Final year for star performer

Antonis Nikopolidis signs one-year deal with Olympiakos before retirement from game

Antonis Nikopolidis, who has made clear his intentions to retire at the end of next season, will end his playing days at Olympiakos.

Olympiakos goalkeeper Antonis Nikopolidis, a key performer in Greece’s Euro 2004 triumph, yesterday extended his contract with the Piraeus soccer club for a further season. It is expected to be the 35-year-old player’s final year in what has been an exceptional career, both in terms of performance and integrity.

Nikopolidis has made clear his intentions to retire at the end of next season. His level of play has not been up to the usual standard over the past year.

The goalkeeper, who joined Panathinaikos in 1989 at the age of 18, made his debut a couple of years later but did not establish himself as a regular starter until the mid-90s.

Waiting his turn in the shadow of leading Polish goalkeeper Josef Wandzik, Nikopolidis showed plenty of patience before seizing his senior-level opportunity to the fullest and eventually establishing himself as one of this country’s finest goalkeepers of all time.

Nikopolidis transfered to Olympiakos, Panathinaikos’s archrival, shortly before Greece’s sensational appearance at Euro 2004 in Portugal. The circumstances behind the player’s controversial move have remained unclear to this day.

Besides his Euro 2004 title with Greece, Nikopolidis has won a string of league and cup titles at both Panathinaikos and Olympiakos.

Nikopolidis’s integrity and consistency earned him the captainship of the national squad following the retirement – from national duty – of Thodoris Zagorakis, who led Greece to its shock European title in 2004.

Nikopolidis made his debut for the national team in 1999 and in just two years established himself as Greece’s undisputed choice for goalkeeper.

He was dropped as first-choice keeper for the national team following a rare poor performance in Greece’s 4-1 home thrashing against Turkey in a Euro 2008 qualifier last March. Coach Otto Rehhagel kept the goalkeeper sidelined for a further two games before bringing him back for last week’s 2-1 win against Moldova.

In a separate development at Olympiakos, Ilia Ivic, a former player at the Piraeus club who later moved to AEK and remained as technical director after he had retired, will assume the same post at Olympiakos, it was agreed yesterday. His activities will focus mostly on the transfer market.