Tryfon Tzanetis

Tryfon Tzanetis
Personal information
Date of birth	1918
Place of birth	Smyrna, Ottoman Empire
Date of death	8 September 1998 (aged 80)
Place of death	Athens, Greece
Position(s)	Striker, Center back
Senior career*
Years	Team
1932–1933	Eleftheroupoli
1933–1950	AEK Athens
National team
1949	Greece
Teams managed
1950–1951	Egaleo
1951–1952	AEK Athens
1954–1955	AEK Athens
1956–1957	AEK Athens
1958–1959	Egaleo
1960–1961	Greece
1961–1962	AEK Athens
1962–1964	Greece
1965–1967	AEK Athens
1967–1968	Apollon Athens
	* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Tryfon Tzanetis (Greek: Τρύφων Τζανετής 1918–1998) was a Greek football player and coach. He was a best known as a great figure for AEK Athens during the 1930s and 1940s, partnering Kleanthis Maropoulos in AEK's front line.^[1] Tzanetis also contributed to AEK by coaching the club in the 50s and 60s.

Career[]

Chatzistavridis, Tzanetis, Maropoulos and Christodoulou in 1939

Tzanetis was born in 1918 in Smyrna (today's Izmir), from Naxian parents. After the Asia Minor disaster, his family moved to Athens and installed in Nea Ionia. Tzanetis started playing football in 1932 at Eleftheroupoli. In 1933, AEK Athens scouted him and he signed a sport's card with the club. He started from the youth teams of AEK where he was promoted to the first team in 1935, together with Maropoulos and participated in an official match. He was a member to the great team of the "yellow-blacks" in the late 30s, having teammates, among others, besides Kleanthis Maropoulos, Spyros Sklavounos and Spyros Kontoulis. He was a great player and a great man. Initially an attacker, but later in his career he became a central defender, when AEK's coach, Jack Beby converted him, in the WM system that he applied since he came to Greece in 1948. His presence was imposing. He was insightful, extremely fast, creative and team and in addition to being an aggressive midfielder, he was also distinguished by his inhibitions. With AEK he won 4 (including 3 consecutive) times the Panathenian Championship, 2 consecutive Greek Championships and 3 Greek cups.^[2]

He wore once the jersey of Greece on 25 May 1949, against Italy B in a 2–3 defeat, with Tzanetis coming from the bench on the 46th minute.^[3]^[4]

In 1950 after his playing days were over, Tzanetis took up coaching Egaleo in the 1st division of Athens for a season before returning to AEK Athens. He found himself as the coach of AEK in many periods in the 50s and 60s (1951, 1954, 1956, 1961 and 1965), leading the club to the Greek Cup in 1966. Tzanetis also coached Apollon Athens which was the last club of his career. He was also a selector of the Greece military national football team. From 1960 to 1964 (in two different periods) he was the coach of Greece with a record of 5 wins, 1 draw and 5 losses.

He identified on the pitch and in life with Kleanthis Maropoulos, with whom he remained friends and partners in a sporting goods store in the center of Athens, until the end of the latter's life, in 1991. Seven years later, Tzanetis died.^[5]