14 Facts About Nikos Nioplias

Nikos Nioplias is a Greek professional football manager and former player.

Nikos Nioplias's career began with OFI in 1983, winning the Greek Cup in 1987, and he remained for a decade before moving to Panathinaikos.

The next season the Athens side retained the title and Nioplias was a member of the team which reached the UEFA Champions League semi-finals in 1995.

Nikos Nioplias played for the newly promoted side until summer 2004 when he ended his career, having racked up 509 Greek top-flight appearances.

Nikos Nioplias played for Greece under-18 at the 1984 UEFA European under-18 championship.

Nikos Nioplias was promoted to the senior team the same year, and was a member of the squad which qualified to the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Nikos Nioplias appeared in all three games Greece played at the World Cup, losing every one of them.

Nikos Nioplias led the team to the 2005 U19 European Championship which took place in Northern Ireland, but failed to progress past the group stage, despite a victory against the hosts.

Nikos Nioplias was named coach of the Greece national under-21 football team in September 2007 after his success with Greece under-19 in Austria.

Nikos Nioplias was appointed as the Panathinaikos head coach, alongside Krzysztof Warzycha on 8 December 2009, immediately after the former manager, Henk ten Cate, was released.

Nikos Nioplias managed to do the double in 2010, winning both the Greek Superleague and the Greek Cup.

Nikos Nioplias left Panathinaikos on 15 November 2010 by mutual consent due to a disappointing run of results domestically and abroad.

In June 2011, Nikos Nioplias agreed with the Cyprus Football Association to be the manager of the Cyprus national football team until the end of the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifiers and for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.

Nikos Nioplias was replaced exactly a year later by Nikos Papadopoulos.