Nikos Anastopoulos

Nikos Anastopoulos (Greek: Νίκος Αναστόπουλος; born 22 January 1958) is a Greek former football player, one of the most prolific strikers in the Greek league during the 1980s and widely regarded as one of the best strikers in the history of Greek football. With 29 goals he is the all-time top scorer for the Greek national football team. He is considered as one of the greatest players in Olympiacos history,[1] where he scored 159 goals in 291 official games for the Greek powerhouse and won the Bronze Boot as the third scorer in Europe in the 1982–83 season. Since retiring as a player he has become a football manager. He is the current manager of Kalamata.

Nikos Anastopoulos

Personal information
Full name	Nikolaos Anastopoulos
Date of birth	(1958-01-22) 22 January 1958
Place of birth	Dafni, Athens, Greece
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing position(s)	Striker
Club information
Current team	Kalamata (manager)
Youth career
	Dafni
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1977–1980	Panionios	117	(25)
1980–1987	Olympiacos	187	(115)
1987–1988	Avellino	16	(0)
1988–1989	Panionios	11	(5)
1989–1992	Olympiacos	72	(30)
1992–1993	Ionikos	19	(7)
1993–1994	Olympiacos	3	(0)
Total		425	(182)
National team
1977–1988	Greece	75	(29)
Teams managed
1995–1996	Panelefsiniakos
1997–1998	Panetolikos
1998–1999	PAS Giannina
1999	Panelefsiniakos
1999–2000	Panserraikos
2001	PAS Giannina
2002	Panachaiki
2002	Kallithea
2002–2003	PAS Giannina
2003–2005	Kerkyra
2005–2006	Aris
2008	Ionikos
2008	PAS Giannina
2008–2009	Kavala
2010–2012	OFI Crete
2012–2013	Atromitos
2013–2014	Platanias
2014	Panionios
2015	OFI Crete
2015–2017	Aris
2019	Kerkyra
2020–	Kalamata
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Club career

Anastopoulos was born on 22 January 1958. He started his career at Dafni before transferring to Panionios with whom he debuted in the Alpha Ethniki in the 1977–1978 season. Thanks to Anastopoulos, Panionios won the Greek Cup in 1979 upsetting AEK 3–1. His debut in European competition was also impressive as he scored twice against Twente Enschede of Holland and once against IFK Göteborg in the Cup-winners' Cup. His performance brought an immediate transfer offer from Twente as well as other Greek and foreign clubs. Finally, in 1980, he went to Olympiakos Piraeus.

As an Olympiakos player, Anastopoulos, also known as "Moustakias" (the moustachioed one), won top scorer honours in 1982–1983 season (29 goals), 1983–1984 season (18 goals), 1985–1986 season (19 goals) and 1986–1987 season (16 goals). His goal-scoring exploits in 1982–1983 won him the Bronze Boot as third scorer in all Europe.

In 1987, Anastopoulos left Greece to play for Avellino in Italy. Though he performed well in the Italian Cup, he failed to score a single goal in Serie A and returned to Greece the following season.[2]

After coming close to signing with AEK, Anastopoulos chose to return to Panionios. He later played for Olympiakos, Ionikos and closed out his career with Olympiakos (once more) after the 1993–1994 season.

International career

On 21 September 1977 Anastopoulos participated for the first time in the National Football Team of Greece and during his playing career he was capped 75 times[3] scoring 29 goals – more than any other Greek international. He was a member of the Greek squad in the finals of Euro 1980 and scored the only Greek goal of that competition with a header against Czechoslovakia.

Career statistics

Club

Team	Period	League		Cup		Europe		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Ratio	Position
Panionios	1976–77	32	11			—		32	11	0.34	8th
	1977–78	27	03			—		27	03	0.11	16th
	1978–79	28	04			—		28	04	0.14	13th
	1979–80	30	07			4	03	34	10	0.29	15th
	Total	117	25			4	3	121	28	0.23
Olympiacos	1980–81	20	04			—		20	04	0.20	1st
	1981–82	0033[lower-alpha 1]	14			02	01	35	15	0.43	1st
	1982–83	31	29			04	01	35	30	0.86	1st (3rd in Europe)
	1983–84	30	18			04	03	34	21	0.62	2nd
	1984–85	28	15			04	02	32	17	0.53	4th
	1985–86	24	19			—		24	19	0.79	5th
	1986–87	21	16			04	03	25	19	0.76	1st
	Total	187	115			18	10	205	125	0.61
Avellino	1987–88	16	00			—		16	00	0	15th
Panionios	1988–89	11	05			—		11	05	0.45	10th
Olympiacos	1989–90	22	07			06	02	28	09	0.32	4th
	1990–91	26	17			04	02	30	19	0.63	2nd
	1991–92	24	06			—		24	06	0.25	2nd
	Total	72	30			10	4	82	34	0.41
Ionikos	1992–93	19	07			—		19	07	0.37	17th
Olympiacos	1993–94	03	00			01	00	04	00	0	3rd
Career Total		425	182			33	17	458	199	0.43
Panionios Total		128	030			04	03	132	033	0.25
Olympiacos Total		262	145			29	14	291	159	0.55

1. Includes the Championship playoff against Panathinaikos in which he scored one goal

International

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Greece	1977	1	0
	1979	2	0
	1980	5	2
	1981	6	2
	1982	9	4
	1983	9	3
	1984	10	5
	1985	6	2
	1986	8	4
	1987	8	3
	1988	9	4
Total		73	29

International goals

Scores and results list Greece's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Greece goal.

