52 Facts About Mimis Papaioannou

Dimitrios "Mimis" Papaioannou was a Greek professional footballer, who played as a forward, mostly for AEK Athens and a manager.

Mimis Papaioannou played for AEK for 17 seasons and won five league titles and three Greek cups, including a domestic double in 1978.

Mimis Papaioannou is the club's all-time top scorer and by the time he left AEK he was the all-time top scorer of the Greek championship, but today he is the third place.

Mimis Papaioannou is the player of AEK with the second most appearances in all competitions and the first in league appearances.

Mimis Papaioannou's nickname was "the Vlach", due to his family origins.

In 1982 Mimis Papaioannou, became the coach for New York Pancyprian-Freedoms, where he won both the league and the cup claiming the domestic double.

Mimis Papaioannou served as an assistant of Alketas Panagoulias in bench of Greece for 2 years.

Mimis Papaioannou was born on 23 August 1942 in Nea Nikomideia of Imathia.

The young striker of refugee origin was hesitant, as on the one hand there was his sporting sympathy for the northern Greece, PAOK and the neighboring move to Thessaloniki, while on the other hand there was the greater name of AEK Athens and the money he was offered were more than an immediate need for his family, with prerequisite his move to the distant Athens, but eventually after the advice of the president of Veria, Kostas Vorgiatzidis, Mimis Papaioannou chose the club of Athens.

Mimis Papaioannou was the player that AEK was looking to pair up with Kostas Nestoridis and lead the club in claiming leagues.

The upcoming years for AEK and Mimis Papaioannou were almost ideal, as he showed that he was the one to take the leader role from Nestoridis in the team, pushing them as high as he could to lead them to success.

Mimis Papaioannou scored his first hat-trick on 16 October 1963 scoring all three goals against Aris at home.

Mimis Papaioannou scored 4 of the total of 7 goals of his team against Anagennisi Arta for the Cup, on 26 April 1964.

Nevertheless, Mimis Papaioannou was willing to leave AEK under the given punishment of a one-year ban and then sign as free agent at Real, but the Spaniards refused, as they didn't want to disrupt their relations with the Greek club.

Mimis Papaioannou accepted and traveled to Germany, singing to the Greek immigrants of the country.

Mimis Papaioannou's singing career was limited to the recording of seven songs by Kazantzidis and Nikolopoulos between 1971 and 1972.

Mimis Papaioannou scored in the derby against Panathinaikos on 3 April 1966, but his goal didn't count as the game was suspended and eventually awarded to the greens.

The next season Mimis Papaioannou led the double-headed eagle in the final of the Balkans Cup scoring 2 goals against Lokomotiv Sofia, 2 goals against Farul Constanta and 1 goal against Vardar.

Mimis Papaioannou scored once in the away defeat against Braga, for the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, on 5 October 1966.

Mimis Papaioannou celebrated his second championship with AEK at the end of the season, while qualifying for the first time in their history to the European Cup.

Mimis Papaioannou kept the post intact, even making two great saves.

On 8 February 1970, Mimis Papaioannou won his team the match against Olympiacos at home, by scoring the only goal of the match.

Mimis Papaioannou led his club to the conquest of another championship, where he lost the top scorer award by a single goal from Georgios Dedes, scoring 27 goals in the league.

Mimis Papaioannou continued to lead the club during the hard times, as they had a decent presence in the UEFA Cup, where they reached the second round and were eliminated by the great Liverpool of Bill Shankly.

Fadrhonc, considering the playing intelligence and high technical qualities in the playing style of Mimis Papaioannou, decided to relocate him as a "classic number 10" in order to fit all the great attackers the club had to offer.

Mimis Papaioannou responded successfully as a playmaker, while maintaining his scoring abilities.

Mimis Papaioannou scored the winning penalty leading the club to the semi-finals.

Mimis Papaioannou passed that role to Mavros, who that season became the top scorer in the league with 31 goals and 40 in total in the season, winning the European Silver Shoe, just 3 goals behind Kees Kist.

Mimis Papaioannou won his last championship with AEK after they were tied in first place with Olympiacos and the latter did not show up for the play-off match, that was set for the title.

Mimis Papaioannou was an emblematic and the most effective leader of the club who led them to five Championships and three Cups, including a domestic double in 1978.

Mimis Papaioannou has been for AEK and Greek football a symbol of morale and loyalty to the team, as staying with the same team for over a decade and never seeing a red card in his entire career, while he was marked with a yellow card only three times.

Mimis Papaioannou today is the 3rd place of the all-time top scorers of the Greek Championship.

Mimis Papaioannou holds the club record of most goals scored in the derbies against Panathinaikos with 10 goals, while he is second, behind Mavros at the same record in the derbies against Olympiacos with 14 goals.

Mimis Papaioannou was the player with the most appearances in all official competitions with the double-headed eagle, until he was surpassed by Stelios Manolas, however Papaioannou holds record of the games played in league with 480 appearances.

Mimis Papaioannou won the domestic double in 1980 with the conquest of Cosmopolitan Soccer League and National Challenge Cup.

Mimis Papaioannou was part of the Greek military team from 1962 to 1965.

Mimis Papaioannou won two consecutive times the World Military Cup in 1962 and 1963.

Mimis Papaioannou was capped 61 times with Greece scoring 21 goals becoming their top scorer, at the time, until Anastopoulos surpassed him in 1986 and now he is among the top 5 goalscorers.

Mimis Papaioannou remained at the club as until 1986, where he won another double in 1982 and a second consecutive National Challenge Cup in 1983.

In 1991 Mimis Papaioannou moved to Kefalonia, where he was active professionally and simultaneously coached the local team of Evgeros for a season, where they were promoted from the local championships to the fourth division.

In January 1999, the combination of all the virtues and talents of Mimis Papaioannou were recognized by the IFFHS, where he was named the Greatest Greek Footballer of the 20th Century.

Mimis Papaioannou was honored by then president of Panathinaikos, Angelos Filippidis, Giorgos Koudas from PAOK, the then presidents of AEK and the Amateur AEK, Cornelius Sierhuis and Giannis Granitsas, Ilias Atmatsidis from the football players and, the then Sport's Minister Giorgos Floridis.

Mimis Papaioannou visited schools and gave speeches about football, while he presented in tournaments held for school students.

Mimis Papaioannou's name is honoured on one of the four pillars of the Stadium, alongside other important figures of the club's history such as Kostas Nestoridis, Stelios Serafidis and Thomas Mavros.

On 15 March 2023, Mimis Papaioannou died at the age of 80 after a long-term struggle with health issues.

Mimis Papaioannou truly was such a quality player and that's not a compliment, that's the truth.

The playing style of Mimis Papaioannou was characterized by technique, dribbling, strength and versatility in his finishing, scoring spectacular goals, that made him a difficult opponent to play against.

Mimis Papaioannou had a unique jumping ability, staying in the air longer than his opponents and beat them in aerial duels.

Mimis Papaioannou's headers were described as shots with the head.

Mimis Papaioannou was exceptionally good at free-kicks and he scored twice from direct corner kicks.

Mimis Papaioannou's playing intelligence and technical ability got him to be converted from a striker to an attacking midfielder, considering his physical condition at the time and in order to fit in with all the great players in the team's offense.

Mimis Papaioannou adapted quickly in his new role, while the change of his position kept him in a high level, as despite his offensive skills, he had good through passes and crosses, creating a lot of scoring chances for his teammates.