Kostas Eleftherakis (, born 18 July 1950) 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 international
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 ...
player who played as a
midfielder
In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...
. His nickname was ''"the Deer"'' ''()''.
Club career
He started his career in 1964–65, playing for
second division side
Fostiras. He later joined
Panathinaikos in 1968. At age 21 he played for
Panathinaikos at
1971 European Cup Final in
Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...
against
Ajax Amsterdam
Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or commonly Ajax, is a Dutch professional Association football, football Football team, club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. ...
. He scored 2 goals during that campaign to reach the final.
Following that game, Real Madrid and Everton expressed interest in acquiring him. Real Madrid would offer an inconceivable (for the time) 35 million drachmas for Kostas Eleftherakis. But
Costas Aslanidis (Secretary General of Athletics, appointed by the
Greek military junta of 1967–1974
The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels was a right-wing military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974. On 21 April 1967, a group of colonels with CIA backing overthrew the caretaker government a month before scheduled elections wh ...
) would stand in the way. The same happened when Everton made an offer through
Billy Bingham who coached
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 ...
in the early 1970s.
He was invited to play for the
World XI
The World XI, also known as the FIFA World Stars, is an association football scratch team consisting of players from various countries. The World XI play one-off games against clubs, national teams, collectives of continental teams.
The official ...
.
An injury he sustained in May 1977 would force him to stay away from the game for six months. He would never regain his form completely after that. Five years later he retired from football. He ended his career playing again at Fostiras.
He played a total of 331 games in the
first division, 308 of which with Panathinaikos, and scored 88 goals.
International career
Eleftherakis made 34 appearances for the
Greece national football team
The Greece national football team (, ) represents Greece in men's international Association football, football matches, and is controlled by the Hellenic Football Federation, the governing body for football in Greece. Greece is one of only ten ...
from 1969 to 1977.
Honours
;Panathinaikos
*
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 ...
:
1968–69,
1969–70,
1971–72,
1976–77
*
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 ...
:
1968–69,
1976–77
*
Greater Greece Cup: 1970
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eleftherakis, Kostas
Panathinaikos F.C. players
AEK Athens F.C. players
Fostiras F.C. players
Super League Greece players
1950 births
Greece men's international footballers
Living people
Men's association football midfielders
Footballers from Athens
Greek men's footballers
20th-century Greek sportsmen