Demis Nikolaidis

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Themistoklis "Demis" Nikolaidis (Greek: Θεμιστοκλής " Ντέμης" Νικολαΐδης), born September 17, 1973, Gießen, West Germany) was the forty second president of AEK Athens F.C., and is considered one of the finest footballers Greece has ever produced. 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 Smyrnis, AEK Athens FC 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] Club career

[edit] AEK Athens

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 Smyrnis. His fine performances sparked a bidding war between Panathinaikos and Olympiacos, and the striker's childhood favorite AEK Athens, with Demis refusing to join Olympiakos and forced his club president to sell him to AEK. At AEK, Nikolaidis linked up with some of the great Greek players of his generation, including Vassilis Tsiartas, Theodoros Zagorakis, Michalis Kapsis, Grigoris Georgatos, Traianos Dellas, Vassilis Lakis. With his new side, Nikolaidis excelled, scoring on his debut against Ionikos. During his time with AEK, Demis managed to win three Greek cups and the 1996 Super Cup, he was the topscorer in the 1999 Greek league and second scorer in the 2001 UEFA Cup (1 goal behind topscorer Dimitar Berbatov). 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 European match. Having scored a total of 21 goal in the UEFA Cup he is one of the competition's all-time goalscorers. At AEK he scored an impressive 177 goals in 266 games(including European, cup and domestic league games) making him the fourt highest goalscorer for the club and a legend amongst the fans.

[edit] Atletico Madrid

Although he failed to win the league in his time at AEK, Nikolaidis became arguably one of the most beloved players 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 2002-03 season. Atlético Madrid beat off several other clubs to land the striker's coveted signature, seen that his number 11 was taken, he wore the number 21 as a tribute to AEK and the Original 21 fan club. 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 effecting his chances of getting picked for Euro 2004.

[edit] International career

Demis made his debut for the Greek national football team on April 26, 1995 against Russia, Demis became the Greek national team's main source of goals. 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, after the disappointing tenure of coach Vasilis Daniil was brought to an end following a particularly horrendous series of results, he 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 the Greek team to represent Greece at 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, and leading Greece to a tremendous shock victory. After that fine performance, however, Nikolaidis succumbed to a serious injury and did not even dress for Greece's last two games. He amassed 54 caps, netting 17 times for the national team and is amongst the top 6 goalscorers ever for Greece. 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] Chairman of AEK Athens

With AEK struggling terribly in the wake of Psomiadis' corruption and the prospect of relegation to the fourth division looming, Nikolaidis retired at the relatively young age of 31. His next move, supported by all AEK fans, was to establish a consortium of businessmen and purchase AEK, as he had always dreamed. Becoming the club's president, Nikolaidis set a goal that he would remove all debts that AEK owed and make them a force in Europe in the space of 5 years. Himself and technical director Ilija Ivic, a former teammate, made several clever signings and fought ferociously for the league title, finishing third when many had expected a mid-table performance. In his second year as president, after signing two promising Greece Under-21 players, as well as adding former star Vasilis Lakis, Ukrainian international striker Oleg Venglinskyi and one time Inter centre back Bruno Cirillo, AEK achieved UEFA Champions League qualification. Apart from the improvement of the economic standards and the athletic performance of AEK, Nikolaidis was determined to decrease the hooligan actions in football, and called on the league to do more to reduce violence.^[1]

On August 22, 2008, Demis decided that he would step down as chairman of AEK in May, 2009 stating that he had achieved his goal in the 5 year plan, one of the reasons according to Demis for stepping down was "the crazy" that he didn't sell 30,000 season tickets, he said "If I had managed to convince the AEK supporters to come to the stadium then I would not be leaving. In my mind we need 30,000 to become a big team".

However, the majority of fans has lost faith in Demis and question his actions, because before his departure together with manager G. Donis they made a lot of changes to the great team of period 2007-2008 by letting go for free leader players Rivaldo, Dellas and Lyberopoulos, which resulted in an awful start of season 2008-2009 with AEK knocked out from UEFA Cup and lost the battle of supeleague from November. After his departure, AEK Athens has a new debt of 15 million euros, and the club was forced to take a loan. The future balance of the club is at stake because in the year 2009, AEK cannot compete giant rivals Olympiacos nor Panathinaikos in ecomomic terms (taking into account the 2008-2009 depression).^[2]

[edit] Honours

AEK Athens

• Greek Cup: 1997, 2000, 2002
• Greek Super Cup: 1996

Greece

• UEFA European Football Championship: 2004

Apollon Smyrnis F.C.

• Greek Cup: Runners up 1995-96

Individual

• Greek Young Footballer of the year: 1995
• Greek Footballer of the year: 1997, 1998, 2002
• Greek Super League top scorer: 1999
• FIFA Fair Play Committee Award: 2002

[edit] Personal life

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, and a son called Giorgos.

[edit] Trivia

• Nikolaidis scored Greece's 500th goal on October 6, 2001 in a match against England.
• 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] References

Demis Nikolaidis - Navigation boxes and awards v • d • e Greece squad – UEFA Euro 2004 Winners (1st Title) 1 Nikopolidis • 2 Seitaridis • 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 v • d • e Super League Greece top scorers 1960: Nestoridis | 1961: Nestoridis | 1962: Nestoridis | 1963: Nestoridis | 1964: Papaioannou | 1965: Sideris | 1966: Papaioannou | 1967: Sideris | 1968: Inzoglou | 1969: Sideris | 1970: Antoniadis | 1971: Dedes | 1972: Antoniadis | 1973: Antoniadis | 1974: Antoniadis | 1975: Antoniadis / Calcadera | 1976: Dedes | 1977: Inzoglou | 1978: Mavros | 1979: Mavros | 1980: Bajevic | 1981: Kouis | 1982: Charalabidis | 1983: Anastopoulos | 1984: Anastopoulos | 1985: Mavros | 1986: Anastopoulos | 1987: Anastopoulos | 1988: Nielsen | 1989: Boda | 1990: Mavros | 1991: Saravakos | 1992: Dimitriadis | 1993: Dimitriadis | 1994: Alexandris / Warzycha | 1995: Warzycha | 1996: Tsiartas | 1997: Alexandris | 1998: Warzycha | 1999: Nikolaidis | 2000: Nalitzis | 2001: Alexandris | 2002: Alexandris | 2003: Liberopoulos | 2004: Giovanni | 2005: Gekas | 2006: Salpigidis | 2007: Liberopoulos | 2008: Blanco | 2009: Blanco / Galletti Awards Preceded by – Greek Young Footballer of the year 1995 Succeeded by Nikos Liberopoulos Preceded by Vassilis Tsiartas Greek Footballer of the year 1997, 1998 Succeeded by Grigoris Georgatos Preceded by Alexandros Alexandris Greek Footballer of the year 2002 Succeeded by Stelios Giannakopoulos Sporting positions Preceded by Ioannis Granitsas Chairman of AEK Athens 2004–2008 Succeeded by Giorgos Kintis