Mimis Papaioannou
Dimitris "Mimis" Papaioannou (Greek: Δημήτρης Παπαϊωάννου), was one of the star football players of AEK Athens FC. He was born in 1942 and began his career at Nea Genea in the town of Nea Nikomedia near Veria, Macedonia (Greece). He joined AEK in time for the 1963 season for the paltry sum of 140,000 drachmas. Papaioannou proved an instant success helping AEK win their first post-World War II title, scoring twice in the final playoff game of the season against Panathinaikos FC.
The following year he was crowned top scorer of Greece replacing teammate Kostas Nestoridis who had, up until that year, won the title five consecutive times. Mimis Papaioannou would help AEK win championships again in 1968, 1971, 1978 and 1979. In 1980, Papaioannou stopped playing in Greece and continued his career at N.Y. Pancyprian-Freedoms as a player-coach. He led that club to win both the Cosmopolitan Soccer League and the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and attracted the attention of NASL scouts (at the age of nearly 40 years old!)
When his playing career was finally over, Papaioannou tried his hand at coaching (Kerkyra FC, etc.) without much success. He scored a record 234 goals in 480 games in the Greek A League which was to be surpassed by his teammate Thomas Mavros. He was given the award of statistically the Best Greek Football Player ever to play the game. Papaioannou was capped 61 times by the Greek National Football Team scoring 21 goals. During his career many teams sought his services, most notably Real Madrid during the mid-1960s.
Honours
- Greek Championship: 1963, 1968, 1971, 1978, 1979
- Greek Cup: 1964, 1966, 1978
- Cosmopolitan Soccer League: 1980
- Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup: 1980
Individual
- Greek Championship Top Goalscorer: 1964, 1966