Vasilios Tsiartas

Vasilios Tsiartas
	Tsartas signing an autograph for a fan
Personal information
Full name	Vasilios Tsiartas
Date of birth	12 November 1972 (age 49)
Place of birth	Alexandreia, Greece
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s)	Attacking midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team
1989–1992	Naoussa
1992–1996	AEK Athens
1996–2000	Sevilla
2000–2004	AEK Athens
2004–2005	1. FC Köln
2006–2007	Ethnikos Piraeus
Total
National team
1996–1999	Greece U21
1994–2005	Greece
Teams managed
2012	AEK Athens (technical director)
Honours
	* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Vasilios "Vasilis" Tsiartas^[a] (Greek: Βασίλειος "Βασίλης" Τσιάρτας, born 12 November 1972) is a Greek former international footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Although he was famed for his lackadaisical playing style, his ability was never in question and he was in many ways the epitome of a classic "number 10" player. "El Mago", as was his nickname, was naturally left-footed but was just as dangerous with his right foot. A great football mind, a literally world-class vertical pass, amazing set-up and amazing long-range shots. His racing flaw was his lack of speed, which, however, was overshadowed by his great technical skills. Also characteristic of the incredible potential of his left foot is the fact that in addition to the many goals he scored with free kicks, long and short shots and penalties, sometimes in his career he scored with direct corner kicks. Thus, Tsiartas was the main set piece taker for the national and his club team. He was an important member of Greece, claiming two assists in Portugal towards Greece's ultimate victory at UEFA Euro 2004. In his entire career he did not receive a single red card. Although he played as a passer, Tsiartas was capable of scoring many goals due to his deadly footage and scoring abilities being one of AEK Athens' top scorers. He is considered one of the best Greek players in history.

Club career[]

Born in Alexandreia, Greece, Tsiartas began his career at the academy at AE Alexandris and later the team of Naoussa, which also produced players such as Vassilis Lakis and Dimitris Markos. While playing for Naousa, he aroused the interest of the big teams, mainly AEK Athens and Panathinaikos. In the end, in December 1992, he was transferred to AEK. After the first 18 months, which was a period of adjustment and was between substitutes and starters. However, Tsiartas, showing direct examples of his rare class with a characteristic debut on 12 December 1992, in which he scored two goals in a 7–0 victory against Korinthos in Nea Filadelfeia, made permanent in the team starting lineup during the 1994–95 seaspn. This season he had a very good presence in the matches for the Champions League, while he also made several very good appearances in domestic competitions. The 1995–96 season was probably the best of Tsiartas' career in Greece, since he became the top scorer of the Greek championship with 26 goals in 33 league matches, achieving and many impressive goals, while he also scored many assists for his teammates. For the specific season, he also scored seven goals in the Cup, which AEK won in the end, while he was voted the best Greek football player of the league (alongside Vassilis Karapialis and Giorgos Donis) by his colleagues in the league. Tsiartas soon made a name for himself and his subsequent move to AEK Athens resulted in him scoring the most goals in the 1996 season in the Alpha Ethniki.

This and his huge attacking presence lead to a move to Sevilla for a fee of €1.5 million. There, he was an influential captain and vital in team gaining promotion to the Primera Division. He was known in Seville as "El Mago" ("The Magician") due to his lethal ability with any free kicks combined with a powerful shot in or outside the box. He was also loved by the Sevilla fans and was one of the most important "10s" of the Andalusian team's history. He managed 140 appearances in the championship with 44 goals and many assists, while he was also the leader of the team.^[1]

Tsiartas returned to AEK Athens in 2000 for €3.5 million on another successful four-year spell at AEK. He was now the "maestro" of the build-up of the game, wearing his favorite "10" on the back, while he scored very often. He scored a total of 43 goals for the championship during his second spell in the team, he created a lot of goals for his teammates, while he was also an awesome duo with Demis Nikolaidis. A memorable appearance was in the Champions League match in Nea Filadelfeia against Real Madrid in a 3–3 draw, when he scored an amazing goal. with a foul and assisted two more goals, one by Christos Maladenis with a corner and one by Demis Nikolaidis also with an excellent foul. On the other hand, a bad moment was that he missed the penalty, in the penalty shootout, in the Cup Final with Panathinaikos on 20/4/1994, in one of the best Greek cup finals of all time (2–2 after regular time, 3–3 after extra time and 5–3 for Panathinaikos, after penalty shoot-out).In total, Tsiartas had 196 appearances in AEK in the Greek championship and 80 goals, many of which are particularly impressive and today he is in the top 10 of the all time scorers of AEK for the championship. He also had 24 participations with 12 goals in the cup and 49 games with 10 goals in European games (3rd scorer in the history of the team until today in European games, behind Demis Nikolaidis and Mimis Papaioannou).^[2]

He ended his career at 1. FC Köln. Tsiartas officially returned to action, by signing with Ethnikos Piraeus in Greece. On 14 February 2007 Vasilis Tsartas announced his retirement from professional football.^[3]

International career[]

Having played at under-16 and under-21 level, Tsiartas made his debut for men's team on 27 April 1994 in a game against Saudi Arabia. He managed to score 12 goals in his 70 caps with Greece including an important penalty against Northern Ireland in 2003 which led to Greece's qualification for Euro 2004. During the Euro 2004 he was used mainly as a substitute by the team's coach Otto Rehhagel, but managed to claim two vital assists, one against Spain and the other against the Czech Republic on the way to Greece's victory in the tournament.

Post-playing career[]

After his playing days were over, Tsiartas became a agent. Tsiartas was also the technical director of AEK Athens for three months during the 2012–13 season.^[4]^[5]

Career statistics[]

International[]

Appearances and goals by national team and year^[6]
National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Greece	1994	6	0
	1995	10	2
	1996	6	1
	1997	2	0
	1998	2	0
	1999	3	2
	2000	7	0
	2001	1	1
	2002	8	1
	2003	9	3
	2004	14	2
	2005	2	0
Total		70	12

Scores and results list Greece's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Tsiartas goal.

List of international goals scored by Vasilios Tsiartas
No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	17 May 1995	Žalgiris Stadium, Vilnius, Lithuania	Lithuania	1–1	1–2	Friendly
2	15 November 1995	Theodoros Vardinogiannis Stadium, Heraklion, Greece	Faroe Islands	5–0	5–0	UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
3	24 January 1996	, Chalcis, Greece	Israel	2–0	2–1	Friendly
4	6 October 1999	Athens Olympic Sports Complex, Athens, Greece	Albania	1–0	2–0	UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
5	9 October 1999	Ljudski vrt, Maribor, Slovenia	Slovenia	1–0	3–0	UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
6	10 November 2001	Nikos Goumas Stadium, Athens, Greece	Estonia	3–0	4–2	Friendly
7	27 March 2002	Kostas Davourlis Stadium, Patras, Greece	Belgium	1–2	3–2	Friendly
8	26 March 2003	UPC-Arena, Graz, Austria	Austria	1–0	2–2	Friendly
9	30 April 2003	Štadión pod Dubňom, Žilina, Slovakia	Slovakia	1–0	2–2	Friendly
10	11 October 2003	Leoforos Alexandras Stadium, Athens, Greece	Northern Ireland	1–0	1–0	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying
11	31 March 2004	Pankritio Stadium, Heraklion, Greece	Switzerland	1–0	1–0	Friendly
12	9 October 2004	Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex, Kyiv, Ukraine	Ukraine	1–1	1–1	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification