Dimitrios Papadopoulos (; 1 March 1950 – 31 January 2020) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

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 lea ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

Club career

At the age of 10, Papadopoulos joined the infrastructure departments of

Ergotelis Ergotelis Football Club () is a Greek professional Association football, football club based in Heraklion, Crete, which competes in the Heraklion Football Clubs Association, FCA Heraklion A1, the fourth tier of the Greek football league system, ...

and after 4 years he joined the first team of the club that was then competing in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

. Left-footed, with a tremendous sense of goal, he soon emerged as the team's top striker. In 1967 he was transferred to OFI together with 5 other teammates from Ergotelis. These transfers were made in an almost "coup d'état" way, obeying the will of the dictatorial regime to create a strong and competitive team on the island. With the presence of Papadopoulos, OFI was promoted to the

first division 1st Division or First Division may refer to: Military Airborne divisions *1st Parachute Division (Germany) *1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom) * 1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine) * 1st Guards Airborne Division Armoured divisions *1st Armoure ...

for the first time in 1968. The team was then relegated to the second division and in the 1976 season, it was again promoted to the first division with Papadopoulos as the top scorer with 23 goals. In the first season in the first division he emerged as the second scorer with 20 goals, 2 behind

Thanasis Intzoglou Thanasis Intzoglou (22 August 1945 – 25 July 2020) was a Greek footballer who played as a forward. Club career Intzoglou played at the youth level with Chalkidona. In 1962, he played in the Alpha Ethniki with Panionios, and was the league's to ...

. In the summer of 1980,

Loukas Barlos Loukas Barlos (; 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 place of origin was Distomo in B ...

, taking advantage of the fact that Papadopoulos was released from OFI, brought him to

AEK Athens A.E.K. (; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople'') is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica. The club is more commonly known in European competitions as A.E.K. Athens. Establishe ...

as his personal choice. Papadopoulos immediately agreed seeing on the AEK jersey the representation of Refugee Hellenism honoring his

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

parents and their expulsion from their ancestral land in 1922. Claiming a place in the then attack of AEK with

Mavros Mavros (, "black"), is an uninhabited Greek islet, in the Aegean Sea, close to the eastern coast of Crete. Administratively it lies within the Itanos municipality of Lasithi. See also *List of islands of Greece Greece has many islands, ...

, Bajević was equivalent to a feat and so the already 31-year-old Papadopoulos was satisfied with just 9 appearances with the "yellow-black" shirt without managing to score a goal. In 1981 season he asked to be released and return to

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

. Returning to Crete, he faced the cold attitude of the managers of the region who remained bitter about his move to AEK. Thus, he ended up in Irodotos, the team of the refugee

Nea Alikarnassos Nea Alikarnassos (, meaning New Halicarnassus) is a town and a former municipality in the Heraklion regional unit, Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Heraklion, of which it is a municipal unit. The ...

with whom he played for two seasons in the second national team, scoring 30 goals. In 1983 he retired as a footballer and engaged in coaching.

International career

In 1977 Papadopoulos was called by

Alketas Panagoulias Alketas 'Alkis' Panagoulias (; 30 May 1934 – 18 June 2012) was a Greek association football player and manager. He managed the national teams of both Greece and the United States. He also managed several clubs, including Aris, his birthplace ...

to play for

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. He played in a match against

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

for the

Balkan Cup The Balkan Cup (officially ''Coupe Balkanique de Football'') was an international association football competition contested on and off from 1929 to 1980 by countries from the Balkans region. The most successful team was Romania with four titles. ...

and this was his first and last participation with the national team.

Managerial career

He was a coach at Ergotelis and later worked with the academies of both OFI and Ergotelis until 2006 when he created his own football academies in

Heraklion Heraklion or Herakleion ( ; , , ), sometimes Iraklion, is the largest city and the administrative capital city, capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion (regional unit), Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in G ...

Personal life

Papadopoulos while still a footballer he worked at OTE and his wife's work at the "Olympic" of Heraklion, where they lived with their two children. Papadopoulos was struck by the terminal illness and although he underwent head surgery in October 2019, he was passed away on January 31, 2020 at the hospital where he was being treated.

Honours

OFI *

Beta Ethniki The Football League () was the second highest professional football league in Greece since its inception in 1962 as ''Beta Ethniki'' and until 2019. It then served as a third tier after the creation of the Super League 2 as the new second tier ...

: 1975–76 (South Group) Individual *Beta Ethniki top scorer: 1975–76 (South Group)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Papadopoulos, Dimitrios 1950 births 2020 deaths Super League Greece players Ergotelis F.C. players OFI Crete F.C. players AEK Athens F.C. players Men's association football forwards Footballers from Heraklion Greek men's footballers Greece men's international footballers 20th-century Greek sportsmen