Alekos Sofianidis


Alekos Sofianidis was a Greek football player and manager. Sofianidis was a left back.

Playing career

Born in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul, Sofianidis began his career at Beyoğluspor based in Istanbul. He played in the first team from 1955 to 1958, when he transferred to Beşiktaş J.K..
In December 1958 Sofianidis moved to Greece and joined AEK Athens between 1959 and 1969. Sofianidis retired after the 1970 season as a player of Panachaiki F.C. During his career, he played 240 Greek League games in total.

International career

Sofianidis represented the Turkey national football B team once, in a friendly 1-0 win over Egypt on 20 May 1957.
Sofianidis was capped by Greece seven times. He played his first national game on 15 November 1958 against Yugoslavia. His last game for Greece against Finland was on 10 May 1967.

Managerial career

Sofianidis coached several Greek youth teams following his retirement from football in 1970. He was a gymnastics teacher by profession.
Sofianidis was appointed Greece manager in 1988. His first game was against Hungary on 15 November 1988. Greece played 7 times with Sofianidis as their manager, winning 3, drawing 1, and losing 3. He was also manager during the infamous friendly match between Greece and Turkey on 29 March 1989, losing 1–0. This was his last game with the Greece National Football Team.

A non-footballing issue

In 1968, when AEK Athens played Fenerbahçe S.K. in the Balkan Cup of 1968, Sofianidis did not accompany his club to Istanbul as he would have been liable for arrest by the Turkish authorities for failing to fulfill his military obligations.

Personal life

In 2010, Sofianidis died after a long battle with cancer at age 73.