Spyros Ikonomopoulos (; born 26 October 1959) 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 Goalkeeper

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 ...

for

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 ...

. He was voted Best Greek Player of the Season in 1989.

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 (; born 2 August 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 was promoted to the first team where he ...

Lakis Stergioudas Triantafyllos "Lakis" Stergioudas (; born 11 December 1952) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career Stergioudas started playing football in the academy of the amateur club of his birthplace, Thermaikos ...

Christos Arvanitis Christos Arvanitis (; born 23 January 1957) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career Arvanitis started his football career playing for the youth departments of Ethnikos Piraeus. He was then promoted to ...

and

Theologis Papadopoulos Theologis Papadopoulos (; born 12 January 1960) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career Papadopoulos started playing football in 1974 from the amateur team Eleftheriakos Eleftherion, while he became mor ...

, so the competition for the spot was particularly tough. In 1988, however, under

Dušan Bajević Dušan "Duško" Bajević ( sr-Cyrl, Душан Бајевић, ; , ''Doúsan Báyevits''; born 10 December 1948) is a Bosnian professional football manager and former player. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Bosnian football manager ...

, 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 (, born 4 May 1958) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career Minou began his career with Almopos Aridea, signing for Kastoria in 1980, and two years later, he moved to Panathinaikos, wher ...

. 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 (; 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 regularly in his village team at the a ...

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, 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 ...

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

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

, when under the instructions of

Miltos Papapostolou Miltiadis "Miltos" Papapostolou (, 9 September 1935 – 2 February 2017) was a Greek professional footballer and manager. Club career Papapostolou started his career at Omvros Omvriakis, where in 1951 he joined Egaleo. He played there for 5 sea ...

, the coach who established him some years earlier at AEK, he replaced

Giorgos Plitsis Georgios Plitsis (born 10 August 1963) is a former football goalkeeper. He played for AEL, Olympiacos and Iraklis. International career Plitsis appeared in 20 matches for the senior Greece national football team from 1982 to 1991. Honours AE ...

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

International

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 ...

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

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 ...

: 1982–83, 1995–96 *

Greek Super Cup The Greek Super Cup (), formerly known as the Friendship and Solidarity Cup () is a Greek association football one-match competition, which is contested annually either between the champions of the previous Super League Greece season and the hold ...

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

Greek League Cup The Greek League Cup (), officially known as the EPAE Cup () was a Greek association football competition, took place only once, in the 1989–90 season. On 2 June 1990 AEK Athens became the only winner of the institution after winning Olympiaco ...

: 1990 Individual *Best Greek Player of the Season: 1988–89

References

External links

* {{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 20th-century Greek sportsmen