Stelios Giannakopoulos

Football player infobox
playername = Stelios Giannakopoulos


fullname = Stylianos Giannakopoulos
Στυλιανός Γιαννακόπουλος
nickname =
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1974|7|12
cityofbirth = Athens
countryofbirth = Greece
height = height|m=1.74
weight =
position = Right Winger
currentclub = Hull City
clubnumber = 33
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 1992–1993
1993–1996
1996–2003
2003–2008
2008–
clubs = Ethnikos Asteras
Paniliakos
Olympiacos
Bolton Wanderers
Hull City
caps(goals) =032 00(6)
084 0(26)
161 0(49)
137 0(20)
000 00(0)
youthyears =
youthclubs =
nationalyears = 1997–
nationalteam = Greece
nationalcaps(goals) = 077 0(12)
pcupdate = 15:07, 17 May 2008
ntupdate = 20:59, 19 June 2008

Stylianos Giannakopoulos (Greek: Στυλιανός Γιαννακόπουλος), popularly known as Stelios (born July 12, 1974 in Athens, Greece), is a Greek football player who plays for Hull City as a midfielder.

Club career

Early career

Stelios is the second son of Alekos Giannakopoulos, a retired football player who had enjoyed Division A football in the 60's. He joined Ethnikos Asteras (the semi-professional club of his neighbourhood Kaisariani) when he was seven years old, later moved for one year to Doxa Vyronas, and finally made his first-team debut for Ethnikos Asteras in the autumn of 1991 [ [http://www.doxavyrona.gr/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=33] Official site of Doxa Vyrona] , in a season which ended with the club winning promotion to the professional Division C. Next year, in his opening season as a professional, the young winger found himself scoring six goals and impressing the scouters of clubs that participated in higher divisions. In the summer of 1993 he moved to Paniliakos; he stayed there for three years, scoring 26 goals in 84 games and establishing himself as a member of the national U21 team.

Olympiacos

Having attracted the attention of the top clubs, Stelios signed in the summer of 1996 for Olympiacos. He spent there seven successful seasons as a regular player, making a total of 189 appearances and scoring 63 goals in all competitions. Olympiacos won the Greek championship in every single season while Stelios was with them and reached the quarter finals of the Champions League during the 1998-99 season. Stelios also has the prestige of scoring Olympiacos' first ever Champions League goal, a 40-meters lob, which led to their first win in the competition against FC Porto. To this day Giannakopoulos regularly attends special events at his former club and is considered a legend by the fans, notably for the determination he put into every match including the derbies against arch-rivals Panathinaikos FC and AEK Athens FC where he scored many of his finest goals.

Bolton Wanderers

However, after ten years of professional football in Greece he was snapped up by Bolton Wanderers. The manager at the time Sam Allardyce described Stelios as "...an attacking midfielder who knows how to score goals. His main attribute remains his ability to make late runs into the penalty area and his flair to shoot accurately from range [ [http://www.4thegame.com/club/bolton-wanderers-fc/player-profile/3991/steliosgiannakopoulos.html Stelios Giannakopoulos profile] 4THEGAME.com ] ." It was at this point that the popular name 'Stelios' came about as the player unconventionally chose for his first name to be printed on his shirt instead of his very long (and difficult for the English journalists) surname. He made his Bolton début against Manchester United and helped Bolton reach the 2004 Carling Cup final and their highest ever Premier League finish in his first season. His fine form continued in to the next two seasons with one of the highlights being the winning goal he scored against Arsenal in an FA Cup Fourth round match played at the Reebok Stadium on January 28 2006. Stelios' success for the club was demonstrated by the fact that both Manchester City and Liverpool openly expressed interst in signing him before he signed a new contract with Bolton in August 2005 [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/bolton_wanderers/4187800.stm Stelios commits future to Bolton] BBC article, August 2005] . The 2005/2006 season was Stelios' most successful as he was top scorer for Bolton with 12 goals, an impressive tally for a midfielder. His form dipped slightly in the 2006/2007 season where he missed several games through injury and failed to score any goals although he was still a regular player for the club with 23 games.

With Sam Allardyce leaving the club at the start of the 2007-08 season and only a year left on his contract, there were rumours of Stelios moving to another "Premier League" club or returning to Greece. However Stelios stayed at Bolton and although he was not as regular a player as previous seasons (due to injury and managerial changes) he was able to help Bolton with a string of late goals. The first one during injury time in the Carling Cup 3rd round tie against Fulham FC at Craven Cottage, the second one in the Uefa Cup, when Stelios scored in the 3rd minute of injury time to salvage a 1-1 draw against Aris Salonica and the third one in a "Premier League" game versus Derby when Stelios again scored in injury time to earn Bolton a much needed 3 points in what was a poor season for the team. His last ever goal for Bolton was a crucial one and came on April 26 2008 when he scored in the 1-1 draw against Tottenham Hotspur F.C. helping Bolton avoid relegation.

At the end of the season Stelios was not offered a new contract and was released by the club [ [http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11095_3575985,00.html Bolton to release trio] ] fuelling speculation that he would be returning to his native Greece and finishing off his career at Olympiacos. However the player confirmed that he would prefer to stay in the Premier League, and was subsequently linked with a move to newly promoted English Premier League side Hull City, after interest from their new manager Phil Brown who worked with Stelios at Bolton [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/hull_city/7461929.stm Hull keen on Greek international] BBC article, June 2008] .

Hull City

On the 22nd of September 2008 it was confirmed by Hull that they had signed Stelios on a one year deal. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/hull_city/7630189.stm Hull agree to sign Giannakopoulos] BBC article, September 2008] He will wear the No. 33.

Trivia

*Stelios has the distinction of being part of the substitution that holds the record of the largest difference between the number of letters in the surnames of two players in a "Premier League" substitution. The difference was 12 letters when he was replaced by Ibrahim Ba during a league game for Bolton Wanderers on January 31 2004 [ [http://www.soccerbase.com/results3.sd?gameid=413008 Soccerbase] soccerbase.com] ."

*As a child, Stelios and his family were massive Panathinaikos fans. Yet soon after joining their arch-rivals Olympiacos, Stelios completely changed his ways, and today claims to be one of the biggest Olympiacos fans out there.

* When Stelios made his debut in Champions League with Olympiakos, it was the first time in greek football that both a father and his son had played a match of this competition; his father Alekos had played with Panathinaikos in European Champion Clubs' Cup in the 60's. He was followed some years later by Michalis Kapsis (son of 1971 finalist Anthimos) and Georgios Samaras (son of Ioannis).

International career

Stelios made his international debut on 12 March 1997 against Cyprus. One of his most important and memorable goals with the Greek national team was in a 1-0 away victory against Spain, in a EURO 2004 qualifier which ensured automatic qualification for Greece. He was also one of the key players that featured in the team which were victorious in the 2004 European Football Championship. Following this success, Giannakopoulos would remain a key part of the national team, becoming Greece's top scorer in their failed 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign. He is still an active member of the national team and was amongs the squad that unsuccessfuly defended their title at the Euro 2008 competition.

Honours

Olympiacos
* Greek Championship: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003
* Greek Cup: 1999

"'Bolton
* Premier League Asia Trophy: 2005

"'Greece
* Euro 2004: Champions

Individual
* Greek Footballer of the Year: 2003
* Greek Second Division best player: 1995

References

External links

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