Nikos Christidis (

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 ...

: Νίκος Χρηστίδης; born 18 September 1944) is a

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

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

Club career

Christidis started his football career in the youth divisions of

Aris Aris or ARIS may refer to: People * Aris (surname) Given name * Aris Alexandrou, Greek writer * Aris Brimanis, ice hockey player * Aris Christofellis, Greek male soprano * Aris Gavelas, Greek sprinter * Aris Howard, Former President of the Jama ...

. In 1961 he was promoted to the first team where he 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 1970. He was for years the club's main goalkeeper, until 1974 when he was accused of bribery in a match against

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number ...

by Aris president, Kampanis. As a result he was released from the club and he was punished with a three-year suspension from all sporting activities by the General Secretariat of Sports and was banned from Aris for life, however many years later he was vindicated. In the summer of 1974, he played in the National Soccer League with Toronto Homer. In 1976,

Loukas Barlos Loukas Barlos ( el, Λουκάς Μπάρλος; 1920 – 20 October 1999) was a Greek businessman who served as the twenty third president of AEK Athens F.C. from 1974 until 1981. Early life Barlos was born and raised in Thessaloniki, but his p ...

decided to sign him to join

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 ...

. On March 16 of 1977, in a

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 ...

match against

QPR Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional association football, football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home ...

, while the game was at the extra time and was heading in a penalty shoot-out,

František Fadrhonc František Fadrhonc (18 December 1914 – 9 October 1981) was a Czech football manager, who was born in Nymburk, Austria-Hungary, present day Czech Republic. He coached many teams in Europe, mostly in the Netherlands. After winning the Dutch cham ...

decided to replace his main goalkeeper Lakis Stergioudas with Christidis. His 2 penalty saves sent AEK 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 tournament. He stayed at AEK, where he won the 1978 double, the 1979

championship 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 ...

and finished his career in 1982, when he was 38 years old.

International career

Christidis played for Greece U19 6 times. He was also the main goalkeeper of the squad that competed in the European Championship of 1963. Christidis made with

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 ...

26 appearances, between 1964 and 1978, four of which as a captain.

Managerial career

After Christidis ended his playing career and worked for many years as assistant coach and as the goalkeeping coach for AEK. He also worked as a first coach mainly in teams of smaller divisions. He assumed the position of coach initially as an interim on April 26, 1987 when a two-month exclusion sentence was imposed on Nikos Alefantos, who was the coach of AEK at that time. But when Alefantos was fired and Christidis took over until the end of the season. In 1996 he was in charge of infrastructure departments at AEK. In 1998 he worked as an assistant to Giannis Kollias in Greece U21 and in 2000 as an assistant to Vasilis Daniil in Greece, while in 2001 he was their first coach, in a friendly match against

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, before

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 technical leadership.

Honours

Aris *

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 ...

: 1969–1970 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 *Greek Cup: 1977–1978

References

External links

*
Footballbase profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christidis, Nikos 1944 births Living people Association football goalkeepers Greece national football team managers AEK Athens F.C. players Greek footballers Greece international footballers Aris Thessaloniki F.C. players Greek football managers Canadian National Soccer League players Footballers from Thessaloniki Association football coaches Association football goalkeeping coaches Greek expatriate footballers Greek expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate soccer players in Canada