Nikos Liberopoulos

Nikos Liberopoulos
Personal information
Full name	Nikolaos Liberopoulos
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s)	Centre forward / Attacking midfielder
Team information
Current team	AEK Athens
Number	33
Senior career*
Years	Team
1993	Erani Filiatron
1994–1996	Kalamata
1996–2003	Panathinaikos
2003–2008	AEK Athens
2008–2010	Eintracht Frankfurt
2010–	AEK Athens
International career‡
1996–2009	Greece U-21
1996–	Greece
Medal record
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 11:06, 4 December 2010 (UTC); ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 16:45, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

Nikolaos "Nikos" Liberopoulos (Greek: Νίκος Λυμπερόπουλος) (born on 4 August 1975 in Filiatra) is a Greek international football player currently playing as a centre forward for AEK Athens F.C. in the Greek Super League. He is famous for his aim-to-goal shot, his innate in-play instincts, and his technical attacking skills. Liberopoulos is a unique player in Greek domestic football, as he is equally adored by fans of both AEK Athens and Panathinaikos. Due to the tense rivalry between the Greek clubs, this happens very rarely.

Club career

He is one of the most popular footballers to come out of Peloponnesus. Liberopoulos started off his career with Erani Filiatron, he then moved to Kalamata F.C. in 1994. After an impressive debut season in Greece's top division AEK Athens and Olympiakos F.C. tried to sign him during the summer of 1996 yet Panathinaikos managed to snap him.

Panathinaikos F.C.

In the summer 1996 he signed for for Panathinaikos he reached the semifinal stage of the UEFA Champions League. Italian clubs, mainly Juventus and Hellas Verona showed interest in hiring him, but his loyalty to Panathinaikos kept him in Athens. In 2003 Liberopoulos clashed with Panathinaikos' board which eventually led to him leaving the club.

AEK Athens

Following his departure from Panathinaikos he was ready to join Sochaux but he finally chose his childhood club AEK Athens where he became a formidable offensive player and inspirational leader. He went to score several times against his former team but never celebrated earning the fans' applause and a standing ovation for his action. He helped AEK Athens scoring 79 times in his 195 appearances and earning a top scorer award during the 2006–07 season. His most important goals originated from two long range shots, the one against Lille OSC (AEK Athens won 1-0) and the other against Olympiakos F.C. (AEK Athens won 4-0). During June 2007, Liberopoulos was offered a lucrative contract with 1. FC Nürnberg worth 4 million euros, which he declined to remain with AEK Athens. Club president Demis Nikolaidis has publicly announced his intent to retain Lymperopoulos at all costs in an effort to bolster AEK Athens' chances at achieving dominance in the Greek Super League. On 7 July 2008, Liberopoulos was released by AEK.^[1] German team Eintracht Frankfurt announced his signing on July 13, 2008.

Eintracht Frankfurt

Liberopoulos signed a 2-year deal giving the number 10 shirt. He made his German Bundesliga debut for Eintracht Frankfurt, playing the full 90 minutes against Hertha Berlin on August 17, 2008 at the Commerzbank-Arena in Frankfurt. Liberopoulos scored his first goal against Mainz 05. Lyberopoulos has won 55 caps scoring 13 goals in all competitions.

AEK Athens

Liberopoulos again signed for AEK Athens in the summer of 2010, and put in an impressive display in AEK's 5-3 win against Australian A-League club Sydney FC on 25 July 2010, scoring one goal and setting-up two others. Liberopoulos also scored against Blackburn three day's later. He made his Superleague Greece against Kerkyra and scored his first official goal in a Europa League match against Hajduk Split. On 19 January 2010, in a Greek Cup match against Panathinaikos he scored two goals leading his team to victory. Liberopoulos was applauded during his substitution later in that game by some of Panathinaikos' fans despite their team's defeat. After the match Liberopoulos said "I have spent seven nice years in Panathinaikos in which I matured as a player. I keep only the positive things, but now for me AEK is my family and I will do everything for the team." and about the Panathinaikos' fans ovation "It means a lot to me. It's a great feeling to be applauded during your substitution. There were some hoots also but even if the whole stadium was hooting at me that would not have changed what I have said earlier about my feelings for Panathinaikos".^[2]

International career

Liberopoulos has appeared 67 times for Greece scoring 13 goals in the process. Liberopoulos is currently active as a forward in the national team. His most notable performance in the Euro 2008 qualifiers to date was a last-second goal 5 minutes into stoppage time to grant Greece a 2-1 victory over Moldova on June 6, 2007, which placed Greece at the top of their qualifying division. Liberopoulos has been known on the international scene as a "super sub", coming off the bench many times in the final quarter of games and scoring the decisive goal.

He was a member of the 23-man squad formed by Coach Otto Rehhagel for Euro 2008, but was surprisingly out of favour for Euro 2004

On 11 September 2009, Liberopoulos announced his retirement from international football.^[3] But he returned to the national squad about a year later when he was recalled by the new coach Fernando Santos.

Records

He has a total 83 appearances in European competitions which is a record for a Greek forward.

Club	UCL		UEL		Total
Club	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Panathinaikos	33	6	15	5	48	11
AEK Athens	16	3	19	3	35	06
Total	49	9	34	8	83	17

Last updated: 2010-12-03
Source: uefa.com

Statistics

Club

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |rowspan=2|1993–94 |Erani Filiatron |Delta Ethniki |8||5||?||?||?||?||8||5 |- |rowspan=3|Kalamata |rowspan=2|Beta Ethniki |21||5||?||?||?||?||21||5 |- |1994–95 |27||4||?||?||?||?||27||4 |- |1995–96 |rowspan=11|Alpha Ethniki |30||11||?||?||?||?||30||11 |- |1996–97 |rowspan=7|Panathinaikos |32||6||?||?||?||?||32||6 |- |1997–98 |27||2||?||?||?||?||27||2 |- |1998–99 |31||13||?||?||?||?||31||13 |- |1999–00 |26||23||4||3||?||?||30||26 |- |2000–01 |26||11||6||3||7||0||39||14 |- |2001–02 |17||0||3||1||8||1||28||2 |- |2002–03 |27||16||4||2||1||0||32||18 |- |2003–04 |rowspan=5|AEK Athens |27||13||7||3||6||1||40||17 |- |2004–05 |28||9||9||3||6||1||43||13 |- |2005–06 |27||14||5||2||2||0||34||16 |- |2006–07 |rowspan=2|Super League |29||18||1||0||9||2||39||20 |- |2007–08 |30||13||1||0||8||0||39||13 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2008–09 |rowspan=2|Eintracht Frankfurt |rowspan=2|Bundesliga |29||9||2||1||0||0||31||10 |- |2009–10 |21||1||3||2||0||0||24||3 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2010–11 |AEK Athens |Super League |14||5||2||2||5||2||21||9 Template:Football player statistics 3421||164||65||30||83||17||569||211 Template:Football player statistics 450||10||5||3||0||0||55||13 Template:Football player statistics 5471||174||70||33||83||17||624||224 Template:Football player statistics end

International

Template:Football player national team statistics | 1996 | 03 | 00 |- | 1998 | 03 | 01 |- | 1999 | 14 | 04 |- | 2000 | 09 | 02 |- | 2001 | 07 | 01 |- | 2002 | 02 | 00 |- | 2003 | 01 | 00 |- | 2005 | 04 | 01 |- | 2006 | 05 | 01 |- | 2007 | 07 | 02 |- | 2008 | 10 | 01 |- | 2009 | 02 | 00 |- ! Total ! 67 ! 13 |}