Dimitris Saravakos (; born 26 July 1961), nicknamed "the Kid" (), is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a forward. Saravakos is widely considered to be one of the greatest Greek footballers of all time and a Panathinaikos legend. The IFFHS chose him in the best XI of all time of Greek football in 2021.

Club career

Panionios

Saravakos started his professional career at Panionios where, at the age of 16, on 26 December 1977, he made his debut in the

championship 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 ...

against Egaleo. In his second season at Panionios, he won the

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 ...

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

defeating the then champion, AEK Athens by 3–1. During the 1981–82 season, Saravakos had the most productive year in the club as he scored 13 goals in the league, while his performances also made him an international. In his last year with Panionios he scored 10 goals in 28 appearances. On May 19, 1984, Panionios played a barrage match for their stay in the division against PAS Giannina, which was decided at the extra time with Saravakos scoring in the 104th minute and giving the lead to Panionios who prevailed by 2–0. In total, he played in Panionios for seven years, recording 132 appearances and 35 goals in the league.

Panathinaikos

On June 22, 1984, Saravakos was transferred to Panathinaikos for 60 million drachmas. In addition to Saravakos, he also acquired

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and the addition of the latter in combination with the presence of Juan Ramon Rocha, made the midfield of the team particularly creative, thus the attacking virtues of Saravakos were fully exploited. During his first year at Panathinaikos, he was the second top scorer in the league. He scored his first goal for Panathinaikos on September 23, 1984, against OFI. On 25 November 1984 he scored his first goal in the derby of Athens against AEK in a 3–2 win. On 20 February 1985 he also scored in the derby of the eternal enemies against Olympiacos in a 2–1 for the Cup. In the European Cup his presence was decisive for the qualification of Panathinaikos to the

semi-finals A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

of the institution. Panathinaikos, having qualified against

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, faced Linfield and in the rematch found themselves losing in Ireland by 3–0. Saravakos' goal started the counterattack that led to the equalizer and the qualification. In the next round, Saravakos creating an excellent attacking duo with Thanasis Dimopoulos, scored against Göteborg in Gamla Ullevi giving Panathinaikos the victory. In the second leg, his goal at the 78th minute, equalized at 2–2, leading his team to the semi-finals of the competition. In the following season Saravakos won the domestic double. In the Cup he scored in the semi-final against AEK the goal that sent the "greens" to the final. There, he scored 2 goals in the imposing 4–0 win over Olympiacos, which is also the biggest victory in a final of eternal enemies. In the UEFA Cup, his two goals in each leg, against

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were not enough to qualify them for the next round. On May 3, 1987, he scored his fastest goal in a derby, in the first minute of the match against AEK which ended 0–3. In the European Cup, the "greens" were close to a big comeback against

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, when with goals from Saravakos and Dimopoulos, found themselves winning in the rematch with 2–0, one goal away from the tie of the first match. On November 8, 1987, he scored in a 1–4 win against Olympiacos. In the UEFA Cup by scoring against

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, he secured Panathinaikos' qualification to the second leg. In the first match of the next round, he scored a goal with an excellent shot outside the area, and gave Panathinaikos a 1–0 victory against

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. On the rematch he opened the score and led the club to the next round. In fact, the big Italian team after their elimination showed interest in acquiring him, without proceeding with a proposal. In the next round, Panathinaikos found themselves losing with 5–0 by Honvéd in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. Saravakos did not give up the effort and reduced it to 5–2 with 2 goals, resulting in Panathinaikos winning 5–1 in the second leg and qualifying. In the quarter-finals his goal against Club Brugge was not enough for them to qualify. In the Cup, Saravakos scored three goals in total on both legs against the then champion, AEL and the "greens" qualified to the final. Facing Olympiacos again, the duo of Saravakos-Dimopoulos was successful again as with their 2 goals, Panathinaikos claimed the title on penalties, where they won 4–3. In June 1988 the then president of Olympiacos, George Koskotas, offered Saravakos the "unrealistic" amount for the Greek data of 600 million drachmas, but failed to dress the athlete in the red and white shirt. On 24 August 1988 he won the Super Cup against AEL winning 3–1. At the end of the season, Panathinaikos emerged as the Cup winner again with Saravakos, scoring a goal in the final against Panionios. In the summer of 1989, Panathinaikos acquired the striker Krzysztof Warzycha, who connected perfectly with Saravakos and the two of them led the club to the championship in 1990. On February 25, 1990, Saravakos played for the third time in his career in a match where Panathinaikos scored 4 goals against Olympiacos, winning 3–4 in the Karaiskakis Stadium, with him as the captain. In the semi-final of the Greek Cup, Saravakos scored a hat trick against Olympiacos, but the final score of 3–3 was not enough to overturn the 2–1 score of the first match. In the Cup Winners' Cup he scored a goal in Panathinaikos' 3–2 win over

