Christos Ardizoglou ( el, Χρήστος Αρδίζογλου; born 25 March 1953) 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 professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

right midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Early life

Ardizoglou was born in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, where his family had found refuge after the

Asia Minor disaster Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, from a

father and an

Israeli Israeli may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel * Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel * Modern Hebrew, a language * ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008 * Guni Israeli ...

mother. After living the first years of his life in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, his parents Dimitris and Aggeliki decided in 1958 to settle the family in

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 with ...

. The 5-year-old Christos found himself growing up with his five siblings in the slums of

Nea Ionia Nea Ionia ( el, Νέα Ιωνία, meaning New Ionia) is a northern suburb of Athens, Greece, and a municipality of the Attica region. It was named after Ionia, the region in Anatolia from which many Greeks migrated in the 1920s as a part of the ...

, trying to mentally escape from the harsh financial poverty of everyday life in the most common way of the time. He started occasionally playing football and doing cycling training at the Amarousion Sports Club where he obtained his sports card. The neighborhood scouts of the time were soon impressed by the skills of the young Ardizoglou, resulting in his move to the neighboring

Rizoupoli Rizoupoli ( el, Ριζούπολη ) is a neighborhood of Nea Filadelfeia-Chalkidona, Greece. It is the northernmost neighborhood of municipality along with the small district Probonas. The district is located between Patissia and Nea Philadelphia ...

and

Apollon Athens Apollon Smyrnis Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Απόλλων Σμύρνης), or in its full name Gymnasticos Syllogos Apollon Smyrnis ( el, links=no, Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Απόλλων Σμύρνης, ''Gymnastics Club Apollon o ...

Club career

Ardizoglou started his professional career at

playing as a

left 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 ...

. In 1972 Apollon were eventually relegated to the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

and Ardizoglou, who in the meantime has been converted to the position of wide midfielder, contributed in the club's return to the first division becoming one of their star players. In July 1974, even though Ardizoglou was very close to sing for

Panathinaikos Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos ( el, Παναθηναϊκός Αθλητικός Όμιλος, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club ba ...

, the persistence of

Loukas Barlos Loukas Barlos ( el, Λουκάς Μπάρλος; 1920 – 20 October 1999) was a Greek businessman who served as the twenty third president of AEK Athens F.C. from 1974 until 1981. Early life Barlos was born and raised in Thessaloniki, but his p ...

got him to dress in the colours of

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 Greece, Greek multi-sport club based in Nea ...

. The transfer cost the exorbitant sum for the time of 5 million drachmas plus Nikos Karoulias as an exchange and Ardizoglou got an apartment as a transfer gift. His greatest moment was reaching the

UEFA 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 Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

semi-finals in

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

even though he didn't compete due to punishment in an incident with Greece U19. On 1 November 1977 he scored the in the heavy 4–1 away defeat by

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most ...

for the UEFA Cup. He also contributed in the great 6–1 win over

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 metropol ...

on 13 November 1978 for

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

, where he scored the second goal for his team. He played for AEK for 11 consecutive years, winning 2 Championships and 2 Greek Cups including a double in 1978. During the 1984–85 season, Ardizoglou came into conflict with the major shareholder of the club, Zafiropoulos and decided to leave AEK and return to Apollon Athens, where he played for a year before retiring as a footballer and later started coaching at the level of amateur football clubs and academies.

International career

Ardizoglou made his debut for

on 24 September 1975 in a match against

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

for the

Balkan Cup The Balkan Cup was an international association football competition contested on and off from 1929 to 1980 by countries from the Balkans region. The most successful team was Romania with four titles. Overview The first edition featured Romania, ...

. He was a

participant Participation or Participant may refer to: Politics *Participation (decision making), mechanisms for people to participate in social decisions * Civic participation, engagement by the citizens in government * e-participation, citizen participati ...

at the

UEFA Euro 1980 The 1980 UEFA European Football Championship finals tournament was held in Italy. This was the sixth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. It was the first European Championship to feature eight teams i ...

. He played 43 times scoring 2 goals in total. He has also been invited once to the World's XI.

Managerial career

Ardizoglou was also the of manager Apollon Athens from 1 July 1998 to 3 September 1999.

After football

Ardizoglou is now retired from the Greek Police, in which he joined in the context of the search for a stable job in the State, as was customary for athletes of his time. He continuously participates in the events of the Veterans' Association of AEK Athens.

Honours

AEK Athens *

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 ...

: 1977–78, 1978–79 *

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 im ...

: 1977–78, 1982–83 Individual *Greek Cup top scorer: 1975–76

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ardizoglou, Christos 1953 births Living people Greek footballers Greece international footballers Association football midfielders AEK Athens F.C. players Apollon Smyrnis F.C. players Atromitos F.C. players Super League Greece players UEFA Euro 1980 players Footballers from Jerusalem Footballers from Athens Israeli people of Greek descent