Christos Arvanitis ( el, Χρήστος Αρβανίτης; born 23 January 1957) 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 ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...

Club career

Arvanitis started his football career playing for the youth departments of

Ethnikos Piraeus Ethnikos Piraeus (Greek: Εθνικός Πειραιώς) is a Greek multisport club based in Piraeus. It was founded in 1923. The full name of the club is Ethnikos Omilos Filathlon Pireos/Phalirou or Ethnikos OFPF (Greek: Εθνικός Όμιλ ...

. He was then promoted to the first team of Ethnikos where he had a very good presence from 1971 to 1978, when it was time to transfer to

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number ...

. In the "red and whites" after spending a year on the bench, he replaced Kelesidis in the starting eleven and with his performances greatly helped Olympiacos to win the championship in 1980. Later, however, he was displaced from the eleven by the then rising star of Greek football,

Nikos Sarganis Nikos Sarganis (Greek: Νίκος Σαργκάνης; born 13 January 1954) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Career Born in Rafina, Attica, Sarganis started his football career as a fullback at Ilisiakos. He ...

, as a result of which he looked for a new football club in his career. In his 4-year spell he won 3 convective

championships In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

, from 1980 to 1982 and a

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

including a domestic double in 1981. In the summer of 1982, the then president 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 Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadelf ...

, Michalis Arkadis brought him to the team and

Zlatko Čajkovski Zlatko "Čik" Čajkovski (24 November 1923 – 27 July 1998) was a Croatian and Yugoslavian football player and coach. His brother, Željko Čajkovski, was a footballer as well. Normally a defensive midfielder, Čajkovski was renowned for his t ...

immediately gave him a starting shirt. He won the cup in 1983 with AEK, having a very big contribution to the title, as he was one of the best in the match. He stayed at AEK until December 1985, when he left having already started to lose his place in the main squad to

Theologis Papadopoulos Theologis Papadopoulos ( el, Θεολόγης Παπαδόπουλος; born 12 January 1960) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career Papadopoulos started football in 1974 from the amateur team Elefther ...

. A goalkeeper with great reflexes and an amazing jump, but also unstable at times, he was nevertheless a goalkeeper with a positive presence in AEK, but also in the Greek league in general. After AEK he returned to Olympiacos until 1987, where he won yet another league and then played successfully in

Levadiakos Levadiakos Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Λεβαδειακός) is a Greek professional football club that plays in the Super League Greece. Based in Livadeia, Greece, the club was promoted to the Alpha Ethniki, forerunner of the Super League, afte ...

where he ended his career in 1989.

International career

Arvanitis competed once with

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 wit ...

, on 11 January 1978 in an away friendly win against

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...

by 0–2. he was an international player both with

Greece U21 The Greece national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of Greece and is controlled by the Hellenic Football Federation, the governing body for football in Greece. The team competes in the European Under-21 Football C ...

and with the Olympic team, playing twice in 1983.

After football

After the end of his career Arvanitis was a goalkeeping coach in all the teams he had played for. At Olympiacos, Levadiakos, Ethnikos, but also in AEK for some months of the 2012–13 season. Since October 2015, he worked at the football academy of the amateur AEK. In 2017 he worked as the technical director of the Nestoras FC, academy of the legendary

Kostas Nestoridis Kostas Nestoridis ( el, Κώστας Νεστορίδης, born 15 March 1930) is a Greek former professional footballer, who played as a forward and a former manager. He is amongst the best players in the history of AEK Athens and one of the g ...

Honours

Olympiacos *

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 ...

: 1979–80, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1986–87 *

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 i ...

: 1980–81 AEK Athens *Greek Cup: 1982–83

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arvanitis, Christos Greek men's footballers Living people Men's association football goalkeepers 1957 births Greece men's international footballers Super League Greece players Ethnikos Piraeus F.C. players Olympiacos F.C. players AEK Athens F.C. players Levadiakos F.C. players Footballers from Edessa, Greece