Apostolos Vellios

Apostolos Vellios was born on the 8th of January 1992 and he is a striker who plays for Greek Superleague club Iraklis. Vellios is the son of Kostas Vellios, a former footballer of Iraklis. He was a student at Aristotelio High School and, on 18 March 2010, by playing for the school team he was crowned champion in the Greek High School Championship. Vellios is also known for being a lifelong supporter of Iraklis. He came out of Iraklis’ academies before moving to the club’s first team. Vellios played in England for three and a half years representing Everton and Blackpool. He has also represented his country at all youth levels. Vellios started his professional career at Iraklis in 2008. He made his debut in a 4–1 away defeat by Skoda Xanthi on 26 April 2009, as he came in as a late substitute for Dimitris Giantsis, for the last round of the 2008–09 season. His first goal was an equalizer in injury time against Olympiacos in Karaiskakis Stadium on 7 November 2009, to help Iraklis escape with an away draw against the Greek giants. He was named MVP of the 10th round of the Greek Superleague for his performance in that match. At the end of the season, he totalled nine appearances for the club, all as a substitute, and two goals. Although the following interest from Fulham, Olympiacos, AEK, and Bologna, Vellios signed for Everton in January 2011 for a fee of £250,000 on a 4-year deal. Vellios scored Everton Reserves’ only goal in his debut, as they suffered an 5–1 home defeat against Blackburn Rovers Reserves. Vellios made his first-team debut for Everton against Aston Villa in the Premier League, on 2 April 2011, replacing Jermaine Beckford after 80 minutes. He scored his first goal for the first team in a home 3–1 win against Wigan Athletic on 17 September 2011. His second goal was scored away against Chelsea after being on the pitch for only 18 seconds, 8 seconds from play being restarted. Once again he appeared as a substitute away at Bolton Wanderers, he scored with a right footed shot to make it 2–0, making it his third goal for Everton after playing just 235 minutes on the pitch. However he was subsequently completely dropped from the squad by Moyes and pushed into the reserves despite being the top scorer. At the time of his Everton career, Velios mainly played for Everton Reserves, however still holding the Premier League statistic of a goal every 86 minutes, still the highest rate at Everton during 2011-2012 season. He made his 2012/13 first team debut by coming on as a sub against Sunderland, which Everton won 2-1 with Marouane Fellaini and Nikica Jelavic getting the goals for the Toffees. On 10 May 2014, after 3 and a half years with the Toffees, Vellios announced his removal from the club on Twitter. Throughout these years he did not succeed to be one of the regulars of the club. “I would like to thank Everton for these three and a half years of my life, but mostly I have a big thanks for the supporters. You will be forever in my heart” he stated. In March 2014, Vellios joined Blackpool on loan for the reminder of the season. He was given a starting debut at Q.P.R. on 29 March, but in the next match, a 2–1 home defeat to Yeovil Town, he was substituted five minutes into the second half and did not feature again. In July 2014 Vellios signed a two-year contract with Jupiler League club Lierse. On January 26th 2015 Vellios was loaned to FC Vesterlland until July the 1st. He became the first ever Greek footballer to play in the Danish Superliga. He played 16 games, and scored 3 goals for the club. He also manages to score 3 goals in 4 games in the Danish Cup, including a goal in the final against F.C. Copenhagen in a game FC Vesterlland lost 2-3, after extra time. On 15 July 2015 Vellios signed a two-year contract with Iraklis. On 26 September 2015, he scored a goal in a home 1-1 draw for the 5th day of the Greek Super League against Skoda Xanthi. This was his first goal with Iraklis after his return to his previous club. Vellios has been capped 16 times for the Greek U-19 team and has scored 9 goals for them. His last appearances to date, with Greece U-19, was in the two friendly matches against Macedonia U-19 in January 2011. The first was a 2–1 win for Greece U-19, a game in which Vellios scored the opening goal. The other match was contested two days later and Vellios managed to score twice, in a match that Greece U-19 won by a 3–0