Charlie Yankos (born 29 May 1961) is an Australian former
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 lea ...
who played for the
Australian national team 49 times and scored 7 international goals. He captained the national team on 30 occasions between 1986 and 1989.
Charlie Yankos started his local football career with former
NSL club
Heidelberg United in 1979 and became one of the greatest players to wear the gold and black colors. He was also an important part of
APIA Leichhardt's
1987 NSL title victory.
International career
Charlie Yankos represented the
Australian national team on 49 times including 13 world cup qualifiers, captaining the side on 30 occasions and scoring 7 international goals. He participated in the 1985 and 1989 World Cup qualifying campaigns, and also played in the
Seoul Olympics in 1988 where Australia made the quarterfinals.
Yankos scored a long range goal from over 30 yards in the 1988 Australian Bicentennial Gold Cup against then-World Champions
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
. In a
1990 FIFA World Cup qualification
The FIFA World Cup qualification, qualification competition for the 1990 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA FIFA#Structure, confederations. Each confederation — the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Confederat ...
away match against
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
, he scored an equaliser for Australia, again with a long range free kick.
After retirement
Following his retirement from
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
, Yankos moved into a successful career in business. He was inducted into the
Football Australia Hall of Fame in 1999.
Charlie Yankos Street in the Sydney suburb of
Glenwood is named for him.
References
External links
Oz Football profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yankos, Charlie
1961 births
Living people
Australian men's soccer players
Australian people of Greek descent
Sportspeople of Greek descent
Australia men's international soccer players
Olympic soccer players for Australia
Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics
National Soccer League (Australia) players
APIA Leichhardt FC players
Blacktown City FC players
PAOK FC players
West Adelaide SC players
Men's association football defenders
Australian expatriate men's soccer players
Australian expatriate sportspeople in Greece
Expatriate men's footballers in Greece
Soccer players from Melbourne
Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia
20th-century Australian sportsmen