Mimis Papaioannou

Mimis Papaioannou

Personal information
Full name	Dimitris Papaioannou
Date of birth	25 November 1942 (1942-11-25) (age 68)
Place of birth	Greece
Playing position	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1961–1980	AEK Athens[1]	481	(234)
1980–1983	New York Pancyprian-Freedoms
National team
1963–1978	Greece	61	(21)
Teams managed
	Kerkyra
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Dimitris "Mimis" Papaioannou (Greek: Δημήτρης Παπαϊωάννου, born 25 November 1942) was one of the star football players of AEK Athens FC. He was born in 1942 and began his career at Nea Genea in the town of Nea Nikomedia (now a part of Veria), Imathia Prefecture. He joined AEK in time for the 1963 season for the paltry sum of 140,000 drachmas. Papaioannou proved an instant success helping AEK win their first post-World War II title, scoring twice in the final playoff game of the season against Panathinaikos FC.

The following year he was crowned top scorer of Greece replacing teammate Kostas Nestoridis who had, up until that year, won the title five consecutive times. Papaioannou would help AEK win championships again in 1968, 1971, 1978 and 1979. In 1980, Papaioannou left Greece to continue his career at N.Y. Pancyprian-Freedoms, as a player-coach. He led the club to win both the Cosmopolitan Soccer League and the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and attracted the attention of NASL scouts when he was almost 40 years old.^{[citation needed]}

When his playing career was finally over, Papaioannou tried his hand at coaching (Kerkyra FC, etc.) without much success. He scored a record 234 goals in 481 games in the Greek A League which was to be surpassed by his teammate Thomas Mavros. He was given the award of statistically the Best Greek Football Player ever to play the game. Papaioannou was capped 61 times by the Greek National Football Team scoring 21 goals. During his career many teams sought his services, most notably Real Madrid during the mid-1960s.

Honours

AEK Athens

• Greek Championship: 1963, 1968, 1971, 1978, 1979
• Greek Cup: 1964, 1966, 1978

New York Pancyprian-Freedoms

• Cosmopolitan Soccer League: 1980
• Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup: 1980

Individual

• Greek Championship Top Goalscorer: 1964, 1966
• Greek football player of the century

References

1. ^ http://www.iffhs.de/?b4a390f03be4ac07cda17b45fdcdc3bfcdc0aec70aed02

External links

• Profile at phantis.com

Persondata
Name	Papaioannou, Mimis
Alternative names
Short description	footballer
Date of birth	25 November 1942
Place of birth	Greece
Date of death
Place of death