Spyros Ikonomopoulos ( el, Σπύρος Οικονομόπουλος; born 26 July 1959) is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece 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 ...

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 le ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring 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 intercepting o ...

for

AEK Athens A.E.K ( el, AEK , formally Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople''), known as A.E.K, is a major Greece, Greek multi-sport club based in Nea ...

Club career

Ikonomopoulos started his football career from the amateur club of his hometown, AO Akratas, from where in 1976,at the age of 18, he joined the youth team of

. He played his debut match with the men's team at 26 December 1977, where the professional footballers went on a strike and the clubs had to compete with amateurs. The following year was promoted to the first team, where he played 19 years, until the end of his career. In his first seasons Ikonomopoulos had the "misfortune" to coexist at times with several other great goalkeepers, such as

Nikos Christidis Nikos Christidis (Greek: Νίκος Χρηστίδης; born 18 September 1944) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career Christidis started his football career in the youth divisions of Aris. In 1961 he w ...

Lakis Stergioudas Triantafyllos "Lakis" Stergioudas ( el, Τριαντάφυλλος "Λάκης" Στεργιούδας; born 11 December 1952) is Greek former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career Stergioudas started playing football ...

, Christos Arvanitis and Theologis Papadopoulos, so the competition for the spot was particularly tough. In 1988, however, under

Dušan Bajević Dušan "Duško" Bajević ( sr-Cyrl, Душан Бајевић, ; gr, Ντούσαν Μπάγεβιτς, ''Doúsan Báyevits''; born 10 December 1948) is a Bosnian professional Manager (association football), football manager and former player. H ...

, he started in all the matches of the season, where he saved three penalties and effectively gave AEK their first league title in 10 years. At that time the fans gave him the nickname "Mr. Championship 1989". At the start of the following year, some unfortunate performances led to his gradual decommissioning, eventually resulting in him losing his position from

Antonis Minou Antonis Minou ( el, Αντώνης Μήνου, born 4 May 1958) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career Minou took his first football steps in Almopos Aridea and to Kastoria in 1980 and two years later ...

. He did not manage to make any appearances in the league, for the entire three years from 1992 to 1994, when AEK won the same number of titles. The arrival of

Ilias Atmatsidis Ilias Atmatsidis ( el, Ηλίας Ατματσίδης; born 24 April 1969) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is the Director of Football at AEK Athens B. Club career Atmatsidis started playing football re ...

in the team forced him to retire officially, in the summer of 1996, at the age of 37.

International career

Ikonomopoulos played a total of 12 times with

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, between 1984 and 1989. His debut took place on 12 September 1984 in an away friendly against

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

, when under the instructions of

Miltos Papapostolou Miltiadis "Miltos" Papapostolou ( el, Μιλτιάδης "Μίλτος" Παπαποστόλου, 9 September 1935 – 2 February 2017) was a Greek professional footballer and manager. Club career Papapostolou started his career at Omvros Omvri ...

, the coach who established him some years earlier at AEK, he replaced Giorgos Plitsis at half-time.

After football

After the end of his football career, he returned to Akrata, where he developed a business activity. At some point, the AEK administration announced its decision to hold a friendly match in his honor, but it never materialized.

Career statistics

Club

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

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup ( el, Κύπελλο Ελλάδος Ποδοσφαίρου), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Kypello Elladas is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second most im ...

!colspan=2,

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

!colspan=2, Total , - !Season!!Club!!League !Apps!!Goals !Apps!!Goals !Apps!!Goals !Apps!!Goals , - , 1977–78 , rowspan=19,

, rowspan=19,

Alpha Ethniki The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...

, 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 1, , 0 , - , 1978–79 , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0 , - , 1979–80 , 8, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 8, , 0 , - , 1980–81 , 26, , 0, , 6, , 0, , 1, , 0, , 33, , 0 , - , 1981–82 , 12, , 0, , 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 13, , 0 , - , 1982–83 , 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 1, , 0 , - , 1983–84 , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0 , - , 1984–85 , 2, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 2, , 0 , - , 1985–86 , 1, , 0, , 2, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 3, , 0 , - , 1986–87 , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0 , - , 1987–88 , 4, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 4, , 0 , - , 1988–89 , 30, , 0, , 4, , 0, , 2, , 0, , 36, , 0 , - , 1989–90 , 8, , 0, , 1, , 0, , 4, , 0, , 13, , 0 , - , 1990–91 , 2, , 0, , 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 3, , 0 , - , 1991–92 , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0 , - , 1992–93 , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0 , - , 1993–94 , 2, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 2, , 0 , - , 1994–95 , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0 , - , 1995–96 , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0 , - ! colspan=3, Career total !95, , 0, , 17, , 0, , 7, , 0, , 119, , 0

Honours

AEK Athens *

: 1977–78, 1978–79, 1988–89, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94 *

: 1982–83, 1995–96, 1996–97 *

Greek Super Cup The Greek Super Cup ( el, Σούπερ Καπ Ελλάδος), officially known as the Cup of Friendship and Solidarity ( el, Κύπελλο Φιλίας και Αλληλεγγύης) was a Greek Football (soccer), association football one-match ...

: 1989, 1996 *

Greek League Cup The EPAE Cup, known as the Greek League Cup, a now defunct football competition, took place only once, in the year 1989–90 season. AEK Athens is the only winner of the League Cup, beating Panionios (3–3 and 3–1 on penalties), Aris (5–2), Le ...

: 1990

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ikonomopoulos, Spyros Greek men's footballers Living people Men's association football goalkeepers 1959 births Greece men's international footballers Super League Greece players AEK Athens F.C. players People from Akrata Footballers from Western Greece