Nikodimos Papavasiliou

Nikodimos "Nikki" Papavasiliou (Greek: Νικόδημος Παπαβασιλείου; born 31 August 1970) is a Cypriot football manager and former international midfielder. He is currently the manager of National Bank of Egypt in the Egyptian Premier League. Aside from playing and managing, Papavasiliou's background includes scouting and Academy management. He was the first Cypriot to play in the FA Premier League.

Nikki Papavasiliou
Νικόδημος Παπαβασιλείου
Papavasiliou in 2015
Personal information
Full name Nikodemus Papavasiliou
Date of birth (1970-08-31) 31 August 1970
Place of birth Limassol, Cyprus
Height 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Position(s) Midfielder
Youth career
Apollon Limassol
Arsenal
–1987 Oldham Athletic
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1988–1993 OFI 75 (2)
1993–1994 Newcastle United 7 (0)
1994–1995 OFI 12 (0)
1996–2000 Apollon Limassol 74 (24)
2000–2002 Anorthosis Famagusta 16 (2)
2001–2002 → Enosis Neon Paralimni (loan) 11 (2)
2002 → Olympiakos Nicosia (loan) 0 (0)
2002–2003 APOEL 14 (0)
International career
Cyprus U−16 8 (2)
Cyprus U−21 28 (8)
1990–1999 Cyprus 38 (7)
Managerial career
2006–2007 APEP Pitsilia
2008–2009 Olympiakos Nicosia
2009–2009 OFI
2009–2010 Olympiakos Nicosia
2010–2011 Doxa Katokopia
2011–2012 Enosis Neon Paralimni
2012–2012 Olympiakos Nicosia
2012–2013 Apollon Limassol
2014–2015 Ermis Aradippou
2015–2016 Slovan Bratislava
2018–2019 Ergotelis
2019–2020 Panionios
2020–2021 Wadi Degla
2021–2022 Nea Salamis Famagusta
2022–2023 Ghazl El Mahalla
2023– National Bank of Egypt
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Playing career

Club career

Papavasiliou began his pro football career in 1988 with Greek Alpha Ethniki club OFI, having arrived from England nd the youth teams of Oldham Athletic and Arsenal. He spent five years with the Cretan top-tier side during its "golden years", establishing himself as an attacking midfielder under coach Eugène Gerards. In August 1993, Papavasiliou was transferred to Newcastle United for £120,000 signing a two-year contract and thus becoming the first Cypriot to play in the FA Premier League.[1] He made his Newcastle debut against Tottenham on 14 August 1993. He went on to play for two seasons at the club before returning to OFI in 1994.

He returned to Cyprus in 1996 signing for First Division club Apollon Limassol, where he stayed four years. In 2000, Papavasiliou was acquired by Anorthosis Famagusta, but after playing with them through the 2000–01 season, he was subsequently loaned out to Enosis Neon Paralimni and Olympiakos Nicosia.[2] He then moved to APOEL, where he played his final season, opting to retire his playing career in 2003.[2]

International career

Papavasiliou has represented Cyprus for 9 years during 1990–1999, making a total of 38 national caps and scoring five goals.[3][4]

Managerial career
Papavasiliou in 2010.

Papavasiliou holds the English UEFA A Licence and also the UEFA Pro Licence.[5] He began his managerial career in Cyprus, first at APE Pitsilia in the 2006–07 Cypriot Second Division and then moving to Olympiakos Nicosia, who had recently been relegated to the Second Division after many decades in the top flight. Papavasiliou led the Green−Blacks throughout their 2007–08 campaign, but missed out on promotion in the final match of the competition, in which his side was defeated 2–1 by fellow promotion contenders Nea Salamis, who thus finished in the promotion zone and left Olympiakos in fourth place.[6]

In the summer of 2009, Papavasiliou returned to Greece and the team where he made his name as a player, OFI, where he was paired up with former OFI teammate Myron Sifakis to lead the club during its 2009–10 Beta Ethniki campaign. The duo were however sacked after poor performances at the start of the competition.[7] He returned to Cyprus and Olympiakos Nicosia, this time completing the club's comeback to the First Division after securing third place in the 2009–10 campaign. He left the club in the summer of 2010 and spent the next six months managing Doxa Katokopia until January 2011, and then one year at Enosis Neon Paralimni, whom he led to an all-time best sixth-place finish in the First Division in 2011. In February 2012, Papavasiliou was hired as manager of Olympiakos Nicosia for the third time in his managerial career.[8]

In September 2012, Papavasiliou reached an agreement with Apollon Limassol, for whom he had played from 1996 to 2000, and mutually terminated his contract with Olympiakos to complete the move.[9] He did not manage to finish the season with the club, as he was sacked in March 2013, after a 9–6–6 record.[10] In September 2014, he was appointed manager of Ermis Aradippou, but once again he was fired after several bad results in February 2015.[11]

