Michalis Simigdalas (; born 23 June 1944) 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

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 ...

Club career

Simigdalas started in 1958 at the infrastructure departments 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 ...

, under Giorgos Daispangos and was promoted to the first team in 1963. His coextistanse with many great players of the time did not allowed him to establish himself in the club, however he stayed at the club for 6 seasons. A member of the squad that won second place in the

Balkans Cup The Balkans Cup was an international football competition for clubs from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. It was introduced in 1961 and was very popular in the 1960s (the 1967 final attracted 42,000 spectators), being ...

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

, losing only in the final by Fenerbahçe. He was a regular player in the team that reached the

quarter-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, w ...

of the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

in 1969. During his spell at AEK, he won 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 ...

in 1968 season and 2

Cups CUPS (formerly an acronym for Common UNIX Printing System) is a modular printing system for Unix-like computer operating systems which allows a computer to act as a print server. A computer running CUPS is a host that can accept print jobs ...

. In the summer of 1969, he left AEK and played for

Apollon Athens Apollon Smyrnis Football Club () is a professional football club based in Athens, Greece, which competes in the Athens FCA first division. It is part of GS Apollon Smyrnis (Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Απόλλων Σμύρνης), ...

, where his older brother

Nikos Nikos (, ''Níkos'') is a Greek given name. It originates from Greek ''Nikolaos'', which means "victory of the people".Liddell & Scott, Abridged Greek Lexicon Although used as a proper first name, Nikos is also a popular nickname of the original ...

also played. He left Apollon, due to argues with their coach, but also disappointed by the behavior of a part of the fans towards them, while they also had pending financial issues with the team's management. In the summer of 1972, he moved to Panegialios. In the summer of 1974, he was transferred to Acharnaikos. He played for

Athinaikos Athinaikos A.C. (, full name Athinaikos Athletic Club) is a Greek multisport-club, founded in 1917. It is based in Vyronas, a suburb east of Athens. Athinaikos has football, basketball, and handball teams. Its achievements comprise Panhellenic ch ...

and

Ilioupoli Ilioupoli (, " Sun City") is a suburban municipality and a town in Central Athens regional unit and located in the central-southern part of the Athens agglomeration. Its name is the modern form of the ancient name of Heliopolis in Egypt ...

for one season each, before returning to Athninaikos to end his career in 1978.

Personal life

His brother,

was also a footballer, who played mainly for Apollon Athens, where they played together, while he was also his coach at Ilioupoli. Since the end of his career as a footballer, Simigdalas is constantly "close" to his beloved AEK, while he also has a very strong participation in their Veterans' Association. He is also the coach of the veteran team of AEK.

Honours

AEK Athens *

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 ...

: 1967–68 *

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 ...

: 1963–64, 1965–66

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simigdalas, Michalis 1944 births Living people Super League Greece players AEK Athens F.C. players Apollon Smyrnis F.C. players Panegialios F.C. players Acharnaikos F.C. players Athinaikos F.C. players GS Ilioupolis players Men's association football midfielders Footballers from Athens Greek men's footballers 20th-century Greek sportsmen