Panagiotis Ikonomopoulos

Takis Ikonomopoulos
Personnel
Surname	Panagiotis Ikonomopoulos
birthday	October 19, 1943
place of birth	Greece
position	goalkeeper
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1960-1961	Kallithea FC
1961–1962	Apollo Smyrnis
1962-1964	AO Proodeftiki
1964-1976	Panathinaikos Athens	341 (0)
1976-1977	Panachaiki	25 (0)
1977-1979	Apollo Smyrnis	32 (0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1965-1974	Greece	25 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Panagiotis "Takis" Ikonomopoulos ( Greek Παναγιώτης "Τάκης" Οικονομόπουλος , born October 19, 1943 ) is a former Greek football player .

Player career

Panagiotis Ikonomopoulos, considered by most experts to be the best goalkeeper in the history of Greece, began playing football in the Athens suburb of Kallithea, where he signed a contract with Kallithea FC in 1958 . After only one season, Ikonomopoulos moved to Apollon Athens in 1959 , with whom he, not least thanks to his achievements, was able to win the Greek junior championship unbeaten and only conceded two goals in total. In 1960 Ikonomopoulos switched to Proodeftiki before finally signing a contract with Panathinaikos Athens in 1963 . At Panathinaikos, the player took advantage of the chances that the then coach of the club Stefan Bobek gave him and played his way into the regular formation. In the following years Ikonomopoulos won five Greek championships (1964, 1965, 1969, 1970, 1972) and two cups (1967, 1969). The highlight of his career was in 1971 when he took part in the final of the European Cup when he lost 0-2 to Ajax Amsterdam at Wembley Stadium in London . Ikonomopoulos was one of the main pillars of his club and showed world-class performances on the way to the final, especially against FC Everton, and played his way into the circle of the best goalkeepers in Europe at the time. In 1977, and at the age of 34, Ikonomopoulos moved to Patras to join the local Panachaiki club , before ending his career with Apollon Athens two years later. Overall, Ikonomopoulos played 18 years in the highest Greek football league and made a total of 398 appearances. What is remarkable is his record set in 1965 when he did not concede at Panathinaikos for 1088 minutes.

During his career Ikonomopoulos was also active for the Greek national team , for which he completed a total of 25 internationals.

Coaching career

After his active career as a player, he worked as a goalkeeping coach at Panathinaikos Athens until 2005, where he discovered and promoted the later European champions Antonios Nikopolidis and Konstantinos Chalkias . In 2002 he took over the role of head coach of Panathinaikos for the last four game days of the season, after the Uruguayan Sergio Markarian had been suspended for 40 days.

Trivia

• Ikonomopoulos' hallmark was that he did without goalkeeper gloves throughout his career.
• His nickname was Pouli (Greek πουλί, bird)

successes

• Greek champion (5): 1963/64, 1964/65, 1968/69, 1969/70, 1971/72
• Greek Cup Winner (2): 1967, 1969
• Supercup: 1970