Giorgos Daispangos

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Giorgos Daispangos (Greek: Γιώργος Νταϊσπάγγος; 1910 –27 July 1987) was a Greek football player who played as a defender for AEK Athens in the 1930s. Throughout different periods of the 1940s, 50s and 60s, he served as the coach for the first team and all the departments of the academies of AEK. He was one of the pioneers of Greek football and one of the "Patriarchs" of the club. There are no limits of Daispangos' service to AEK Athens.

Playing career[]

AEK at 1932 Cup.

Daispangos was born in 1910 in Piraeus and fate brought him at the age of 14 to Neo Faliro as a footballer of Asteras Piraeus, to watch a newly founded team with origins from Constantinople, AEK Athens. The 14-year-old Daispangos was "enchanted" from the technical football AEK was playing and set a goal to one day wear the "yellow-black" jersey and become a teammate with the players that looked like heroes, in his childish eyes. His admiration for AEK was proverbial and as he narrated, in 1927 at the age of 17, he ran away from his home in Piraeus, to follow ΑΕΚ on a trip to Helidonou in Kifissia. It was Clean Monday and Daispangos lied to his mother that he was going to the tailor shop, only to follow the team that he loved from Piraeus to Helidonou, a distance that in those years was very long, as Kifissia was considered countryside for the Athenians, furthermore to people from Piraeus, like Daispangos. He was invited to AEK in 1929 by the then coach, Josef Sveg and played for the club for 6 consecutive years next to the legends of the club, such as Kostas Negrepontis, Stavros Emmanouilidis, Mallios-Galic and Themos Asderis. Ιn 1932 AEK won its first ever trophy, the Greek cup, against Aris at Leoforos Alexandras Stadium, with Daispangos being one of the protagonists of the final alongside Giamalis, Negrepontis and the two-time scorer, Baltas.^[2] In parallel with football, he worked in his family tailor shop in Piraeus and in fact, was a gifted craftsman as a tailor, until 1928, as he was invited through AEK to work in "ULEN" (later EYDAP) in order to have more free time to devote to football. Simultaneously with his job at "ULEN", Daispangos also worked at AEK, helping wherever he was asked to. He would serve from caretaker to masseur and clothing manager. He said that he was very happy at that period in AEK, as he considered it the time that he bonded to the club, since he saw something big was being born in his hands. He retired as a footballer at the age of 25.^[3]

Later career[]

Daispangos experienced the golden age for the club, before the Occupation destroyed everything, including AEK Athens. He was the man who collected the belongings of AEK and kept the club's property in the small room in his house in Piraeus,^[4] before they moved to the house of Rangavis in Kapnikarea square. He lost touch with AEK during that period, but he kept on playing football, coaching Koukouvaounes, until end of the WW2 and the release of Greece, where AEK invited him back to the club. He undertook the task to reorganize the club's famous academies from the beginning, since Daispangos was also a pioneer for the club and in 1934 had created an amazing youth team from which huge figures of its history emerged, such as Kleanthis Maropoulos, Michalis Delavinias and Tryfon Tzanetis.

AEK's first Youth team in 1934.

Simultaneously to his return and the organization of the team's academies, Daispangos practically acted as the coach of all teams and club's divisions. In 1948 when Jack Beby arrived in Athens, to coach AEK, he received an enviable and young team from Daispangos with already international footballers, such as Emmanouilidis, Darakis, Papatheodorou and Poulis. All the huge figures in the later history of AEK were products of Daispangos' work. On his side throughout his career were the then curator, Nikos Goumas and the Vice President of AEK, Konstantinos Skouras, father-in-law of Sokratis Kokkalis, the later President of Olympiacos Piraeus. During 1948 the first rupture between him and AEK, was made. He was fired and ended up at AO Kifissias and also worked at Daphni Athens, before Apollon Athens called him to coach the club in 1951.

Two years later, his old love, AEK, called him again. Once more he undertook all the divisions of the club, with special emphasis on the departments of the academies, but left once more, in 1955. He wandered for 6 years in Chalandri, Athinaikos, Atromitos Athens,^[5] Argos and back in Atromitos, in 1960. A year later, in 1961, at AEK, Goumas and Skouras have returned to the club's administration and Daispangos rejected the proposals of PAOK and Aris, as he was called to return to AEK. Daispangos came back to AEK on the condition that he will work together with Tzanetis and asks Nikos Goumas to take over the academies, that he considered them the weakness of the club and the then President of AEK, did not hesitate to assign him in charge of all departments.

The work of Daispangos on AEK Athens' academies speaks for itself. In his first term for AEK from 1945 to 1949 he promotes players such as Poulis, Emmanouilidis, Paragios, Papatheodorou, Oikonomou, Sevastiadis and Darakis. All of them international at their sectors. The second passing of Daispangos in 1953–55, he produced Vernezis, Melissis, Alafogiannis, Adamantidis and the Argyropoulos brothers. During his final term on the bench of the AEK's academies he brings out footballers, such as Karafeskos, Stathopoulos, Simigdalas, Sevastopoulos, Pomonis, Kagianas, Andrikoulas, Kritikos, Lavaridis, Maniateas, Karapoulitidis, Sarris, Kyrmizas, Karakidis, Stefanou, Thivaios, Triantafyllou, Liakouris, Istorios, Psychogyios, Theodoronis, Giapoulis, Moschakis, Papaioannou, Giannopoulos, Karoulias, the Karypidis brothers, Papagiannis and Kontopoulos, from 1963 to 1971.

In his 19-year presence on its infrastructure departments, AEK wοn 18 titles in total:

• Undefeated champions of Athens and EPSA Golden Medal with the Youth team in 1946–47
• Undefeated champions of Athens with the Youth team in 1948–49
• Champions of Athens with the Reserve team and undefeated champions with the Youth team in 1953–54
• Champions of the South Group in the championship and Undefeated champions of Greece with the Youth team in 1963–64
• Champions of the South Group in the championship and Undefeated champions of Greece with the Youth team in 1964–65
• Champions of the South Group in the championship and champions of Greece with the Reserve team in 1964–65
• Champions of the South Group in the championship and Undefeated champions of Greece with the Reserve team in 1965–66
• Champions of the South Group in the championship and Undefeated champions of Greece with the Reserve team in 1966–67 and 1967–68.

The architect of all that success, was him.^[6]

Daispangos was one of the founding members of the Hellenic Coaches Association, which served for more than a decade as its General Secretary. He had also been in AEK Athens' first team coach occasionally, after the 40's and the 50's. In 1967 at Skopje against Vardar and in Constanța against Farul because the coach of the first team, Jenő Csaknády could not enter the Eastern states. AEK left undefeated from both games with 2 draws. The last time he sat on the bench of AEK, at the end of 1967 in Ljubljana, where AEK faced Olimpija in a 3-3 draw, although they finished the match with 9 players.^[7] In 1971, Daispangos retired from football after a 42-year presence on and off the fields. He also had a son who played for AEK in 1960–61 season.

Honours[]

AEK Athens

• Greek Cup: 1931–32

References[]