Tryfon Tzanetis

Tryfon Tzanetis

Personal information
Date of birth	1918
Place of birth	Smyrna, Ottoman Empire
Date of death	8 September 1998(1998-09-08) (aged 80)
Place of death	Athens, Greece
Position(s)	Striker, Center back
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1932–1933	Eleftheroupoli
1933–1950	AEK Athens
International career
1949	Greece	1	(0)
Managerial career
1950–1952	Egaleo
1952	AEK Athens
1954–1955	AEK Athens
1956–1957	AEK Athens
1960–1961	Greece
1961–1962	AEK Athens
1962–1964	Greece
1965–1967	AEK Athens
1967–1968	Apollon Athens
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Tryfon Tzanetis (Greek: Τρύφων Τζανετής 1918–1998) was a Greek football player and coach. He was a best known as a great figure for AEK Athens during the 1930s and 1940s, partnering Kleanthis Maropoulos in AEK's front line.. Tzanetis also contributed to AEK by coaching the club in the 50s and 60s.

Career

Tzanetis was born in 1918 in Smyrna (today's Izmir), to Naxian parents. After the Asia Minor disaster, his family moved to Athens and stayed in Nea Ionia. Tzanetis started playing football in 1932 at Eleftheroupoli. In 1933, AEK Athens located him and signed a sport's card. It started with the youth teams of AEK to be promoted in 1935 to the first team, together with Maropoulos, to participate in an official match with the first team. He belonged to the great team of the "yellow-blacks" in the late 30's, having teammates, among others, besides Kleanthis Maropoulos, Spyros Sklavounos and Spyros Kontoulis. He was a great player and a great man. Initially an attacker, but later in his career he became a central defender, when AEK's coach Jack Beby transferred him back to the WM system that he applied when he came to Greece in 1948. His presence was imposing. He was insightful, extremely fast, creative and team and in addition to being an aggressive midfielder, he was also distinguished by his inhibitions. With AEK he won 4 (including 3 consecutive) times the Panathenian Championship, 2 cosecutive Greek Championships and 3 Greek cups.

He wore the jersey of the Greece on May 25, 1949 against Italy B' in a 2-3 loss.

In 1950 after his playing days were over, Tzanetis took up coaching Egaleo in the 1st division of Athens for a season then he return to AEK Athens. He found himself as the coach of AEK in many periods in the 50s and 60s (1952, 1955, 1961, 1962 and 1966), leading the club to the 1966 Greek Cup. Tzanetis also coached Apollon Athens which was the last club of his career. He was also a selector of the Greece military national football team. From 1960 to 1964 (in two different periods) he was the coach of Greece with a record of 5 wins, 1 draw and 5 losses.

He identified on the pitch and in life with Kleanthis Maropoulos, with whom he remained friends and partners in a sporting goods store in the center of Athens, until the end of the latter's life, in 1991. Seven years later, Tzanetis passed away.