Andreas Vasilios "Akis" Zikos ( gr, Ανδρέας Βασίλειος "Άκης" Ζήκος; born 1 June 1974) 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 a

defensive 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 boundari ...

. He was a strong and industrious player, known for his tackling and positioning skills. At international level, he represented the Greece national team making 18 appearances between 1996 and 2001. He currently works as an academy manager for A.O. Glyfada.

Club career

Skoda Xanthi

Zikos started his professional career in 1993 with Skoda Xanthi for whom he spent 4 seasons 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 ...

AEK Athens

In the summer of 1998 Zikos 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 ...

for a fee of 130 millon drachmas. He immediately established himself as the team's main defensive midfielder and it didn't take him long to impress with his performances. He was a key player with all the coaches who passed through the team's bench, while he gradually played more and more in the national team. With the transfer of

Thodoris Zagorakis Theodoros Zagorakis ( el, Θεόδωρος Ζαγοράκης ; born 27 October 1971) is a Greek politician and former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He was the captain of Greece that won UEFA Euro 2004, and was also presid ...

to the club in 2000, they formed an amazing partnership in the midfield of the team for two years. Zikos won the

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 ...

in two occasions, 2000 and 2002. In the summer of 2002, not having the best relations with the then administrative leader of the team, Psomiadis, he decided to leave, taking the big step abroad at the same time.

Monaco

In the summer of 2002 he was signed by

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

where he played for four seasons in Ligue 1. He also proved his talent with the club on the European stage. In 2003, he won the Coupe de la Ligue and in 2004, under

Didier Deschamps Didier Claude Deschamps (; born 15 October 1968) is a French professional football manager and former player who has been manager of the France national team since 2012. He played as a defensive midfielder for several clubs, in France, Italy, ...

they made it to 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 ...

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

where they lost to José Mourinho's

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

Arena AufSchalke Arena AufSchalke (), currently known as Veltins-Arena () for sponsorship reasons, is an indoor football stadium in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It opened on 13 August 2001, as the new home ground for Bundesliga club FC S ...

, Gelsenkirchen. Despite their heavy loss (3–0 for FC Porto), Zikos was recognized one of the best players on the pitch that day. His appearance in the final made Zikos the first Greek to play in a UEFA Champions League final.

Return to AEK

In 2006, after 4 full successful years in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, Zikos decided to return to his home country to play for his favorite team, AEK Athens. Zikos, in an injury plagued year for AEK Athens, helped the team to finish in second place and achieve a Champions League 3rd qualification round berth. He retired from football on 20 April 2008 on the final game of the regular season.

International career

He won 18 caps 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 ...

, but fell out of favor when coach

Otto Rehhagel Otto Rehhagel (; born 9 August 1938) is a German former football coach and player. Rehhagel is one of only two people who, as player and manager combined, has participated in over 1,000 Bundesliga matches (the other being Jupp Heynckes). In t ...

took over the team. After helping Monaco to the 2004 UEFA Champions League Final, he was considered for selection in Greece's victorious

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

squad, however he was ultimately overlooked.

Honours

AEK Athens *

: 1999–2000, 2001–02 Monaco * French League Cup: 2003 *

: Runner-up 2003–04

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zikos, Akis Living people 1974 births Footballers from Athens Greek footballers Association football midfielders Greece international footballers Greek expatriate footballers Greek expatriate sportspeople in France Greek expatriate sportspeople in Monaco Ligue 1 players Super League Greece players AEK Athens F.C. players AS Monaco FC players Xanthi F.C. players Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Monaco AEK F.C. non-playing staff