Avraam Papadopoulos
Encyclopedia
Avraam Papadopoulos (born 3 December 1984) is a Greek
footballer, currently playing for Olympiacos F.C. and the Greek national football team as a central defender.
back in 2003 after stepping up from the Aris Youth with another promising attacking youngster- his mate Ethimios Pantelidis. Before, had been with Digenis Lakkomatos Chalkidiki youth.
At the beginning of his career, around the age of 17 (even before- including his youth days) he started as an attacking midfielder. Especially in the period between 2003 (obviously not too much time after Papadopoulos' promotion into the first team) and the summer 2006, Aris lived some darker days of their history in Greek football also tangled with some sorts of more-less defensive philosophy of football, financial problems in the club, Papadopoulos experienced some gradual "demotions" into the more defensive positions by his coaches. Firstly back into defensive midfield, then also right back and finally central defense where he generally plays even nowadays (his CD position has been granted after the summer 2006 roster rebuilding).
He is quite tall, with very tough body constitution, but not slow for his physical appearance, with pretty good awareness and tackling, sometimes reckless which leads him to getting yellow cards, but also this can be partially explained by more attacking football of the post-2006 Aris
that can expose a defender like Papadopoulos to the situations of must-break the opponents' (counter) attacks. The scorer of several (significant) goals through his career generally by his strong headers and penalties.
The best example is his only goal/header in the final qualifiers with Zaragoza
for the UEFA Cup
group stage at the Kleanthis Vikelidis
stadium, which, at the end of the day, turned out to be the crucial and historic goal after Aris' loss 2–1 in Spain that ensured Aris
the progression to the group stage. Yet he has been sent up in front, whenever Aris needed an extra striker in the dying minutes of (several) matches.
As an "Aris kid" playing for his beloved club, but also with the fact that he experienced dark days as well as lighter, he was one of the fans' favourites logically, also one of the "last Mohicans" in the club ("Mohicans"- figuratively related to the players as Giorgios Koltsidas
, Kostas Nebegleras
, Papadopoulos, Georgios Gougoulias
, Ronald Nacho Garcia, Efthimios Kouloucheris
, Kristi Vangjeli
, Petros Passalis
, Spyros Gogolos
, that were with this team in the second division
, season 2005/06, as well as the season's after that, when the club experienced its promotion and then a total rebirth in the first division with good football and higher standing positions). Aris' number 4 was also known for his passion. For many years' transfer windows he used to be linked to Athenian giants (especially Olympiacos
) by media/usually the sports news-papers, but yet had never changed his club, by then. Also as stories were circulating during the season (2006/07), he had been watched closely by some bigger clubs' scouts like Benfica or Chelsea
, and Zenit
of Russia
as well.
Lastly, his number of caps for his ex-club Aris overflowed the margin of 100 (106 caps, scoring 6 goals). In last season (or 2) of his residence in Thessaloniki
before moving in to Piraeus
, he was considered as one of the Aris (2007/08) top stars along with Sergio Koke, Ronald Nacho Garcia and experienced ex-super star and big Aris flop Marcio Amoroso
and a couple of others.
After the end of the 2007–08 season, on triple occasion he refused to renew his contract up to 2013 (2 million euros in 5 years) although he had previously expressed affirmatively. That act which took its culmination right after he accepted to join Olympiacos F.C., caused many Aris
fans to rage at him pronouncing the same as a traitor to them.
, He was called to the Greek national football team for the first time on 1 February 2008 and made his debut in the win over the Czech Republic
on 5 February.
In 2010, Papadopoulos played for Greece at the 2010 World Cup.
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
footballer, currently playing for Olympiacos F.C. and the Greek national football team as a central defender.
Aris Thessaloniki
Papadopoulos started his professional career with ArisAris Thessaloniki F.C.
Aris Football Club , also known as God of war and the Yellows, is a Greek football club based in the city of Thessaloniki, Macedonia. Formed in 1914, the club was a founding member of Macedonian Football Clubs Association as well as the Hellenic Football Federation, they currently compete in...
back in 2003 after stepping up from the Aris Youth with another promising attacking youngster- his mate Ethimios Pantelidis. Before, had been with Digenis Lakkomatos Chalkidiki youth.
