Kyriakos "Koulis" Apostolidis (

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 ...

: Κυριάκος "Κούλης" Αποστολίδης; born 3 March 1946) is a Greek former

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 ...

. He began his career in the North American Soccer League and finished it with PAOK Thessaloniki in Greece. Apostolidis lead the NASL in goals in 1971 and later earned six

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

with the

Greece national football team The Greece national football team ( el, Εθνική Ελλάδας, ) represents Greece in men's international football matches and is controlled by the Hellenic Football Federation, the governing body for football in Greece. Greece play most ...

. He has also coached in the Greek First Division, most recently with PAOK Thessaloniki FC.

Playing

Youth and college

Apostolidis joined PAOK in 1959 making his debut with the first team in 1963. In 1964, he left for studies in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Apostolidis attended

University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a private Jesuit university in San Francisco, California. The university's main campus is located on a setting between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. The main campus is nicknamed "The Hil ...

where he played on men's soccer team under coach Stephen Negoesco from 1964 to 1967 and The Greek Americans A.C. in the San Francisco amateur soccer league His senior year, he was selected as a first team All American.

Professional

In 1968, Apostolidis signed with the

Vancouver Royals The Vancouver Royals were a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1967 as the Vancouver Royal Canadians, they were a charter member of the United Soccer Association (USA), and when the USA an ...

of the North American Soccer League. The Royals folded at the end of the season and Apostolidis moved to the Dallas Tornado. In 1969, he played as a defender, earning first team All NASL recognition. In 1970, he moved to the front line. The move paid off immediately for the Tornado as Apostolidis led the league in scoring, tying with

Carlos Metidieri Jose Carlos Metidieri (born December 18, 1942, in Votorantim (SP), Brazil) is a retired Brazilian-born United States, American soccer Striker (association football), forward. He played professionally in Canada with Toronto Italia. In an exhibition ...

for the points lead. He was selected as a 1970 second team All NASL. In 1971, he won the title and finished fourth in the league in goals, but left the NASL at the end of the season to return to Greece. Apostolidis signed with PAOK Thessaloniki FC of the Greek First Division. In 1980, he returned to Canada to play in the National Soccer League with Toronto Panhellenic.

National team

Apostolidis earned six

with the

between 1972 and 1976. His first game on 16 February 1972 was a defeat to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, 5–0. His last on 6 May 1976 was a win over

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, 1–0. In the latter, he came on for Maik Galakos in the 63rd minute.Greek international results at RSSSF
/ref>

Honours

Club

;Dallas Tornado * North American Soccer League: 1971 ;PAOK * Greek League: 1975–76 *

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 ...

: 1971–72, 1973–74 ;Individual * NASL Top Scorer:

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

* NASL All-Star Second Team selection:

References

External links

NASL stats
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Apostolidis, Kirk Living people 1946 births Footballers from Thessaloniki Greek footballers Greek expatriate footballers Greece men's international footballers Super League Greece players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players PAOK FC players Dallas Tornado players San Francisco Dons men's soccer players University of San Francisco alumni Vancouver Royals players Men's association football forwards Expatriate soccer players in Canada Greek expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate soccer players in the United States Greek expatriate sportspeople in the United States Canadian National Soccer League players