List of international goals scored by Nikos Anastopoulos[4]

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	16 January 1980	GSP Stadium, Strovolos, Cyprus	Cyprus	1–0	1–1	Friendly
2	14 June 1980	Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy	Czechoslovakia	1–1	1–3	UEFA Euro 1980
3	23 September 1981	Charliaou Stadium, Thessaloniki, Greece	Sweden	1–0	2–1	Friendly
4	14 October 1981		Denmark	1–2	2–3	1982 FIFA World Cup qualification
5	20 January 1982	Nikos Goumas Stadium, Athens, Greece	Portugal	1–0	1–2	Friendly
6	9 October 1982	Stade Municipal, Luxembourg	Luxembourg	1–0	2–0	UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying
7				2–0
8	1 December 1982	Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece	Switzerland	1–1	1–3	Friendly
9	15 May 1983	Népstadion, Budapest, Hungary	Hungary	1–0	3–2	UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying
10	3 December 1983	Kaftanzoglio Stadium, Thessaloniki, Greece		1–0	2–2
11				2–2
12	15 February 1984	Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece	East Germany	1–0	1–3	Friendly
13	11 April 1984	Leoforos Alexandras Stadium, Athens, Greece	Cyprus	1–0	1–1
14	1 September 1984	Tsirio Stadium, Limassol, Cyprus		2–0	2–0
15	5 December 1984	Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece	Romania	1–0	2–1
16				2–1
17	9 January 1985	Bloomfield Stadium, Tel Aviv, Israel	Israel	1–0	2–0
18	19 May 1985	Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece	Poland	1–1	1–4	1986 FIFA World Cup qualification
19	26 March 1986		East Germany	1–0	2–0	Friendly
20	15 October 1986	Lech Stadium, Poznan, Poland	Poland	1–1	1–2	UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying
21	12 November 1986	Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece	Hungary	2–0	2–1
22	3 December 1986	Makario Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus	Cyprus	4–2	4–2
23	14 January 1987	Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece		1–0	3–1
24				3–1
25	7 October 1987	Steaua Stadium, Bucharest, Romania	Romania	1–0	2–2	Friendly
26	21 May 1988	Varsity Stadium, Toronto, Canada	Canada	2–0	3–0	1988 Matthews Cup
27				3–0
28	23 May 1988		Chile	1–0	1–0
29	21 September 1988	BJK İnönü Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey	Turkey	1–1	1–3	Friendly

Managerial

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Team		From	To	Record[5]
				Played	W	D	L	Win %
	Panelefsiniakos	July 1995	June 1996	—	−	−	−	—
	Panetolikos	February 1997	February 1998	—	−	−	−	—
	PAS Giannina	November 1998	May 1999	—	−	−	−	—
	Panelefsiniakos	August 1999	October 1999	4	2	0	2	050.00
	Panserraikos	November 1999	March 2000	—	−	−	−	—
	PAS Giannina	January 2001	June 2001	18	7	5	6	038.89
	Panachaiki	February 2002	June 2002	12	2	5	5	016.67
	Kallithea	September 2002	November 2002	7	3	1	3	042.86
	PAS Giannina	November 2002	June 2003	26	5	7	14	019.23
	Kerkyra	September 2003	January 2005	48	27	9	12	056.25
	Aris	October 2005	June 2006	28	14	11	3	050.00
	PAS Giannina	August 2006	January 2007	19	9	6	4	047.37
	Ionikos	May 2008	June 2008	5	2	1	2	040.00
	Kavala	December 2008	January 2009	4	2	1	1	050.00
	PAS Giannina	January 2010	June 2010	16	5	2	9	031.25
	OFI Crete	September 2010	December 2012	88	40	20	28	045.45
	Atromitos	December 2012	April 2013	13	4	5	4	030.77
	Platanias	November 2013	February 2014	14	4	2	8	028.57
	Panionios	February 2014	May 2014	9	3	3	3	033.33
	OFI Crete	January 2015	March 2015	16	4	1	11	025.00
	Aris	September 2015	February 2017	22	11	8	3	050.00
	Kerkyra	February 2019	April 2019	10	2	3	5	020.00
	Kalamata	January 2020	present	2	1	1	0	050.00
Total				361	147	91	123	040.72

Honours

As player

• Olympiacos
  • Greek Championship: 1980, 1981, 1983, 1987
  • Greek Cup: 1990, 1992
  • Greek Super Cup: 1992
• Panionios
  • Greek Cup: 1979

As coach

• PAS Giannina
  • Greek Second Division: 2002
• Kavala
  • Greek Second Division: 2009
• OFI Crete
  • Greek Second Division, third place: 2011
• Aris
  • Greek Third Division Group 1: 2016

References

1. The Legend's "Golden Eleven"! Olympiacos Official Website, 8/6/2015
2. Rota, Davide (3 September 1998). "Greek Players in Italy". RSSSF.
3. Οι συμμετοχές του Αναστόπουλου στην Εθνική Ελλάδας. epo.gr
4. "Greece - International Matches 1981-1990". RSSSF.
5. "Nikos Anastopoulos". SofaScore.

External links

• Nikos Anastopoulos at National-Football-Teams.com

Sporting positions
Preceded by Giannis Gounaris	Greece captain 1983-1989	Succeeded by Dimitris Saravakos