Stelios Manolas ( el, Στέλιος Μανωλάς, born 13 July 1961) 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 international football player who played as a

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

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 Filadelf ...

and a manager. Arguably the best Greek defender of his era, being one of the few Greek footballers to have played his entire professional career for a single club. In 2021,

IFFHS The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in Leipzig. The IFFHS was based in Abu Dhabi for s ...

chose him in the best XI of all time of Greek football.

Club career

Manolas started football from a young age, playing on the streets and vacant lots in and around the

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...

suburb of Galatsi, where he lived during his childhood. In his early teens he, alongside his friend

Kostas Antoniou Kostas Antoniou ( el, Κώστας Αντωνίου; born 19 April 1962) is a former Greek international footballer, playing as a midfielder. Career Born in Athens, Antoniou started his career at Panathinaikos during the late 1970s. He was rec ...

, played for the small amateur club, Aetos Galatsi, where he was discovered by scouts and brought to the attention of AEK Athens. At the age of 15, he was playing for the AEK Youth teams. Over time, he was noticed for his technical skill, intelligence and tactical mind. In January 1980, he signed his first professional contract with the club. As a young player, his solid technical training, dynamism and perception and a fighting spirit, were shown in his efforts on the pitch for team defense and attack. He was a mastermind of the defense, influenced his teammates and boosted their confidence. He was a center back, although he was started his career as a right back, a position assigned to him by

Miltos Papapostolou Miltiadis "Miltos" Papapostolou ( el, Μιλτιάδης "Μίλτος" Παπαποστόλου, 9 September 1935 – 2 February 2017) was a Greek professional footballer and manager. Club career Papapostolou started his career at Omvros Omvri ...

. He made his debut appearance in a 1–1 draw against

Kastoria Kastoria ( el, Καστοριά, ''Kastoriá'' ) is a city in northern Greece in the modern regions of Greece, region of Western Macedonia. It is the capital of Kastoria (regional unit), Kastoria regional unit, in the Geographic regions of Gree ...

in 3 February 1980 and became a regular in AEK Athens' defense until his retirement. Almost throughout his career he was one of the best players and one of the natural leaders of AEK. He gave his best in winning many titles, while alongside Toni Savevski, the main players that were based in the 90's. A top moment in his career, among others, was when he head blocked a shot by Lajos Détári in front of AEK's goal line in the crucial game against Olympiacos at the

Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games. An Olympic stadium is the site of the opening and closing ceremonies. Many, though not all, of these venues actually contain the words ''Olympic Stadium'' as ...

, that brought to AEK the 1989 league title. Manolas had been targeted by

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 metropo ...

and

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign ''Sovereign'' is a title which can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word ...

, but as he stated, he would never leave AEK Athens, as he wanted to retire there. He played at AEK for 19 straight years, where he became their captain. In the summer of 1997 stopped for several months dissatisfied with the president, Michalis Trochanas, bur he later returned, with ENIC as the major shareholder, to end his career at the end of the season. His last match was against Skoda Xanthi which earned him his 700th appearance. Stelios Manolas ended his career having 447 appearances in the league, second only to Mimis Papaioannou and 12th in the history of the respective division, achieving a total of 34 goals. With AEK, he won the league 4 times, the

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, c ...

3 times, the

Super Cup A super cup is a competition, usually but not exclusively in association football, which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competitions during the prev ...

2 times and the only

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

title ever played in 1990.

International career

Manolas played 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 wit ...

in 71 matches from 1982 to 1994 and scored 6 goals. He was a member of the squad that played in the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football, soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the countr ...

, in the USA.

Managerial career

After his retirement, Manolas became a certified coach in 2002 and worked for

Greece U21 The Greece national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of Greece and is controlled by the Hellenic Football Federation, the governing body for football in Greece. The team competes in the European Under-21 Football C ...

until 2004. In 2008 he held the post of technical director in AEK, where he resigned in 2009. In November 2012 he became the manager of

Niki Volos Niki Volou Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Νίκη Βόλου) is a Greek professional football club based in the city of Volos, in the region of Magnesia, Greece. The club currently competes in the Super League 2, the second tier of Greek football ...

where he stayed for three months. In the summer of 2014 he returned to AEK, as the coach of AEK Athens U20. In 2015, he was called from AEK as an interim coach to replace Traianos Dellas in the men's team, and was then called again at the same position to replace Gus Poyet. During his second managerial period, he won the Cup in 2016.

