Demis Nikolaidis

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Demis (Themistoklis) Nikolaidis (September 17, 1973, Gießen, Germany) is considered one of the finest footballers Greece has ever produced. His real first name is Themistoklis, but he is better known as 'Demis'. In his early childhood and teenage years he lived in the city of Alexandroupoli, in the north-east part of Greece. In a sterling career with Ethnikos Alexandroupolis, Apollon Athinon, AEK Athens and Atlético Madrid, Nikolaidis earned his reputation as a "born goalscorer", scoring prolifically for club and country. His power, pace and skill on the ball have been widely praised but it was his work-ethic and enthusiasm, perhaps, that propelled him to his exalted status among Greek footballers.

[edit] Playing days

In his teenage years he played for Ethnikos Alexandroupolis, the local team of his hometown. The scouts of several teams had seen his progress from these years, earning him a move to Athens. He made his professional debut at the age of 20 at Apollon and soon became a fixture in the first team. His fine performances sparked a bidding war between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos, and the striker's childhood favorite AEK, with Demis refusing to join Olympiakos and forcing his club President to sell him to AEK. He onced remarked that had his football career not panned out, he would have liked to be president of the major AEK fanclub, the Originals. With his new side, Nikolaidis excelled, scoring an impressive 177 goals in 266 games, winning three Greek cups and the 1996 Super Cup, as well as topscoring in both the 2001 UEFA Cup and 1999 Greek league. He is the top scorer for Greek teams in European competitions having scored 26 goals in 51 games. He has scored five goals in a match twice and he is the only Greek player to have scored 4 goals in a game in a European match. At AEK, Nikolaidis linked up with some of the great Greek players of his generation, many of whom would join him to lift the UEFA Euro 2004 trophy, including Vassilis Tsiartas, Theodoros Zagorakis, Michalis Kapsis, Grigoris Georgatos, Traianos Dellas, Ilias Atmatsidis, Vassilis Lakis and Kostas Katsouranis, among many others.

From his move to AEK in 1995 to 1999 and from 2001 to the Euro 2004 qualifiers, Demis became the Greek national team's main source of goals. He amassed 54 caps, netting 17 times. His debut was in a game against Russia in 26/04/1995. He is amongst the top 5 goalscorers ever for Greece. In 1999, however, along with Michalis Kasapis and Ilias Atmatsidis, Nikolaidis retired from the national team, protesting for injustice in the Greek League . Two years later, though, after the disappointing tenure of coach Vasilis Daniil was brought to an end following a particularly horrendous series of results, the two returned to the international fold. In his first game back, Nikolaidis scored in Greece's 2-2 away draw to England during the 2002 World Cup qualifiers. New coach Otto Rehhagel focused his offense around the quick striker and was rewarded with direct qualification to Euro 2004, upsetting Spain.

In 2002, he received an award by the Fair Play committee of UEFA for requesting his goal in the Greek Cup final not to count as it was scored by hand.

[edit] A move to Spain

Although he failed to win the league in his time at AEK, Nikolaidis became arguably the most beloved player in the club's history. But after quarrelling with owner Makis Psomiadis, later indicted for forgery, and allegedly being assaulted by his bodyguards, Nikolaidis decided the time had come to leave AEK after the 2002/2003 season. Atlético Madrid beat off several other clubs to land the striker's coveted signature. Nikolaidis' first months at the Vicente Calderón were a tremendous success; he scored six goals and formed a fearsome attacking pair with teenage sensation Fernando Torres. However, a series of serious injuries kept him out of the first team for nearly the rest of the season and severely limited his effectiveness at Euro 2004.

[edit] Euro 2004

Even though struggling with injury, Rehhagel nevertheless included him in his Euro 2004 squad. Greece's new strike force, Zisis Vryzas and Angelos Charisteas, played well enough but Nikolaidis still figured consistently in the team, coming off the bench in all three group games before starting against France, against whom he was desperately unlucky not to score, and leading Greece to a tremendous shock victory. After that fine performance, however, Nikolaidis at last succumbed to a serious injury and did not even dress for Greece's last two games. Without a doubt, he accomplished much during his international career but there are some who wonder if his contribution could not have been greater had an injury and a poor run of luck not conspired against him.

[edit] Back to AEK

[1]

With AEK struggling terribly in the wake of Psomiadis' corruption and the prospect of relegation to the fourth division looming, Nikolaidis shocked the football world by retiring at the relatively young age of 31. His next move, even more surprisingly, was to establish a consortium of businessmen and purchase AEK, as he had always dreamed. Becoming the club's president, Nikolaidis, and technical director Ilija Ivic, a former teammate, made several astute signings and fought ferociously for the league title, finishing third when many had expected a mid-table performance. At his second year as president, after signing several current Greece Under-21 players, as well as adding former star Vasilis Lakis, Ukrainian international striker Oleg Venglinskyi and onetime Inter centreback Bruno Cirillo, AEK achieved Champions league qualification. Apart from the improvement of the economic standards and the athletic performance of AEK, Nikolaidis is determined to decrease the hooligan actions in football. He believes that if a fan wants to attend a football game, they must respect the fans of the opposite team and must not produce violence.

[edit] Trivia

Demis is married to one of the most successful Greek singers Despina Vandi who was also born in Germany and grew up in Greece. They have a daughter called Melina.

	Greece squad - UEFA EURO 2004
1 Nikopolidis | 2 Giourkas | 3 Venetidis | 4 Dabizas | 5 Dellas | 6 Basinas | 7 Zagorakis | 8 Giannakopoulos | 9 Charisteas | 10 Tsiartas | 11 Nikolaidis | 12 Chalkias | 13 Katergiannakis | 14 Fyssas | 15 Vryzas | 16 Kafes | 17 Georgiadis | 18 Goumas | 19 Kapsis | 20 Karagounis | 21 Katsouranis | 22 Papadopoulos | 23 Lakis | Coach: Rehhagel

[edit] External links

• Photo of Demis Nikolaidis

[edit] Sources