Dimitrios Papadopoulos
Encyclopedia
Dimitrios Papadopoulos ' onMouseout='HidePop("89453")' href="/topics/Tashkent">Tashkent
Tashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...

, Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....

 – then part of Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

) is a Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 footballer, currently playing for Celta Vigo.

Akratitos FC

He started his career from the youth academies of Greek minnows Akratitos, and made his debut in 1999, contributing to the team's promotion to Alfa Ethniki in 2001 for its first time in history.

Burnley

Shorthly after he was transferred to Burnley in England, where he stayed for 2 seasons, playing a total of 43 games and scoring 8 goals. On 20 August 2002 he won his first cap for Greece
Greece national football team
The Greece national football team represents Greece in association football and is controlled by the Hellenic Football Federation, the governing body for football in Greece. Greece's home ground is Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus and their head coach is Fernando Santos...

.

Panathinaikos FC

In July 2003 he moved to Panathinaikos
Panathinaikos FC
Panathinaikos Football Club is a Greek professional football club based in Athens. Founded in 1908, they play in the Super League Greece and are one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Greek football history. They have won 20 Greek Championships and 17 Greek Cups.Panathinaikos is the most...

. He starred in his very first season with the team, becoming its top scorer with 17 goals in 26 games in the 2003/4 double winning season for Panathinaikos
Panathinaikos FC
Panathinaikos Football Club is a Greek professional football club based in Athens. Founded in 1908, they play in the Super League Greece and are one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Greek football history. They have won 20 Greek Championships and 17 Greek Cups.Panathinaikos is the most...

 which marked the team's first championship honor in almost 10 years of Olympiakos domination in Greek championship.

He was subsequently voted best footballer of that year in the league and was awarded a place in the Euro 2004 Greek squad that went on to win the tournament. He played in the game against Russia
Russia national football team
The Russia national football team represents Russia in association football and is controlled by the Russian Football Union , the governing body for football in Russia. Russia's home grounds are Luzhniki Stadium, Lokomotiv Stadium , and Petrovsky Stadium in St.Petersburg and their head coach is...

 and had a contribution in Greece goal that determined its qualification to the next round. He also took part in the Greek Olympic Football team during the Olympic Games of Athens 2004 in the very same summer.

He has been since an integral part of Panathinaikos
Panathinaikos FC
Panathinaikos Football Club is a Greek professional football club based in Athens. Founded in 1908, they play in the Super League Greece and are one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Greek football history. They have won 20 Greek Championships and 17 Greek Cups.Panathinaikos is the most...

 offense signing a 3 year extension with the team in the summer of 2006 and his stellar performances were one of the reasons that the team's board let fellow start Michalis Konstantinou
Michalis Konstantinou
Michalis Konstantinou is a Cypriot football striker. He plays for the Cyprus national football team, and is already the all-time leading scorer with 32 goals in 80 appearances....

 leave the team. Thus far he has earned 24 caps scoring 3 times for the national team.

U.S. Lecce

On 13 November 2008 Serie A
Serie A
Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...

 club Lecce
U.S. Lecce
Unione Sportiva Lecce or simply U.S. Lecce is an Italian football club based in Lecce, Apulia who play in the Italian Serie A. After being crowned Serie B champions in 2009–10, the team successfully managed to avoid relegation in 2010-11....

 announced to have signed Papadopoulos in a free transfer.
He made his Italian Serie A debut for Lecce on 18 January 2009 in a home match at the Stadio Via del Mare
Stadio Via del Mare
Stadio Via del Mare is a multi-purpose stadium in Lecce, Italy. It is mostly used for football matches and is the home of U.S. Lecce. The stadium was built in 1966 and holds 33,876. It takes its name from the street leading to the sea.-History:...

  against Genoa C.F.C.
Genoa C.F.C.
Genoa Cricket and Football Club, commonly referred to simply as Genoa , is a professional Italian football club based in the city of Genoa, Liguria...

 coming on as a substitute for Gianni Munari
Gianni Munari
Gianni Munari is an Italian footballer presently playing with Fiorentina.-Career:Munari started his career with hometown club Sassuolo, after being promoted to the senior squad from the youth team. He scored 2 goals in 49 appearances during his two-year spell with the club...

 late in the match. He scored his first goal in the Serie A on 19 April against A.S. Roma
A.S. Roma
Associazione Sportiva Roma, commonly referred to as simply Roma, is a professional Italian football club based in Rome. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma have participated in the top-tier of Italian football for all of their existence but one season in the early 50s...

 at the Stadio Olimpico
Stadio Olimpico
The Stadio Olimpico is the main and largest sports facility of Rome, Italy. It is located within the Foro Italico sports complex on the north of the city. An asset of the Italian National Olympic Committee, the structure is intended primarily for football...

