Nikos Christidis (; born 2 August 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 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

Christidis started his football career in the youth divisions of

Aris Aris or ARIS may refer to: People * Aris (surname) Given name * Aris Alexandrou, Greek writer * Aris Brimanis, ice hockey player * Aris Christofellis, Greek male soprano * Aris Gavelas, Greek sprinter * Aris Konstantinidis, Greek architect * ...

. In 1961 he was promoted to the first team where 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 ...

in 1970. He was for years the club's main goalkeeper, until 1974 when he was accused of bribery in a match against

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, ...

by Aris president, Kampanis. As a result, he was released from the club and he was punished with a three-year suspension from all sporting activities by the General Secretariat of Sports and was banned from Aris for life, however many years later he was vindicated. In the summer of 1974, he played in the

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its ...

with Toronto Homer. In 1976,

Loukas Barlos Loukas Barlos (; 1920 – 20 October 1999) was a Greek businessman who served as the twenty third president of AEK Athens F.C. from 1974 until 1981. Early life Barlos was born and raised in Thessaloniki, but his place of origin was Distomo in B ...

decided to sign him to join

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 ...

. On 16 March 1977, in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

match against QPR, while the game was at the extra time and was heading to a penalty shoot-out,

František Fadrhonc František Fadrhonc (18 December 1914 – 9 October 1981) was a Czech football manager, who was born in Nymburk, Austria-Hungary, present day Czech Republic. He coached many teams in Europe, mostly in the Netherlands. After winning the Dutch cham ...

decided to replace his main goalkeeper, Lakis Stergioudas with Christidis. His 2 penalty saves sent AEK 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 tournament. He stayed at AEK, where he won the 1978 double, the 1979

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 ...

and finished his career in 1982, when he was 38 years old.

International career

Christidis played for Greece U19 6 times. He was also the main goalkeeper of the squad that competed in the

European Championship A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

of 1963. Christidis made 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 ...

26 appearances, between 1964 and 1978, four of which as a captain.

Managerial career

After Christidis ended his playing career and worked for many years as assistant coach and as the goalkeeping coach for AEK. He also worked as a first coach mainly in teams of smaller divisions. He assumed the position of coach initially as an interim on 26 April 1987, when a two-month exclusion sentence was imposed on the then coach of AEK,

Nikos Alefantos Nikos Alefantos (, 3 January 1939 – 23 June 2020) was a Greek professional footballer and football coach. He is regarded as one of the most innovative football managers of the 20th century, known in Greece for his phlegmatic personality, sho ...

. But shortly after Alefantos was fired and Christidis took over until the end of the season. He occasionally managed various clubs such as A.O. Karditsa, Ionikos, Edessaikos,

Kalamata Kalamata ( ) is the second most populous city of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece after Patras, and the largest city of the Peloponnese (region), homonymous administrative region. As the capital and chief port of the Messenia regiona ...

, Paniliakos,

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

Trikala Trikala () is a city in northwestern Thessaly, Greece, and the capital of the Trikala (regional unit), Trikala regional unit. The city straddles the Lithaios river, which is a tributary of Pineios (Thessaly), Pineios. According to the Greek Natio ...

and

Chania Chania (, , ), also sometimes romanization of Greek, romanized as Hania, is a city in Greece and the capital of the Chania (regional unit), Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast of the island Crete, about west of Rethymno ...

. In 1996 he was in charge of infrastructure departments at AEK. In 1998 he worked as an assistant to Giannis Kollias in Greece U21 and in 2000 as an assistant to Vasilis Daniil in Greece, while in 2001 he was their first coach, in a friendly match against

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, before

Otto Rehhagel Otto Rehhagel (; born 9 August 1938) is a German former Association football, football coach and player. Rehhagel is one of only two people who, as player and manager combined, has participated in over 1,000 Bundesliga matches (the other bein ...

took over the technical leadership.

Honours

Aris *

: 1969–1970 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 ...

: 1977–78, 1978–79 *Greek Cup: 1977–1978

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Christidis, Nikos 1944 births Living people Men's association football goalkeepers Greece national football team managers AEK Athens F.C. players Greek men's footballers Greece men's international footballers Aris Thessaloniki F.C. players Greek football managers Canadian National Soccer League players AEK Athens F.C. managers Kalamata F.C. managers Paniliakos F.C. managers AEK Athens F.C. non-playing staff Footballers from Thessaloniki Association football coaches Association football goalkeeping coaches Greek expatriate men's footballers Greek expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada 20th-century Greek sportsmen