Billy" of Olympiacos

In 1991's summer, Karapialis signed for Olympiacos. He made his debut against AEK Athens, when Olympiacos won 4–2, thanks to a hat-trick by Oleg Protasov. He quickly became the leader of the ''Red-Whites'', thanks to his aggression and agility. He won only one Greek Football Cup in his first five seasons with Olympiacos, but the next four were outstanding: four out of four Greek Football Championships, one Greek Football Cup and a Greek Super Cup.

International career

Karapialis appeared in 21 matches for the senior Greece national football team from 1988 to 1994 and scored 2 goals.

He was not included on the 1994 FIFA World Cup Greece team. In response, he announced his retirement from the National team.

International

:''Scores and results list Greece's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Karapialis goal''.

Retirement and honorary vote

In May 2000, Karapialis announced his retirement from professional football. The same year, he was voted as the third-best Greek professional footballer (after 1979, when football became professional in Greece), after Vassilis Hatzipanagis and Dimitris Saravakos.
He is considered to be the best Greek ''number 10 shirt'' in history of Olympiacos along with Georgios Delikaris.

During his retirement as a footballer, he would work for Olympiacos, either as a scout or as a manager to the club's youth teams. He would become the owner of his football academy center in Chalandri, Athens.

On 5 June 2021, the Greek media announced his official return to AEL to be in charge of all its youth teams.

Honours

AEL
* Greek Championship (1): 1987–88

Olympiacos
* Greek Championship (4): 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–00
* Greek Cup:
** Winner (2): 1991–92, 1998–99
** Runner-up (1): 1992–93
* Greek Super Cup (1): 1992

References

External links

similar to Pelé's style goal (video)
(in Greek)
bio article in newsbeast.gr
(in Greek)

(in Greek)

(in Greek)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karapialis
1965 births
Living people
Footballers from Larissa
Greek footballers
Greece international footballers
Super League Greece players
Olympiacos F.C. players
Athlitiki Enosi Larissa F.C. players
Association football midfielders
Greek beach soccer players