Personal life

Manolas is the uncle of former AEK Athens and Olympiacos international defender, Kostas. His son, Konstantinos, was also a footballer who played for AEK.

Career statistics

Club

{, class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" , - !colspan=3, Club performance !colspan=2, League !colspan=2,

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 i ...

!colspan=2,

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

!colspan=2, Total , - !Season!!Club!!League !Apps!!Goals !Apps!!Goals !Apps!!Goals !Apps!!Goals , - , 1979–80 , rowspan=19,

, rowspan=19,

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 ...

, 3, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 3, , 0 , - , 1980–81 , 23, , 1, , 5, , 0, , 4, , 0, , 32, , 1 , - , 1981–82 , 32, , 0, , 2, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 34, , 0 , - , 1982–83 , 29, , 1, , 8, , 0, , 1, , 0, , 38, , 1 , - , 1983–84 , 27, , 1, , 5, , 0, , 2, , 0, , 34, , 1 , - , 1984–85 , 25, , 0, , 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 26, , 0 , - , 1985–86 , 20, , 3, , 7, , 1, , 2, , 0, , 29, , 4 , - , 1986–87 , 20, , 1, , 1, , 0, , 2, , 0, , 23, , 1 , - , 1987–88 , 21, , 4, , 4, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 25, , 4 , - , 1988–89 , 24, , 4, , 4, , 1, , 2, , 0, , 30, , 5 , - , 1989–90 , 33, , 3, , 4, , 0, , 4, , 1, , 41, , 4 , - , 1990–91 , 24, , 4, , 3, , 1, , 0, , 0, , 27, , 5 , - , 1991–92 , 31, , 4, , 12, , 3, , 4, , 0, , 47, , 7 , - ,

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since th ...

, 30, , 1, , 7, , 0, , 3, , 0, , 40, , 1 , - , 1993–94 , 24, , 2, , 8, , 1, , 1, , 0, , 33, , 3 , - , 1994–95 , 23, , 1, , 10, , 2, , 6, , 0, , 39, , 3 , - , 1995–96 , 22, , 3, , 9, , 0, , 3, , 0, , 34, , 3 , - , 1996–97 , 23, , 2, , 6, , 2, , 6, , 0, , 35, , 4 , - , 1997–98 , 13, , 0, , 2, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 15, , 0 , - ! colspan=3, Career total !447, , 35, , 98, , 11, , 40, , 1, , 585, , 47

International

{, class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" , - ! National team!!Season!!Apps!!Goals , - , rowspan=13 valign="center", , 1982, , 1, , 0 , - , 1983, , 1, , 0 , - , 1984, , 7, , 1 , - , 1985, , 5, , 0 , - , 1986, , 8, , 0 , - , 1987, , 7, , 0 , - , 1988, , 6, , 2 , - , 1989, , 7, , 0 , - , 1990, , 8, , 2 , - , 1991, , 4, , 1 , - , 1992, , 5, , 0 , - , 1993, , 6, , 0 , - , 1994, , 6, , 0 , - ! colspan=2, Total!!71!!6

Honours

As a player

;AEK Athens *

: 1988–89, 1991–92,

, 1993–94 *

: 1982–83, 1995–96, 1996–97 *

Greek Super Cup The Greek Super Cup ( el, Σούπερ Καπ Ελλάδος), officially known as the Cup of Friendship and Solidarity ( el, Κύπελλο Φιλίας και Αλληλεγγύης) was a Greek association football one-match competition which w ...

: 1989, 1996 *

Greek League Cup The EPAE Cup, known as the Greek League Cup, a now defunct football competition, took place only once, in the year 1989–90 season. AEK Athens is the only winner of the League Cup, beating Panionios (3–3 and 3–1 on penalties), Aris (5–2), ...

: 1990

As a manager

;AEK Athens *Greek Cup: 2015–16

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Manolas, Stelios 1961 births Living people Greek footballers Greece international footballers AEK Athens F.C. players Super League Greece players Greek football managers 1994 FIFA World Cup players People from Naxos Niki Volos F.C. managers AEK F.C. non-playing staff Association football central defenders Greek beach soccer players Sportspeople from the South Aegean