Vassilis Karapialis

Vassilis Karapialis (Greek: Βασίλης Καραπιάλης; born 13 June 1965) is a Greek retired footballer. He successfully competed for AEL, Olympiacos and the Greek national football team. He is considered to be one of the best number 10 shirt of all times in Greece.

Youth years at Toxotis[]

Born in Ambelokipoi, Larissa, Karapialis began to play football in Larissa's grounds.^[1] School wasn't so important for him. At the age of 14, in 1979, he began his early career at Toxotis Larissa youth team. Toxotis had another talent too, Giorgos Agorogiannis, later Karapialis's teammate at AEL and one of the best Larissa's players of all time too. Thanks to his notable skills, Karapialis moved to Toxotis first team a year later, in 1980. He made some excellent appearances with Toxotis at Larissa Prefecture Amateur League and many Top League's clubs got interested for him. In 1984, OFI was paying Toxotis 2,1 million Greek Drahmas (almost 6,200 Euro's) for him, but Karapialis did not want to leave his hometown and refused the transfer. His greatest dream was to play for Larissa's "queen", AEL. After an outstanding 1984–1985 season with Toxotis, when he scored 30 goals playing as a midfielder, the time had come for the dream to become true.

AEL wonder[]

When Karapialis was transferred to AEL for 1 million Greek Drahmas in 1985, just after AEL had won the very first Greek Football Cup in the club's history, he became very popular among the fans. Soon he had his own fan club watching him playing every single week, holding a "Karapialis, You Are Magic" banner. For the first two seasons, Karapialis was used mainly as a substitute. When he managed to become a basic player in 1987–1988 season, the club won its only Greek Football Championship in the club's history, with Karapialis being the MVP of the season, and that league title remains until today (6 June 2021) the only top league title won by a club that is not based in one of the two biggest cities of the country, Athens and Thessaloniki. The next seasons were bad for club, as the club faced serious bankruptcy problems. Three seasons after the Championship, Karapialis left his favourite AEL for Olympiacos.

The favourite "Billy" of Olympiacos[]

In 1991's summer, Karapialis signed for Olympiacos and the club's fans celebrated the signing of one of the most promising player at the time. He made his debut against AEK Athens, when Olympiacos won 4–2, thanks to a hat-trick by Oleg Protasov. He quickly became the leader of the Red-Whites, thanks to his aggression, agility, great technique and, of course, experience. He won only one Greek Football Cup in his first five seasons with Olympiacos, but the next four were outstanding: four out of four Greek Football Championships, one Greek Football Cup and a Greek Super Cup.

International career[]

Karapialis appeared in 21 matches for the senior Greece national football team from 1988 to 1994.^[2]

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Although Karapialis was a phenomenal talent, he played only 21 games with the Greek national football team, scoring 2 goals. He was not a regular choice for the team while he was playing for AEL 1964, because coaches used to call players only from Olympiacos, AEK Athens, Panathinaikos and PAOK, as they are Athens and Thessaloniki based. Every countryside team, like AEL 1964, was not happy with that, because they had great players, like Karapialis, wasted only because they were playing in countryside teams.

However, Karapialis was out even from 1994 FIFA World Cup Greek team. He felt insulted and announced his retirement from the National team.

Retirement and honorary vote[]

In May 2000, Karapialis announced his retirement from professional football. The same year, he was voted as the third-best Greek professional footballer (after 1979, when football became professional in Greece), after Vassilis Hatzipanagis and Dimitris Saravakos.^{[citation needed]} He is considered to be the best Greek number 10 shirt in history of Olympiacos along with Georgios Delikaris.^{[citation needed]}

For a long period, after his retirement as a footballer, he will work for Olympiacos, either as a scouter or as a manager to the club's Youth teams. Then, he will become the owner of his football academy center in Chalandri, Athens.^[3]

On 5 June 2021, the Greek media announced his return to AEL, after many years, who will be in charge of all young teams of the club.^[4][5]

Honours[]

AEL

• Greek Championship (1): 1987–88

Olympiacos

• Greek Championship (4): 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–00
• Greek Cup:
  • Winner (2): 1991–92, 1998–99
  • Runner-up (1): 1992–93

• Greek Super Cup (1): 1992

References[]

External links[]

• similar to Pelé's style goal (video) (in Greek)
• bio article in newsbeast.gr (in Greek)
• bio article in apopsi24.gr (in Greek)
• bio article in sport24.gr (in Greek)