At the beginning of his career, around the age of 17 (even before- including his youth days) he started as an attacking midfielder. Especially in the period between 2003 (obviously not too much time after Papadopoulos' promotion into the first team) and the summer 2006, Aris lived some darker days of their history in Greek football also tangled with some sorts of more-less defensive philosophy of football, financial problems in the club, Papadopoulos experienced some gradual "demotions" into the more defensive positions by his coaches. Firstly back into defensive midfield, then also right back and finally central defense where he generally plays even nowadays (his CD position has been granted after the summer 2006 roster rebuilding).
He is quite tall, with very tough body constitution, but not slow for his physical appearance, with pretty good awareness and tackling, sometimes reckless which leads him to getting yellow cards, but also this can be partially explained by more attacking football of the post-2006 Aris
Aris Thessaloniki F.C.
Aris Football Club , also known as God of war and the Yellows, is a Greek football club based in the city of Thessaloniki, Macedonia. Formed in 1914, the club was a founding member of Macedonian Football Clubs Association as well as the Hellenic Football Federation, they currently compete in...
that can expose a defender like Papadopoulos to the situations of must-break the opponents' (counter) attacks. The scorer of several (significant) goals through his career generally by his strong headers and penalties.
The best example is his only goal/header in the final qualifiers with Zaragoza
Real Zaragoza
Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. is a Spanish association football team from Zaragoza in Spain. Founded on 18 March 1932, Real Zaragoza have spent the majority of their 78 year history in the Spanish top-flight. Real Zaragoza are Spain's 9th highest ranked team in overall league points...
for the UEFA Cup
UEFA Cup
The UEFA Europa League is an annual association football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1971 for eligible European football clubs. It is the second most prestigious European club football contest after the UEFA Champions League...
group stage at the Kleanthis Vikelidis
Kleanthis Vikelidis
Kleanthis Vikelides was a star footballer for Aris Thessaloniki in the 1930s and 1940s.Vikelides was born in 1916 in Thessaloniki and was the youngest of the three Vikelides brothers that played for Aris...
stadium, which, at the end of the day, turned out to be the crucial and historic goal after Aris' loss 2–1 in Spain that ensured Aris
Aris Thessaloniki F.C.
Aris Football Club , also known as God of war and the Yellows, is a Greek football club based in the city of Thessaloniki, Macedonia. Formed in 1914, the club was a founding member of Macedonian Football Clubs Association as well as the Hellenic Football Federation, they currently compete in...
the progression to the group stage. Yet he has been sent up in front, whenever Aris needed an extra striker in the dying minutes of (several) matches.
As an "Aris kid" playing for his beloved club, but also with the fact that he experienced dark days as well as lighter, he was one of the fans' favourites logically, also one of the "last Mohicans" in the club ("Mohicans"- figuratively related to the players as Giorgios Koltsidas
Georgios Koltsidas
Georgios Koltsidas was a famous football player, defender, who had played for Aris Thessaloniki. Considered as a tough defender he had been sent-off many times during his career. In spite of his harshness he was the backbone of Aris Thessaloniki having served his team for almost 15 years.He started...
, Kostas Nebegleras
Konstantinos Nebegleras
Konstantinos Nempegleras is a Greek central midfielder playing for Larissa.- Career :Having played in several teams as Larissa, Paniliakos, Iraklis and Aris Thessaloniki F.C., where he was team captain, Nebe was signed by Atromitos mid-season, in January 2009.Nebegleras competed for Greece at the...
, Papadopoulos, Georgios Gougoulias
Georgios Gougoulias
Georgios "George" Gougoulias is a Greek football striker playing for Pierikos F.C. in the Beta Ethniki. He was born and spent his childhood in Schweinfurt, Germany where he started playing football at its academy...
, Ronald Nacho Garcia, Efthimios Kouloucheris
Efthimios Kouloucheris
Efthimios Kouloucheris is a defender playing for Aris Thessaloniki. He started his career at Proodeftiki FC and later at Olympiakos. He was transferred to Aris Thessaloniki F.C. in January 2006.-References:...
, Kristi Vangjeli
Kristi Vangjeli
Kristi Vangjeli is an Albanian football defender, currently playing for FC Chornomorets Odessa in the Ukrainian Premier League and the Albanian national team. Prior to Chornomorets, Vangjeli played for Aris Thessaloniki FC in the Greek Super League...
, Petros Passalis
Petros Passalis
Petros Passalis is a former footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. He started his career at Edessaikos and transferred as a great talent at Olympiakos in 1994 were he starred for some years before joining Aris FC in 2001. He retired in 2007....
