Greek Football in General Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1979

Although it's somewhat hard to believe, the football clubs in Greece were not professional until 1979. Many blame this for the fact that the Greek football is not as well organised and developed as in other same-sized European countries (e.g. the Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium etc.).

In 1959 the first national league was organised. Until then there were regional leagues dating back to 1928 and play-off matches between the winners of each to claim the national title.

Answer: Larissa

Until 1988, the title was dominated by Athens-based AEK, Olympiakos and Panathinaikos and by Thessaloniki-based PAOK and Aris. Larissa broke that tradition and thus became popular among many Greek football fans for that achievement.

Answer: European Championship 1980

In 1980, in Italy, Greece finally made it to a major tournament for the first time in the national team's history. They suffered defeats in the first two games against the Netherlands (0-1) and Czechoslovakia (1-3) but earned a prestigious draw in their third and final match against the eventual winners of the tournament, West Germany (0-0). Thus, priot to Euro 2004, Greece had not own a matcg in a finals tournament!

Answer: Atletico Madrid

Nikolaidis made his name at Apollon Athens, scoring 33 goals in just 2 seasons with them. In 1996, AEK and Olympiakos battled for his signature with the latter offering him a better contract but Nikolaidis chose AEK, as he'd been an AEK fan since childhood. AEK fans absolutely adored him for this but his love for the club made him reluctant to leave for a bigger club abroad.

He finally took the plunge in 2003 at the age of 30 when he signed at Atletico Madrid. He only played one season there, scoring 6 goals in 22 appearances in the process.

After retiring in 2004, he returned to Greece to become AEK's president.

Answer: Eugene Gerards

The Dutchman, who has become a Cretan having spent so many years there, led OFI to European qualification on 5 occasions and to winning the Greek Cup in 1987. His remarkable accomplishment is further enhanced by the fact that the football clubs' owners and presidents in Greece tend to change managers like shirts. Samaras was a player of OFI at that time (and in 2000 succeeded Gerards for one season) while both Bajevic and Gmoch worked for various Greek clubs during that period but not for OFI.

Answer: Aris

Charisteas made his debut in 1998 wearing the Aris shirt in an away game against bitter rivals PAOK which ended victorious for the visitors Aris (1-4). The, then, 18-year-old Charisteas impressed everyone scoring 2 goals. Later that season he went to second division club Athinaikos on loan, but quickly returned to become a regular for Aris and the national team in the following years.

In the summer of 2002 he was transferred to Werder Bremen, and in January of 2005 to Ajax Amsterdam.

Answer: 7

Olympiakos managed to win an amazing 7 titles in a row (1997-2003) to become the most sucessful club team in the history of Greek football. Their previous record of 6 titles was set from 1954 to 1959.

Answer: Tassos Mitropoulos

Passionate and painfully outspoken on and off field, Mitropoulos was a real crowd favourite during his days at Olympiakos and a man who the other teams' fans loved to hate. Surprisingly enough, he was transferred to AEK in 1992 where he stayed for two seasons.

He also scored a goal against his beloved Olympiakos which was followed by a memorable celebration. But Mitropoulos had another surprise for the Greek fans, an even bigger one: in 1994 he moved to Panathinaikos, a club which he had publicly declared in the past that he hated! Of course the fans of Panathinaikos didn't like this at all and so he was forced out of the club after just 3 months (and only 2 appearances).

After subsequent short spells with Iraklis and Ethnikos, he returned to Olympiakos in 1997 although many fans hadn't forgiven him for his earlier behaviour.

The last match of his career was against Rosenborg in the Champions League at the age of 40. The other three (Alexanddris, Saravakos and Apostolakis), only played for two of the three clubs during their career.

Answer: He played wearing the #1 shirt at his club although he's not a goalkeeper

A strange choice for Kafes, he has been making the same number one since 2001 when he was a PAOK player. He was a member of the Euro 2004 squad but he couldn't choose that number as the UEFA regulations for the international tournaments say that the number 1 shirt must be given to a goalkeeper. The three incorrect answers are completely fictitous.

Answer: Giorgos Donis (Blackburn Rovers)

A pacey right winger, Donis moved to Blackburn from Panathinaikos in 1996 after helping the Greek club to reach the Champions League semi-finals in 1995-96. Rovers signed him on a free transfer, making use of the, then recent, Bosman rule. He had two not so successful seasons with them before heading back home to play for AEK. Later he moved to England again, this time for Huddersfield Town.

As for the other three, both Dabizas and Zagorakis moved to England two years later, in 1998, while Lazaridis is an Australian international despite the fact that he has Greek roots (he moved to the Hammers in 1995).