On 21 August 2015 Papavasiliou was hired as manager of Slovak First Football League side Slovan Bratislava, whom he led to the 2016 Slovak Cup Final.[12] He finished the season in second place behind double-winners AS Trenčín, boasting an impressive .64 win ratio. His second season with the club came to an abrupt end however, as he was fired after the third game of the 2016–17 season[13]

In May 2018, Papavasiliou was appointed manager of Greek Football League side Ergotelis.[14] He managed to lead the club to its first Greek Cup Quarter-finals since 1986 during his first season as club manager.[15] His work did not go unnoticed and in September 2019 he was offered the head coach position of struggling Super League side Panionios. Papavasiliou thus terminated his contract with Ergotelis, accepting the bid and thus making his Super League managerial debut.[16]

Managerial statistics
As of match played 8 January 2023
Managerial record by team and tenure
Team From To Record Ref.
PWDLWin %
APEP Pitsilia 1 July 2006 30 June 2007 30 11 5 14 036.7
Olympiakos 1 July 2008 30 June 2009 28 14 6 8 050.0
OFI 1 July 2009 2 November 2009 9 3 2 4 033.3
Olympiakos 3 November 2009 30 June 2010 19 8 7 4 042.1
Doxa Katokopia 1 July 2010 13 January 2011 19 5 5 9 026.3
Enosis Neon Paralimni 18 January 2011 9 January 2012 28 10 6 12 035.7
Olympiakos 28 February 2012 20 September 2012 14 6 3 5 042.9
Apollon Limassol 21 September 2012 5 March 2013 23 11 6 6 047.8
Ermis Aradippou 8 September 2014 2 February 2015 18 9 3 6 050.0
Slovan Bratislava 23 August 2015 1 August 2016 45 23 15 7 051.1
Ergotelis 1 July 2018 1 September 2019 38 18 8 12 047.4
Panionios 3 September 2019 20 February 2020 26 6 6 14 023.1
Wadi Degla 21 February 2020 21 January 2021 25 6 9 10 024.0
Nea Salamis Famagusta 9 July 2021 31 January 2022 1 0 0 1 000.0
Ghazl El Mahalla 13 September 2022 8 January 2023 12 5 3 4 041.7
Total 335 135 84 116 040.3 —

Other

Papavasiliou has accumulated substantial experience and expertise in scouting, and Academy management, having worked as a scout for FA Premier League clubs Bolton Wanderers and Newcastle United. He is also the owner of Nikki Football Academy in Cyprus.[5]

References
  1. "The Premiership's foreign legion". The Guardian. 24 August 2005. Retrieved 9 February 2007.
  2. Tasos, Theodorou (31 August 2017). "Nίκκι Παπαβασιλείου: Ο πρώτος Κύπριος της διεθνούς καριέρας στην Premier League (pics)". balla.com.cy. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  3. "Cyprus – Record International Players". rssf.com. 6 February 2008. Retrieved 15 May 2008.
  4. "Papavasiliou on the move". UEFA. 12 September 2002. Retrieved 29 December 2006.
  5. Ο Νίκκι Παπαβασιλείου βάζει τους Άγγλους... στο πνεύμα του Γκι Ρου! neakriti.gr (11 April 2018)
  6. "Κόκκινα χαμόγελα στο Μακάρειο..." Protathlima.com. 5 April 2009. Archived from the original on 11 April 2013. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  7. "Πάει για τον 19ο προπονητή σε 14 χρόνια (Greek)". sporfm.gr. 15 May 2014.
  8. "Συνέχεια με Νίκκι για Ολυμπιακό". politis.com.cy. 26 February 2012. Archived from the original on 7 July 2018. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  9. "Παπαβασιλείου αντί Μπέρλι στον Απόλλωνα". ekirikas.com. 20 September 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  10. "Τέλος ο Παπαβασιλείου για τον Απόλλωνα". laimitomos.com. 8 March 2013. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  11. "Τέλος από τον Ερμή ο Παπαβασιλείου". neakriti.gr. 3 February 2015. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  12. "Νίκι Παπαβασιλείου: Ο Κύπριος "μάγος" της Μπρατισλάβα". sport24.gr. 2 May 2016. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  13. Tréner Nikodimos Papavasiliou dostal v Slovane padáka! aktuality.sk (31 July 2016)
  14. Νικόδημος Παπαβασιλείου ο νέος τεχνικός της ομάδας μας ergotelis.gr (29 May 2018)
  15. Ραντεβού με την ιστορία του Archived 18 February 2019 at the Wayback Machine footballleague.gr (7 February 2019)
  16. "Πανιώνιος: Ανακοίνωσε Παπαβασιλείου". sport24.gr. 3 September 2019.
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