Kostas Negrepontis

Kostas Negrepontis
	Kostas Negrepontis playing for AEK Athens.
Personal information
Full name	Konstantinos Negrepontis
Date of birth	31 October 1897
Place of birth	Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Date of death	19 February 1973 (aged 75)
Place of death	Athens, Greece
Position(s)	Striker, Inside/Outside right
Youth career
1912–1916	Enosis Tataoulon
Senior career*
Years	Team
1916–1917	Pera Club
1917–1918	Fenerbahçe
1918–1923	Pera Club
1923–1925	CASG Paris
1925–1926	SC Douai
1926–1933	AEK Athens
National team
1929–1930	Greece
Teams managed
1933–1934	Greece
1933–1936	AEK Athens
1937	Ethnikos Piraeus
1937–1948	AEK Athens
1938	Greece
1948–1950	Greece
1948–1949	Fostiras
1949–1950	Olympiacos (Director of football)
1950–1954	Panionios
1953	Greece
1955	Olympiacos
1955–1957	AEK Athens
1958–1959	AEK Athens
1959	Atromitos
	* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Kostas Negrepontis (Greek: Κώστας Νεγρεπόντης; 31 October 1897 – 19 February 1973) was a Greek international footballer who played as a center forward in the 1920s and 1930s and was later a coach.^[2] He was considered a great virtuoso of the ball, football intelligence and a great shooter. He was a figure and was so dear to his fellows that never leaves their memory. Those who lived near him, those who worked with him, spoke with admiration about "Negro", as the fans called him. Calm, likeable and always optimistic, Negrepontis was the idol of fans and opponents. Negrepontis was one of the pillars of Greek football in his first steps and contributed to it both as a footballer and as a coach as well as a football teacher for prospective coaches. He was distinguished for his passion, selflessness in terms of the progress of the Greek football, but especially for his beloved AEK which he watched even when he got sick. Negrepontis was awarded for his great athletic activity in Greece by King Paul and by the Association of Sports Editors.^[3]

Club career[]

Players of Pera Club. Negrepontis is on the left.

Born in Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1897.In 1912 he became an official member of the sports family for the first time. He started his football career as a young player in Turkey, playing for the Enosis Tataoulon, where he stayed for four years. In 1916 he moved to "The Greek football team", the football department of Pera Club, where in 1918 he became the team's captain. He also played for Fenerbahçe in the period 1917-18. Negrepontis was a pole of attraction and for the Greek youth of the region, his influence was great. The kids were playing in the arenas with canvas balls full of shavings and trying to imitate "Negro's" shots, dribbles and moves. It is characteristic that whenever Pera Club played, the expression "Children, today Negrepontis is playing" prevailed, with the young people going to the stadium to admire him. With Pera Club he won a Turkish Championship in 1922. After the Greco-Turkish War in 1922, Negrepontis as the team's captain took the initiative to take Pera Club on a tour in Europe, with Greece being one of their stops and in a total of 47 games they achieved 43 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats. Both the team and Negrepontis were admired by European fans for their achievements. In 1923 after Pera Club was dissolved, he moved to CASG Paris, where he became the captain in 1925. In 1925 he joined the ranks of Sporting Douai of which was also captain. In 1926 Negrepontis returned to Greece and joined AEK Athens. In 1932 he led AEK to conquer the Greek Cup which was the first trophy in its history, beating Aris by 5-3 with Negrepontis achieving the 5th goal for his team. In the same year, AEK won the Acropolis Cup, defeating the Austrian team Wacker 4-2, from which both Olympiacos and Panathinaikos had been defeated. In 1933 Negrepontis permanently gave up active action as a footballer at the age of 36.^[4]

International career[]

In June 1929, Negrepontis became a member of the National team playing against Bulgaria in a friendly match that ended 1-1 coming in the game at the 46th minute.^[5] That was the second ever Greece's game and the first game that didn't lose. His second and last game was in March 1930 on a friendly match against Italy B in 3–0 defeat. He was only capped twice, because the Hellenic Football Federation was founded at the dawn of his career.^[6]

Coaching career[]

Iliaskos, Dimopoulos, Negrepontis, and Emmanouilidis.

At the end of his football career he also dealt with coaching. In fact, this happened for the first time in 1933 when AEK Athens was playing a qualifying match against Goudi. Its coach at the time was the Hungarian Emil Rauchmaul and Negrepontis was on holiday in Samos. The importance of the occasion brought him to prepare AEK for this crucial match and thus he was the first Greek coach of a large club, at a time when mostly foreign coaches were selected. AEK was the first club to coach and the services it offered to the team lasted 16 years. During this period AEK won once the Greek Cup in 1939 and two Greek championships, while Negrepontis gave to AEK and Greek football athletes such as Maropoulos, Tzanetis, Goulios, Delavinias, Kontoulis, Mageiras, Manetas and Xenos.^[7] After leaving AEK in 1948, he joined Fostiras, while in September 1949 he took over the technical leadership of Olympiacos. In September 1950 he became the coach of Panionios. In the period 1955–57 Negrepontis returned to AEK with which won the Greek Cup in 1956. In February 1957 Negrepontis left AEK, but returned to her technical leadership in 1958. In 1959 he took over the technical leadership of Atromitos. He also managed teams of the likes of Panelefsiniakos, Apollon Smyrnis, Ethnikos Piraeus and Panegialios. Negrepontis found himself as the coach of Greece in four different periods between 1933 and 1953. He was the coach who achieved Greece's biggest victory of 8–0 against Syria in a match which took place on 25 November 1949 at Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium.

In 1965 he retired from football and died in 1973 after 2 years fighting with illness. The former president of AEK Athens and author of the first history book about the club, Alexandros Makridis wrote in the Greek newspapaer, "Athlitiki Echo" about the loss of Negrepontis:

"As a former president, but also one the founders of AEK, together with the whole world of the fans, I mourn the loss of Kostas Negrepontis. He was one of the creators of the glory of AEK, but also a brave and honest fighter in the, Greek or foreign stadiums. With the death of Kostas Negrepontis, perhaps the last of the old honest football fighters is lost, who fought only for the idea and the honor and the colors of Greece as an international football player, but also of the club he served. Kostas Negrepontis left an era as a moral footballer without salary and "bonuses". He was the creator of a football school, the coach of the National team and the Military national team. "