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. The next season, Saravakos emerged as the league's top scorer with 23 goals. Panathinaikos won another double by finishing first, while they were also crowned Cup winners with 10 goals by Saravakos. The season 1991–92 was the most prolific in goals in the league for Saravakos who scored 24 goals. On January 26, 1992, he scored in a 3–0 victory over Olympiacos. On 9 February 1992, with his 2 goals in 2 minutes, Panathinaikos prevailed 2–0 over AEK. In the quarter-finals of the Cup, Saravakos' goal gave Panathinaikos a qualifying score over Olympiacos, until the 90th minute, when they were equalized and eliminated on away goals. In Europe, Saravakos led Panathinaikos to the groups of the first edition of the Champions League. In the qualifying matches against Göteborg, he scored 3 of Panathinaikos' 4 goals. The first match ended in favor of Panathinaikos 2–0 with Saravakos opening the score. In the rematch, the Swedish were leading 2–0, equaling the result of the first match, but with 2 goals, Saravakos tied at 2-2 and led Panathinaikos to the quarter-finals. An important moment for Saravakos was his participation in World XI alongside Stratos Apostolakis in 1992 in a protest match due to the

invasion An invasion is a Offensive (military), military offensive of combatants of one geopolitics, geopolitical Legal entity, entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory (country subdivision), territory controlled by another similar entity, ...

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. In the 1992–93 season, Saravakos won the Cup with Panathinaikos, while participating in the European competitions, where the "greens" set a goal record, both in one match and in the total of the 2 matches against Electroputere Craiova with 10 goals with him scoring once. On August 18 of 1993 he scored the decider against AEK for the Super Cup. In the 1993–94 season, he won for the 6th time in his career the Cup. On November 2, 1993, Saravakos played for the last time in his career with Panathinaikos in a European competition in the away victory against

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It competes in the B ...

with 1–2, opening the scoring in the 6th minute.

AEK Athens

In the summer of 1994, his contract was not renewed and Saravakos left Panathinaikos, at the age of 33, signing for AEK Athens. On August 10, 1994, he played in his first official match with AEK, which was one of the most memorable with their shirt against Rangers securing the qualification to the Champions League group stage for the first time in their history. Saravakos with his 2 goals in the first match, gave the victory to AEK, which prevailed in the rematch. His presence in the league was equally satisfactory as he emerged as the second scorer with 21 goals. On 1 April 1995 he scored for the last time in the derby against Olympiacos. At the end of the season they lost the Cup in final against Panathinaikos, where he lost a crucial penalty. In the following season with the "yellow-blacks", he won his third another Super Cup against his former club. On 3 December 1995 he scores his last goal for the "yellow-blacks" with a direct corner kick in a 4–0 against OFI. His advanced age and the injuries he was facing had a result not to offer much at the club. AEK played incredible football and won the Cup but finished second in the league. At the end of the year, AEK, respecting his contribution to the club, released him by terminating his contract by mutual consent.

Retirement

In the summer of 1997 after a year of absence from football Saravakos returned to Panathinaikos to end his career in his favorite club. He competed in just 2 league games before retiring in the summer of 1998. He is the leading scorer in history with 16 goals in the Derby of the eternal enemies. He kept the record for the best Greek scorer in

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

competitions, with 25 goals, before he was surpassed by Demis Nikolaidis.

International career

Saravakos was a key member of

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 ...

, with whom he competed between 1982 and 1994. He is fourth top scorer in the history of the national team with 22 goals in 78 appearances. He was part of the team that claimed qualification for the UEFA Euro 1988 and contributed to the great success of qualifying for the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

in the

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. He also played for the Mediterranean team in the 1983 Mediterranean Games in

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, where on 11/9/83 he scored the team's second goal in a 2–1 against

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

. In 1983 he participated in 4 matches with the Olympic team.

Style of play

Saravakos was one of the most popular and charismatic players of Greek football. He possessed excellent technical training and footballing intelligence, with a strong emphasis on finishing, game development and a keen ability to score goals, being regarded as one of the most effective takers in all foul and penalty kicks.

After football

Since 2013 he serves as Strategic Adviser for Panathinaikos a position created especially for him.

Personal life

His father Thanasis, was also an international footballer of Panionios.

Honours

Panionios *

: 1978–79 Panathinaikos *

Greek Championship 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 repl ...

