Stathis Aloneftis ( Στάθης Αλωνεύτης born 29 March 1983) is a Cypriot international

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 ...

. He is a winger who tends to play on the left wing, highly regarded for his speed and technique.

Club career

Omonia Nicosia

Born in

Nicosia Nicosia, also known as Lefkosia and Lefkoşa, is the capital and largest city of Cyprus. It is the southeasternmost of all EU member states' capital cities. Nicosia has been continuously inhabited for over 5,500 years and has been the capi ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

, Aloneftis began his professional career playing for Omonia, making his first appearance for the senior squad during the 2000–01 season however his real talent became apparent during 2003–04. His successes with Omonia include one

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 ...

(

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

), one

super cup A super cup is a competition, in association football, basketball, handball, volleyball and rugby union which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competi ...

(2001) and one

cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

in 2005.

Larissa

He then moved to the Greek club

Larissa Larissa (; , , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 148,562 in the city proper, according to the 2021 census. It is also the capital of the Larissa ...

on 22 June 2005, for a transfer fee of CYP £136,000. The 2006–07 season was good for Aloneftis and in January 2007 he went on trial to

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional association football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English f ...

, but no move was materialised. At the end of the same season he played with his team in the Cup final, where he was in the starting lineup and his team beat 2–1 Panathinaikos and won the Cup.

Energie Cottbus

On 31 May 2007, German side

Energie Cottbus FC Energie Cottbus (Lower Sorbian: ''Energija Chóśebuz'') is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany. After the German reunification, reunificatio ...

announced the signing of Aloneftis on free transfer under the

Bosman ruling ''Union Royale Belge des Sociétés de Football Association ASBL v Jean-Marc Bosman'' (1995) C-415/93 (known as the Bosman ruling) is a 1995 European Court of Justice decision concerning freedom of movement for workers, freedom of associati ...

, making him the first Cypriot to compete in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

Return to Omonia

On 28 June 2008, he returned to Omonia and signed a five-year contract. He helped the club to win one

(

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

), two cups (

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

) and one

(2010). He mutually terminated his contract with the club on 1 June 2012.

APOEL

On 8 June 2012, Aloneftis signed a three-year contract with APOEL. At the end of the season, he became a champion after helping APOEL to win the 2012–13 Cypriot First Division. During the 2013–14 season, he appeared in five 2013–14 UEFA Europa League group stage matches for APOEL and managed to win all the titles in Cyprus, the Cypriot League, the

Cypriot Cup The Cypriot Cup, formally known as the Cypriot Coca-Cola Cup of First and Second Division () for sponsorship purposes, is a Cypriot knockout football club competition, hosted annually by the Cyprus Football Association. First held in 1934, it i ...

and the

Cypriot Super Cup The Cypriot Super Cup is a Cypriot football trophy, contested in an annual match between the previous season's Cypriot First Division champions, and the Cypriot Cup winners. The match is contested at the beginning of the football season, and is ...

. On 26 August 2014, Aloneftis came on as a 61st-minute substitute and three minutes later he scored the third goal in APOEL's 4–0 triumph over Aalborg BK for the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

play-off round, helping his team reach to the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

of the

. Aloneftis appeared in five group stage matches in APOEL's

2014–15 UEFA Champions League The 2014–15 UEFA Champions League was the 60th season of Europe's premier club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 23rd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions Lea ...

campaign. In the 2014–15 season, he managed to add two more titles to his collection, as APOEL won again both the Cypriot

and the

. On 2 March 2017, Aloneftis signed a one-year contract extension with APOEL, running until 31 May 2018.

International career

Aloneftis is a regular pick for the

Cyprus national football team The Cyprus national football team (, ) represents Cyprus in men's international Association football, football and is controlled by the Cyprus Football Association. The team's home ground is the AEK Arena – Georgios Karapatakis, AEK Arena in L ...

. He is capped 60 times and scored 10 goals. He made his national team debut on 30 March 2005 against

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification match. He scored his first goal on 7 September 2005 against

in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Cyprus' goal tally first.''

Honours

; Omonia *

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division (), also known as the Cyprus League by Stoiximan for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Cyprus and the highest level of the Cypriot football league system. Operated by the Cyprus Fo ...

: 2002–03, 2009–10 *

: 2004–05, 2010–11, 2011–12 *

: 2003, 2010 ;

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 ...

: 2006–07 ; APOEL *

: 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19 *

: 2013–14, 2014–15 *

: 2013

References

External links

APOEL official profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aloneftis, Efstathios 1983 births Living people Cypriot men's footballers Men's association football midfielders AC Omonia players Athlitiki Enosi Larissa F.C. players FC Energie Cottbus players APOEL FC players Footballers from Nicosia Cypriot First Division players Super League Greece players Bundesliga players Cypriot expatriate men's footballers 21st-century Cypriot sportsmen Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Cyprus men's international footballers