2024-04-28 00:57:58
•The “architect” who made a group of children reach the top of Europe. Sotiris Sylaidopoulos just confirmed the successful way he works
“European champions, two words, I don’t know if we can understand, exactly what we have done”, were the first words of Koos Sotiris Sylaidopoulos a few minutes after the historic moment when, for the first time, a Greek club, the Olympiakos U19 team, lifted the european trophy.
The 45-year-old coach was the… architect of this success, the man who made this team unfold its rich talent on the field and who turned stress into… fire in the eyes of the children.
A man who started coaching in Kos, took the opportunity given to him by Panathinaikos and now shares his football knowledge in the small ranks of Olympiakos and on the side of Mendiliber.
Looking back on the career of Sotiris Sylaidopoulos, the coach who managed to put his name in the history of Olympiakos and Greek football.
He ended his football career prematurely
He was born in Kos and started his football career in Antagoras and stayed there until 1999, when he moved to Panionios at the age of 20.
A serious knee injury kept him out of action for a long time, as a result of which he never returned to his former level. This happened at the end of 2000 and he returned to action in 2004. He never returned to the level he was at as he played for local teams in Kos until 2009 when he chose to hang up his football boots.
The success in Kos that brought him to the Academies of Panathinaikos
From the first moment he became a coach, Sotiris Sylaidopoulos showed his talent, quickly reaching the first team of Antigoras.
In fact, he managed to celebrate promotion to the 3rd National Division in the 2014/2015 season, presenting an excellent job, winning impressions.
Somewhere there, Panathinaikos appeared, with the “clover” making an offer to him after a recommendation from Yiannis Samaras, and he moved permanently to Athens in 2015.
Initially in the K13 and K14 of Panathinaikos and then in the K17 team, where he met players such as Alexandropoulos, Vagiannidis, Zagaritis and others.
In 2018, they came close to winning the championship, but Olympiacos took the championship in the penalty shootout. The fact that he did not win a trophy did not in any way negate his successful course on the Academies’ courts.
The children he brought out in the “clover”, the departure and the proposal of Olympiakos
With his blessings, he saw many Academies take the reins in the Panathinaikos first team, having prepared each of them to be able to respond at the highest level.
Players such as Sotiris Alexandropoulos, Nikos Christogeorgos, George Vagiannidis, Vassilis Zagaritis, Dimitris Emmanouilidis or Andreas Athanasakopoulos.
When Danny Pogiatos was fired from the technical leadership of Panathinaikos, Sylaidopoulos sat on the bench of the first team as a service coach and then remained on the staff of Laszlo Boloni.
Having just been sacked as a Romanian coach, Sylaidopoulos finished the season as caretaker coach counting a draw (0-0) with Aris and a heavy defeat against Olympiakos (1-4). This is how his cooperation with the “greens” came to an end, but he was not without work for long.
In the same summer, Olympiacos was looking for a coach for the K17 and the Greek coach was the chosen one for the specific position. He himself, on the other hand, was positive to be integrated into the Academy of the “red-whites”.
The restructuring of the K19 and the “promotion” in the Mediliber staff
The “promotion” did not take long to come for K19 where Sylaidopoulos laid the foundations for a job that led the specific department back to the championships in the 2022/2023 season after six whole years.
Among these players was Alexis Kalogeropoulos who this year went to Volos on loan and is on the list of 100 candidates for the “Golden Boy 2024” award. Several of this year’s roster have been promoted to the second team competing in Super League 2 getting a taste of professional football.
In fact, after the dismissal of Carlos Carvalhal, the fact that he was on the bench of the first team as an official made him the first Greek to have held the same role in Olympiakos and Panathinaikos.
The arrival of Medilibar did not leave him in the U19 but added him to the staff as an assistant coach.
“It is the beginning for the Greeks to believe in the Greek players”
His comments after the game against Milan were special. The man who led this company to the top of the whole of Europe, did not hesitate to admit that this title can be the starting point for trust in the Greek footballer.
How there is a future for Greek football and it is stronger than the “outsiders” think. The 45-year-old coach, on the other hand, revealed what he said in the dressing room at half-time, adding fuel to the fire in the minds of the players.
“There are 45 minutes and then we can’t turn back time. And since we deserve it, we show that we are better, we have to come back with the trophy.” With these words, Olympiacos returned to the playing field.
With these phrases, Sylaidopoulos’ players scored three goals in six minutes (!), one better than the other. With this momentum, in every duel, in every phase, their eyes shone, the expressions on their faces testified that this title is not lost.
As the president of the team said, after Inter in the knockouts, “where you have arrived, you can take it”. And indeed it was. And for this, Koos Sotiris Sylaidopoulos played a pivotal role.
Source: gazzetta.gr