.

Dinamo Zagreb

On 26 June 2009 he signed a three year contract worth 650 000€ per year with the Croatian champion Dinamo Zagreb
Dinamo Zagreb
GNK Dinamo Zagreb, commonly referred to as Dinamo Zagreb , or by their nickname Modri are a Croatian football club based in Zagreb. They play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Croatian football, having won thirteen Croatian championship titles, ten...

.
Dimitrios Papadopoulos starts to play more regularly and even though in March 2010 goes to Celta Vigo for his contribution to the Dinamo Zagreb
Dinamo Zagreb
GNK Dinamo Zagreb, commonly referred to as Dinamo Zagreb , or by their nickname Modri are a Croatian football club based in Zagreb. They play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Croatian football, having won thirteen Croatian championship titles, ten...

, scoring goals to go forward in the Croatian cup and the Croatian League to win the Croatian title.

Celta Vigo

On 22 January 2010, Papadopoulos signed a contract with Celta Vigo until the end of the season. Things looked good for him, but in late April, he got injured and was unable to play quite regularly. During the next summer, Celta Vigo signed striker David Rodríguez and winger De Lucas in order to strengthen the squad. This fact relegated Papadopoulos to the position of third striker of the team and therefore he was not included in many of the team's lineups during that season. At the beginning of the 2010/2011 season, Celta Vigo's manager Paco Herrera claimed that he would not count with Papadopoulos any more, putting pressure on him to force him to leave the club, due to his high salary and his poor performances. Although he has played more than 20 matches so far, he failed to score a single goal. His contract will expire in 2013.

National team

Dimitrios Papadopoulos made his debut in the Greek National Team the 20 November 2002 against Republic of Ireland and he was included in the squad of Euro 2004 that went on to win the tournament. His pass for the goal of Zisis Vryzas
Zisis Vryzas
Zisis Vryzas is a former football player, and had been the vice president of PAOK FC for the past 3 years. He was born 9 November 1973 in Kavala, city of northern Greece, located in the region of Macedonia . He played as a striker for various teams in Greece and abroad, as well as the Greek...

 allowed Greece to pass the turn and qualify against France and then become Champion of Euro 2004. As Euro 2004 winners, Dimitrios Papadopoulos was included in the Greek squad for the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup
2005 FIFA Confederations Cup
-Group B:---------------------Knockout stage:-Semi-finals:-----Third place playoff:-Final:-Awards:-Goal scorers:5 goals Adriano4 goals Luciano Figueroa John Aloisi Michael Ballack...

 in Germany. Otto Rehhagel
Otto Rehhagel
Otto Rehhagel is a German football coach and former football player. Along with Helmut Schön, Ottmar Hitzfeld, Udo Lattek and Hennes Weisweiler, he is considered one of the most successful German managers....

 included him also for qualification to the UEFA Euro 2008 in Switzerland and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

.

Honours

Panathinaikos
  • Greek Championship: 2003–04
  • Greek Cup
    Greek football Cup
    The Greek Football Cup , commonly known as the Greek Cup or for sponsorship reasons the Football Cup OPAP, is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation....

    : 2003–04


Dinamo Zagreb
  • Croatian First League: 2009–10
    2009–10 Prva HNL
    The 2009–10 Prva HNL season was the nineteenth season of the Prva HNL since its establishment in 1992. It began on 24 July 2009 and ended on 13 May 2010...



Greece
  • European Championship
    UEFA European Football Championship
    The UEFA European Football Championship is the main football competition of the men's national football teams governed by UEFA . Held every four years since 1960, in the even-numbered year between World Cup tournaments, it was originally called the UEFA European Nations Cup, changing to the current...

    : 2004


Individual
  • Greek Footballer of the Year: 2004

External links

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