: 1985–86, 1989–90, 1990–91 *Greek Cup: 1985–86, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1990–91, 1992–93, 1993–94 * Greek Super Cup: 1988,

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

AEK Athens *Greek Cup: 1995–96

Statistics

{, class="wikitable" style="text-align: center" , - ! rowspan=2 , Club ! rowspan=2 , Season ! colspan=3 , League ! colspan=2 ,

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 ...

! colspan=2 , Super Cup ! colspan=2 , League Cup ! colspan=2 ,

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

! colspan=2 , Total , - !Division!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals! , - , rowspan=8 , Panionios , 1977–78 , Alpha Ethniki , 1 , 0 , ? , 0 , — , — , — , — , — , — , 1+ , 0 , - , 1978–79 , Alpha Ethniki , 9 , 0 , 1 , 0 , — , — , — , — , — , — , 10 , 0 , - , 1979–80 , Alpha Ethniki , 12 , 0 , 0 , 0 , — , — , — , — , — , — , 12 , 0 , - , 1980–81 , Alpha Ethniki , 33 , 4 , 3 , 2 , — , — , — , — , — , — , 36 , 6 , - , 1981–82 , Alpha Ethniki , 31 , 13 , ? , 0 , — , — , — , — , — , — , 31+ , 13 , - , 1982–83 , Alpha Ethniki , 28 , 8 , 2 , 0 , — , — , — , — , — , — , 30 , 8 , - , 1983–84 , Alpha Ethniki , 28 , 10 , 8 , 5 , — , — , — , — , — , — , 36 , 15 , - , - ! colspan=2 , Total ! 142 ! 35 ! 14+ ! 7 ! 0 ! 0 ! 0 ! 0 ! 0 ! 0 ! 156+ ! 42 , - , rowspan=11 , Panathinaikos , 1984–85 , Alpha Ethniki , 23 , 15 , ? , 1 , — , — , — , — , 8 , 3 , 31+ , 19 , - , 1985–86 , Alpha Ethniki , 29 , 15 , ? , 5 , — , — , — , — , 2 , 2 , 31+ , 22 , - , 1986–87 , Alpha Ethniki , 23 , 13 , ? , 4 , — , — , — , — , 2 , 1 , 25+ , 18 , - , 1987–88 , Alpha Ethniki , 26 , 5 , ? , 9 , 1 , 0 , — , — , 8 , 6 , 35+ , 20 , - , 1988–89 , Alpha Ethniki , 25 , 5 , ? , 7 , — , — , — , — , 2 , 0 , 27+ , 12 , - , 1989–90 , Alpha Ethniki , 24 , 11 , ? , 8 , — , — , 4 , 3 , 3 , 3 , 31+ , 25 , - , 1990–91 , Alpha Ethniki , 30 , 23 , ? , 10 , — , — , — , — , 2 , 1 , 32+ , 34 , - , 1991–92 , Alpha Ethniki , 33 , 24 , ? , 3 , — , — , — , — , 10 , 3 , 43+ , 30 , - , 1992–93 , Alpha Ethniki , 14 , 2 , ? , 2 , 1 , 1 , — , — , 2 , 1 , 17+ , 6 , - , 1993–94 , Alpha Ethniki , 25 , 15 , ? , 0 , — , — , — , — , 4 , 3 , 29+ , 18 , - , - ! colspan=2 , Total ! 252 ! 125 ! ? ! 49 ! 2 ! 1 ! 4 ! 3 ! 43 ! 23 ! 299+ ! 201 , - , rowspan=3 , AEK Athens , 1994–95 , Alpha Ethniki , 30 , 21 , 10 , 3 , — , — , — , — , 8 , 2 , 48 , 26 , - , 1995–96 , Alpha Ethniki , 17 , 1 , 7 , 4 , — , — , — , — , 3 , 0 , 27 , 5 , - , - ! colspan=2 , Total ! 47 ! 22 ! 17 ! 7 ! 0 ! 0 ! 0 ! 0 ! 11 ! 2 ! 75 ! 31 , - , Panathinaikos , 1997–98 , Alpha Ethniki , 2 , 0 , ? , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 2+ , 0 , - ! colspan=3 , Career Total ! 443 ! 185 ! 31+ ! 63 ! 2 ! 1 ! 4 ! 3 ! 54 ! 25 ! 534+ ! 277 , -

References

External links

*
Dimitris Saravakos official Facebook page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saravakos, Dimitris Panathinaikos F.C. players AEK Athens F.C. players 1961 births Living people 1994 FIFA World Cup players Greece men's international footballers Panionios F.C. players Super League Greece players Footballers from Athens Greek men's footballers Panathinaikos F.C. non-playing staff Men's association football midfielders Men's association football wingers Greek beach soccer players 20th-century Greek sportsmen