Kleopas Giannou is a Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 footballer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

.

A graduate of the Athenian

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 club's youth system, Giannou was loaned to Olympiakos Volou

Olympiakos Volou FC

Olympiakos Volou Football Club , is a Greek football club based in the city of Volos. It is currently inactive and does not compete in any professional league, due to the 2011 match fixing scandal that caused the teams complete elimination.-History:...

 in summer 2000 until the end of the year, and spent the rest the campaign at Halkidona FC

Atromitos

Atromitos FC is a football club based in Peristeri, Athens that plays in the Super League Greece.-History:Atromitos FC was officially founded in May 1923 when Kalomvounis, Petos, Glykofridis, Stathopoulos, Synodinos, Rigopoulos, Stamatopoulos, and other students living in Victoria Square decided...

. Promoted to the senior Olympiacos squad on his return, he made his top-flight debut on 4 January 2002, but was mainly a reserve. However, although by the start of 2003/04 he was still fourth-choice, a combination of Theofanis Katergiannakis

Fanis Katergiannakis

Theofanis "Fanis" Katergiannakis is a football player who plays as a goalkeeper.-Ethnikos Pylaias:...

's injury, Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos

Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos

Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos is a Greek goalkeeper who is currently playing for Panionios in Greek Super League. In the past he played for the Greek national team.-Greece:...

's departure and Juraj Bucek

Juraj Bucek

Juraj Buček is a former Slovak football goalkeeper who played for several clubs in Europe.-Club career:...

's loss of form saw Giannou promoted to play in the final 12 games of the league season.

Olympiacos, however, were pipped to the title by Panathinaikos FC

Panathinaikos FC

Panathinaikos Football Club is a Greek professional football club based in Athens. Founded in 1908, they play in the Super League Greece and are one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Greek football history. They have won 20 Greek Championships and 17 Greek Cups.Panathinaikos is the most...

. The arrival of Antonios Nikopolidis

Antonios Nikopolidis

Antonios Nikopolidis , is a former Greek football player, that played as goalkeeper. He's regarded as the best Greek goalkeeper of all time having been awarded the most caps in the national team and playing an integral part in the UEFA Euro 2004 triumph....

 from Panathinaikos relegated Giannou back to the bench. He played in just one league match, when Nikopolidis was suspended, and three Greek Cup encounters as his club completed the domestic double. In 2005/06

2005-06 in Greek football

The 2005-06 Greek Football season saw Olympiacos claim its second consecutive and 34th Greek title in the Alpha Ethniki. However, the season was somewhat overshadowed by the suspension of the Greek FA by UEFA, which jeopardized the European places of the Champions League, UEFA Cup, and Intertoto...

, understudy to Nikopolidis, he played in one league encounter and made his UEFA Champions League

UEFA Champions League

The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...

 debut against Olympique Lyonnais

Olympique Lyonnais

Olympique Lyonnais is a French association football club based in Lyon. They play in France's highest football division, Ligue 1. The club was formed as Lyon Olympique Universitaire in 1899, according to many supporters and sport historians, but was nationally established as a club in 1950. The...

.

He won approximately €1m in the Greek national lottery

Lottery

A lottery is a form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize.Lottery is outlawed by some governments, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulation of lottery by governments...

 in 2002.

On 29 August 2007 Olympiacos CFP

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....

 decided to release Giannou from his contract after he refused to be loaned out again. He spent time on trial at Championship

Football League Championship

The Football League Championship is the highest division of The Football League and second-highest division overall in the English football league system after the Premier League...

 side Cardiff City

Cardiff City F.C.

Cardiff City Football Club are a Welsh professional football club based in Cardiff, Wales. The club competes in the English football pyramid and is currently playing in the Football League Championship. Cardiff City is the best supported football club in Wales, averaging approximately 22,500 for...

 but failed to earn a full contract. From August 2007 to January 2008 he was playing for AEL FC

AEL Limassol

Athlitiki Enosi Lemesou , commonly known as AEL Limassol , is a Greek Cypriot multisport club based in the city of Limassol, the port of Cyprus....

 in Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

 and since then he is currently playing in Panionios.

National team

An Under-21 international, he was part of the Greek squad

Greece national football team

The Greece national football team represents Greece in association football and is controlled by the Hellenic Football Federation, the governing body for football in Greece. Greece's home ground is Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus and their head coach is Fernando Santos...

 in the 2004 Olympic Games

Football at the 2004 Summer Olympics

The football tournament at the 2004 Summer Olympics started on 11 August, , and ended on 28 August.The men's tournament is played by U-23 national teams, with up to three over age players allowed per squad...

.