Christos "Chris" Kalantzis (

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

: Χρήστος "Κρις" Καλαντζής; born 27 July 1967) is an Australian former

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who played at the highest level of domestic football in Greece and Australia. He played at international level for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Playing career

Club career

Born in Sydney to

immigrants. His father came from the village of Loukas in Arcadia region of the

Peloponnese The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridg ...

, Greece and his mother came from the village of Managouli in

Aetolia-Acarnania Aetolia-Acarnania (, ''Aitoloakarnanía'', ) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the geographic regions of Greece, geographic region of Central Greece (geographic region), Central Greece and the administrative regions of Greece, ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, he began his career with

Sydney Olympic Sydney Olympic Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club, based in Belmore, Sydney, New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states o ...

, First Grade, at the age of 15. He was then signed by the

team Panathinaikos, where he played for five years.

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (, Olympic Association of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in football, ...

, a rival Greek club, then signed him. On his debut against his former team he scored with his famous bicycle kick from outside the box. He played for Olympiacos another five years before returning to Sydney Olympic to finish his career, playing two years before retiring.

International career

Kalantzis played seven matches in full international matches for

Post-football career

In February 2011,

announced the establishment of its first Olympiacos Academy outside of Greece in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia.Olympiakos keen on local talent
neokosmos.com. 13 February 2011. The Australian academy is managed by Kalantzis and Kyriakos Tohouroglou, both former Olympiacos players.

Honours

*National Soccer League Cup Winners: 1983, 1985 *

Alpha Ethniki The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

: 1989–90, 1990–91, 1996–97 *

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup (), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Betsson Greek Cup for sponsorship reasons is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second-most important domestic men's footba ...

: 1988, 1989, 1991 *

Greek Super Cup The Greek Super Cup (), formerly known as the Friendship and Solidarity Cup () is a Greek association football one-match competition, which is contested annually either between the champions of the previous Super League Greece season and the hold ...

1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

References

External links

Chris Kalantzis Interview

1967 births Living people Australian men's soccer players Australian people of Greek descent Australian emigrants to Greece Sportspeople of Greek descent Australian expatriate men's soccer players Australia men's international soccer players Australia men's B international soccer players Super League Greece players Olympiacos F.C. players Panathinaikos F.C. players Sydney Olympic FC players National Soccer League (Australia) players Men's association football midfielders Soccer players from Sydney Naturalized citizens of Greece 20th-century Australian sportsmen {{Australia-footy-midfielder-stub