Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox football biography Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos (Greek: Δημήτριος Ελευθερόπουλος; born 7 August 1976) is a Greek professional football manager and former player.

Club career

Greece

Eleftheropoulos was born in Piraeus, and was an ardent supporter of major Greek club Olympiacos, where he started playing as a goalkeeper at a very young age. Except for 1996, when he was loaned to Proodeftiki, he played for Olympiakos from 1994 to 2004, winning seven championships in a row.

He was the young third goalkeeper in 1997's Olympiacos roster behind Foto Strakosha and Alekos Rantos but injuries and bad games from the previous two made coach Dusan Bajevic give him a chance. His astonishing performances, which included impossible saves and penalty stops eventually lifted Eleftheropoulos to the level of an idol earning the nickname of "The Eagle", being one of the masterpieces for Olympiakos championship after ten years of disappointments.

He lost nearly all the 1998 season due to a severe knee injury, which was worsened by a badly treated arthrosis that also affected his shoulder. This did not prevent a glorious comeback in the 1999 UEFA Champions League, with Olympiacos advancing to the quarterfinals for the first time and being chosen as the best goalkeeper in the competition.

On 23 October 2001, Eleftheropoulos made a sensational penalty save to Ruud van Nistelrooy in the 65th minute between Manchester United and Olympiacos for Champions League, in Old Trafford. It was the only penalty missed by the Dutch international striker for that season.

He is also remembered by some for being the goalkeeper present during the worst loss of any Greek team in the Champions League, when on 10 December 2003 Olympiakos lost to Juventus 7–0.

Italy

In 2004, Eleftheropoulos transferred to newly promoted Serie A side Messina, where, despite some great performances, he could not unseat Marco Storari in the starting eleven.

In 2005, he was signed by Milan. Even though, due to a series of subpar performances in friendlies against Chelsea and Chicago Fire during a summer tour in the United States, coupled with Milan's heavy surplus of goalkeepers, he was sold to Roma where he remained game-less for the entire season.

Eleftheropoulos signed for Ascoli for the '06–07 Championship and on 25 February 2007 he played his first Serie A match for Ascoli against Livorno.

On 11 June 2007, he was signed by A.C. Siena on free transfer, for a 2-year deal, where although beginning the season in the starting eleven, he finished as the substitute goalkeeper behind Austrian international Alex Manninger. According to Siena's official website, on 28 May 2009, Eleftheropoulos decided to leave the club for family reasons.

Return to Greece

On 30 May 2009, Eleftheropoulos signed with PAS Giannina,[1] a team locally known as "Ajax of Epirus" which in the past had formed players like Giourkas Seitaridis, that has promoted to the First Division. He started his new season becoming the most experienced player for his new club. Great saves during matches against Kavala, his former team Olympiacos and AEK Athens contributed to achieve victory for PAS Giannina and himself to be elected as Man of the Match. Eleftheropoulos after 5 years reached again the semi-final of the Greek Cup with his new club against Panathinaikos. On 3 August 2010, Eleftheropoulos signed a contract with Iraklis In the summer 2011, signed with Panionios. He announced the end of his career on 21 December 2011.

International career

Eleftheropoulos got his first of twelve senior international caps for Greece in a friendly against Belgium in 1999. From these caps, three were in the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for the European zone; where although having brilliant performances in both games against Germany, he was left aside from the national team after a strong cross with coach Vassilis Daniil. For the Euro 2004, coach Otto Rehhagel chose Antonis Nikopolidis as his starting keeper and Konstantinos Chalkias and Fanis Katergiannakis as substitutes, leaving Eleftheropoulos out of the roster.

Style of play

In his prime, Eleftheropoulos was an agile and athletic goalkeeper with quick reflexes and tremendous shot-stopping skills, both in short and long-range shots. Furthermore, he was known for his brave and risky style, which he used effectively while rushing off his line in one on one situations. Furthermore, he was a skilled penalty-stopper, making crucial saves, especially in European matches (notably, against Ruud van Nistelrooy in an Old Trafford match in 2001). Despite being effective while playing on goal, though, he faced several problems while handling crosses and his performances were negatively affected from time to time due to serious injuries.

Managerial career

Eleftheropoulos started his managerial career at Panionios. He most recently managed Super League side Asteras Tripolis, as he was appointed to replace Makis Chavos on 27 September 2016. For the third consecutive time he teamed up with his former club teammate Stylianos Venetidis who served as assistant manager. His contract was terminated on 17 February 2017 by mutual consent, on grounds of successive poor results culminating to a 0-5 heavy home defeat against Panathinaikos.

Managerial statistics

Team	Nation	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %
Panionios	Template:Flagicon	29 May 2012	16 February 2013
AEK Larnaca	Template:Flagicon	1 July 2013	15 December 2013
Olympiacos Volos	Template:Flagicon	6 January 2015	30 June 2015
Panthrakikos	Template:Flagicon	19 September 2015	26 January 2016
Veria	Template:Flagicon	26 January 2016	8 July 2016
Asteras Tripolis	Template:Flagicon	27 September 2016	17 February 2017
Kerkyra	Template:Flagicon	31 May 2017	20 August 2017
Iraklis	Template:Flagicon	14 November 2018	16 December 2018
Panachaiki	Template:Flagicon	1 July 2020	19 October 2020
Kifisia	Template:Flagicon	20 January 2022	11 May 2022
Panserraikos	Template:Flagicon	1 July 2022	21 November 2022
Niki Volos	Template:Flagicon	16 December 2022	24 May 2024
Total

Honours

Club

Olympiacos

• Greek Superleague: 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03
• Greek Cup: 1998-1999 | Runner-up 2000-2001, 2001-2002

International

Greece U21

• UEFA European Under-21 Championship runner-up: 1998

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos signed for Pas Giannina F.C.
• Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos signed for Pas Giannina F.C.
• Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos decided to leave A.C. Siena
• Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos leave A.C. Siena

External links

• Template:Soccerway