Christos Arvanitis (; born 23 January 1957) is a

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 ...

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 lea ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), 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 i ...

Club career

Arvanitis started his football career playing for the youth departments of Ethnikos Piraeus. 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 (, 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, ...

. 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, 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 sys ...

, from 1980 to 1982 and a

cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

including a domestic double in 1981. In the summer of 1982, the then president of

AEK Athens A.E.K. (; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople'') is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica. The club is more commonly known in European competitions as A.E.K. Athens. Establishe ...

, Michalis Arkadis brought him to the team and

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

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 (; born 12 January 1960) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career Papadopoulos started playing football in 1974 from the amateur team Eleftheriakos Eleftherion, while he became mor ...

. 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 (officially romanized: ''Levadeiakos'' ) 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, ...

where he ended his career in 1989.

International career

Arvanitis competed once with

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 ...

, on 11 January 1978 in an away friendly win against

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

by 0–2. he was an international player both with Greece U21 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 (, 15 March 1930 – 12 December 2023) was a Greek professional footballer, who played as a forward and a manager. He was amongst the best players in the history of AEK Athens and one of the greatest Greek footballers and goal ...

Honours

Olympiacos *

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 ...

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

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 ...

: 1980–81 *

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 ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

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 20th-century Greek sportsmen