Av. Papadopoulos

Avraam Papadopoulos was born on the 3rd of December 1984 and plays as a central defender. He was born in Melbourne, Australia to Greek parents. Papadopoulos started his professional career with Aris back in 2003 after stepping up from the Aris Youth. Before Aris, he had begun playing football with Digenis Lakkomatos Chalkidiki youth. At the beginning of his career, around the age of 17, Papadopoulos started as a striker and attacking midfielder. In the period between 2003 (not too much time after Papadopoulos’ promotion into the first teamof ARIS) and the summer 2006, he was used in more defensive positions by his coaches. Firstly back into defensive midfielder, then as a right back and finally central defender where he generally plays even nowadays. He is quite tall, with very tough body constitution, but not slow for his physical appearance, with pretty good awareness and tackling, sometimes reckless though, which leads him to getting yellow cards. Having started his carrer as an attacker, he has scored several significant goals through his career, usually by his strong headers and penalties. The best example is his only goal (header in the final qualifiers with Zaragoza for the UEFA Cup group stage at the Kleanthis Vikelidis stadium) which at the end of the day, turned out to be a crucial and historic goal after Aris’ loss 2–1 in Spain that ensured Aris the progression to the group stages. Many times he had been sent up in front, whenever Aris needed an extra striker in the dying minutes of several matches. As an “Aris kid” playing for his beloved club, he was one of the fans’ favourite players. Aris’ number 4 was also known for his passion. For many years while playing for Aris, he used to be linked to Athenian giants (especially Olympiacos) by media, but yet he had never changed his club, by then. During the season 2006/07, he had been watched closely by some bigger European clubs scouts, like Benfica, Chelsea, and Zenit of Russia as well. Lastly, his number of caps for his ex-club Aris overflowed the margin of 100 (106 caps, scoring 6 goals). In the last season of his residence in Thessaloniki (2007/08) before moving into Piraeus, he was considered as one of the Aris top stars along with Sergio Koke, Ronald Nacho Garcia and a couple of others. After the end of the 2007–08 season, on triple occasion he refused to renew his contract up to 2013 (2 million euros in 5 years) although he had previously expressed affirmatively. On 4th of July 2008 the player was transferred to Olympiacos F.C. for 2,5 million euros and a four-year contract. Avraam stated this during a press conference, “I came to Olympiacos, and not Panathinaikos, because it was the best choice for me. The ideal choice. I would not like to say anything else and it does not make sense to talk about the past. I will work as hard as I can to make the team reach its goals and objectives in both Europe and Greece”. Papadopoulos made his debut against Anorthosis Famagusta FC in a 3–0 away loss. He finished 2008–09 season with 22 league matches. He started the next season by scoring against SK Slovan Bratislava in a 0–2 away win. This was his first goal for Olympiakos. He managed to score a crucial goal against P.A.O.K. in a 1–2 away win. He also scored against AEK Athens in a 1–2 home loss. He completed 28 league appearances and scored 2 goals. His partnership with Olof Mellberg at the centre of defence played a vital role for Olympiacos as they won back-to-back championships in the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons. Following his injury in the Euro 2012 tournament, after an eight-month absence, Papadopoulos returned to play by entering as a substitute for Kostas Manolas on the 46th minute of a 1–0 victory over Kavala F.C. on 30 January 2013. On 10 March 2013 he managed to score 2 goals against AEK Athens F.C. in a 3-0 home win. With that win Olympiacos claimed the 40th champion in his history. He also scored in the final match of the season, against Panionios in a 2-1 home win after an assist of Ariel Ibagaza. His tough injury in 2012 would follow him during the 2013/14 season. This year, the club’s captain puzzled by various mishaps, but even so, he managed to show off what “metal” he is made off. Avraam was club captain for the Greek champions and had been a pivotal figure since joining in 2008. However, that season saw Dimitris Siovas break into the first-team and Papadopoulos became a somewhat peripheral figure at the Karaiskakis Stadium. The Greece international took the time to praise Olympiacos president Evangelos Marinakis, but revealed that his relationship with Spanish coach Michel was beyond repair after completing his move to Turkey. “I want to thank wholeheartedly the president of Olympiacos, Mr Marinakis, and the management who respected my desire, despite strong disagreement, to leave the club for a new challenge,” said Papadopoulos in an open letter on the club’s official website. On September 1st 2014 Trabzonspor has landed the former Greek international Avraam Papadopoulos from Olympiakos. Papadopoulos, became the center of fans’ attention, being only the second Greek player to play in Turkey’s top-flight, following Theofanis Gekas. On January 23rd 2015 Trabzonspor transfers Avraam Papadopoulos to Shanghai Shenhua for 285,000 euros. He became the first ever Greek footballer to play in the Chinese Super League. On 15 August 2015, in an away 2-2 draw against the champions Guangzhou Evergrande he managed to score the second goal helping his club to avoid the defeat. He had been capped for Greece U-21 for several times. After impressing Greece’s coach Otto Rehhagel, he was called to the Greek national football team for the first time on 1st February 2008 and made his debut in the win over the Czech Republic on the 5th of February. In 2010, Papadopoulos played for Greece at the 2010 World Cup. He was later a regular squad member of Greece as they went unbeaten through qualifying for Euro 2012. In the finals, however, Papadopoulos was injured in the opening game against Poland and missed the rest of the tournament. He made his come back with the national squad on March 23, 2013 during the World Cup 2014 qualification game in Bosnia/Herzegovina, where Greece lost 3-1. Since the end of the qualifying rounds he hasn’t appeared in the team managed by Fernando Santos. Avraam was called from Greek national manager Fernando Santos to the 30 man provisional World Cup squad, but he did not make it to be the final 23-man squad for 2014 FIFA World Cup