, Spyros Gogolos
Spyros Gogolos
Spyros Gogolos is an experienced defender playing for PAS Giannina.He was born on 11 August 1978 in Kerkyra. His family origins are from Paramythia in Thesprotia, Epirus....
, that were with this team in the second division
Beta Ethniki
Football League, former Beta Ethniki, is the second highest professional football league in Greece.-History:In its first years, the system of conduct was very intriguing. It began in 1954 as regional championship, separated in two groups, North and South. Then, the participating teams were the...
, season 2005/06, as well as the season's after that, when the club experienced its promotion and then a total rebirth in the first division with good football and higher standing positions). Aris' number 4 was also known for his passion. For many years' transfer windows he used to be linked to Athenian giants (especially Olympiacos
Olympiacos CFP
----Olympiacos Club of Fans of Piraeus, , , transliterated Olympiakos Sindesmos Filathlon Pireos, is the most popular multisport club and the most successful in Greece, based in Piraeus....
) by media/usually the sports news-papers, but yet had never changed his club, by then. Also as stories were circulating during the season (2006/07), he had been watched closely by some bigger clubs' scouts like Benfica or Chelsea
Chelsea F.C.
Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...
, and Zenit
FC Zenit Saint Petersburg
Football Club Zenit is a Russian football club from the city of Saint-Petersburg. Founded in 1925 , the club plays in the Russian Premier League...
of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
as well.
Lastly, his number of caps for his ex-club Aris overflowed the margin of 100 (106 caps, scoring 6 goals). In last season (or 2) of his residence in Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
before moving in to Piraeus
Piraeus
Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....
, he was considered as one of the Aris (2007/08) top stars along with Sergio Koke, Ronald Nacho Garcia and experienced ex-super star and big Aris flop Marcio Amoroso
Márcio Amoroso
Márcio Amoroso dos Santos is a retired Brazilian footballer. He has played his football for several teams in Japan, Italy, Germany, Spain and Greece while representing Brazil at international level.-Club career:...
and a couple of others.
After the end of the 2007–08 season, on triple occasion he refused to renew his contract up to 2013 (2 million euros in 5 years) although he had previously expressed affirmatively. That act which took its culmination right after he accepted to join Olympiacos F.C., caused many Aris
Aris Thessaloniki F.C.
Aris Football Club , also known as God of war and the Yellows, is a Greek football club based in the city of Thessaloniki, Macedonia. Formed in 1914, the club was a founding member of Macedonian Football Clubs Association as well as the Hellenic Football Federation, they currently compete in...
fans to rage at him pronouncing the same as a traitor to them.
Olympiacos
On 4 July 2008 the player was transferred to Olympiacos F.C. for 2,5 million euros. Olympiacos F.C. announced on Friday the 4th of July 2008, the signing of footballer Avraam Papadopoulos from Aris. The player has signed a four year contract. Avraam stated this during a press conference,"I came to Olympiakos, and not Panathinaikos, because it was the best choice for me. The ideal choice. I would not like to say anything else and it does not make sense to talk about the past. I will work as hard as I can to make the team reach its goals and objectives in both Europe and Greece."Honours
- Olympiacos:
- Superleague Greece: 2008-2009, 2010-20112010–11 Super League GreeceThe 2010–11 Superleague Greece was the 52nd season of the highest football league of Greece and the fifth under the name Superleague. The league consisted of 16 teams, the 13 best teams of the 2009–10 season and three teams that had been promoted from the 2009–10 Beta Ethniki.The season began on 27...
- Superleague Greece: 2008-2009, 2010-2011
- Greek Football CupGreek football CupThe Greek Football Cup , commonly known as the Greek Cup or for sponsorship reasons the Football Cup OPAP, is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation....
: 2009
Greek national football team
He had been capped for Greece U-21 for several times. After impressing Greece coach Otto RehhagelOtto Rehhagel
Otto Rehhagel is a German football coach and former football player. Along with Helmut Schön, Ottmar Hitzfeld, Udo Lattek and Hennes Weisweiler, he is considered one of the most successful German managers....
, He was called to the Greek national football team for the first time on 1 February 2008 and made his debut in the win over the Czech Republic
Czech Republic national football team
The Czech Republic national football team represents the Czech Republic in association football and is controlled by the Football Association of the Czech Republic, the governing body for football in the Czech Republic. Their current head coach is Michal Bílek...
on 5 February.
In 2010, Papadopoulos played for Greece at the 2010 World Cup.