Themis Rigas (; born 1945 - died 13 January 1984), popularly nicknamed The Train, was 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 ...

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 ...

born in

Patras Patras (; ; Katharevousa and ; ) is Greece's List of cities in Greece, third-largest city and the regional capital and largest city of Western Greece, in the northern Peloponnese, west of Athens. The city is built at the foot of Mount Panachaiko ...

. One of the fastest and most talented wingers of his generation, he was a member of the great

Panachaiki Panachaiki G.E. (Greek: Παναχαϊκή Γυμναστική Ένωση, ''Panachaiki Gymnastiki Enosi'', "Pan- Achaean Gymnastic Union") is a Greek multi-sport club based in the city of Patras, Greece. The history of Panachaiki began in 1891, ...

football team that impressed

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 ...

in the seventies and qualified to the 1974 UEFA Cup. In 1974, he played abroad 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. He died in a domestic accident in 1984, at the age of 39, leaving behind him the

family without one of its most eminent members.

Statistics

Themis Rigas had 165 First Division appearances for

and scored 23 goals.

References

Notes

Rsssf, website about football statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rigas, Themis 1945 births 1984 deaths Panachaiki F.C. players Greek men's footballers Greek expatriate men's footballers Toronto Blizzard (1971–1984) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada Greek expatriate sportspeople in Canada Accidental deaths in Greece Men's association football midfielders Canadian National Soccer League players Footballers from Patras 20th-century Greek sportsmen