Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos

Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos (Greek: Δημήτριος Ελευθερόπουλος; born 7 August 1976) is a retired Greek goalkeeper and the current manager of Asteras Tripoli. In the past he played for the Greek national team.

Greece

Born in Piraeus, and an ardent supporter of major Greek club Olympiacos, where he started playing as a goalkeeper at a very young age. Except for 1996, when he was loaned to Proodeftiki, he played for Olympiakos from 1994 to 2004, winning seven championships in a row.

He was the young third goalkeeper in 1997's Olympiacos roster behind Foto Strakosha and Alekos Rantos but injuries and bad games from the previous two made coach Dusan Bajevic to give him a chance. His astonishing performances, which included impossible saves and penalty stops eventually lifted Eleftheropoulos to the level of an idol earning the nickname of "The Eagle", being one of the masterpieces for Olympiakos championship after ten years of disappointments.

He lost nearly all the 1998 season due to a severe knee injury, which was worsened by a badly treated arthrosis that also affected his shoulder. This did not prevent a glorious comeback in the 1999 UEFA Champions League, with Olympiacos advancing to quarterfinals for the first time and being chosen as the best goalkeeper in the competition.

On 23 October 2001, Eleftheropoulos made a sensational penalty save to Ruud van Nistelrooy at 65th-minute between Manchester United and Olympiacos for Champions League, in Old Trafford. It was the only penalty missed by the Dutch international striker for that season.

He is also remembered by some for being the goalkeeper present during the worst loss of any Greek team in the Champions League, when on December 10, 2003 Olympiakos lost to Juventus 7-0.

Italy

In 2004, Eleftheropoulos transferred to newly promoted Serie A side Messina, where, despite some great performances, he could not unseat Marco Storari in the starting eleven.

In 2005, he was signed by Milan. Even though, due to a series of subpar performances in friendlies against Chelsea and Chicago Fire during a summer tour in the United States, coupled with Milan's heavy surplus of goalkeepers, he was sold to Roma where he remained game-less for the entire season.

Eleftheropoulos signed for Ascoli for the '06–07 Championship and on 25 February 2007 he played his first Serie A match for Ascoli against Livorno.

On 11 June 2007, he was signed by A.C. Siena on free transfer, for 2-year deal, where although beginning the season in the starting eleven, he has finished as the substitute goalkeeper behind Austrian international Alex Manninger. According with Siena's official website, on 28 May 2009, Eleftheropoulos decided to leave the club for family reasons.

Return to Greece

On 30 May 2009, Eleftheropoulos signed with PAS Giannina,[1] a team locally known as “Ajax of Epirus” which in the past had formed players like Giourkas Seitaridis, that has promoted to the First Division. He started his new season becoming the most experienced player for his new club. Great saves during matches against Kavala, his former team Olympiakos and AEK contributed to achieve either victory for Giannina or himself to be elected as Man of the Match. Eleftheropoulos after 5 years reached again the semi-final of the Greek Cup with his new club against Panathinaikos F.C. On 3 August 2010, Eleftheropoulos signed a contract with Iraklis F.C.

In the summer 2011, signed with Panionios. He announced the end of his career on 21 December 2011.

Eleftheropoulos got his first of twelve senior international caps for Greece in a friendly against Belgium in 1999. From these caps, three were in the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for the European zone; where although having brilliant performances in both games against Germany, he was left aside from the national team after a strong cross with coach Vassilis Daniil. For the Euro 2004 coach Otto Rehhagel chose Antonios Nikopolidis as his starting keeper and Konstantinos Chalkias and Fanis Katergiannakis as substitutes, leaving Eleftheropoulos out of the roster.

Eleftheropoulos started his managerial career at Panionios. His currently the manager of Superleague Greece side Veria, as he was appointed to replace Giorgos Georgiadis on 26 January 2016. His assistant manager is for third consecutive time his former teammate Stylianos Venetidis.

As of 6 November 2016

Team	Nation	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %
Panionios		29 May 2012	16 February 2013	7001240000000000000♠24	7000900000000000000♠9	7000100000000000000♠1	7001140000000000000♠14	7001375000000000000♠37.50
Larnaca		1 July 2013	15 December 2013	7001130000000000000♠13	7000400000000000000♠4	7000400000000000000♠4	7000500000000000000♠5	7001307700000000000♠30.77
Olympiakos Volou		6 January 2015	30 June 2015	7001240000000000000♠24	7001130000000000000♠13	7000200000000000000♠2	7000900000000000000♠9	7001541700000000000♠54.17
Panthrakikos		19 September 2015	26 January 2016	7001190000000000000♠19	7000300000000000000♠3	7000800000000000000♠8	7000800000000000000♠8	7001157900000000000♠15.79
Veria		26 January 2016	8 July 2016	7001110000000000000♠11	7000100000000000000♠1	7000500000000000000♠5	7000500000000000000♠5	07000909000000000000♠9.09
Asteras Tripoli		27 September 2016	today	7000600000000000000♠6	7000400000000000000♠4	5000000000000000000♠0	7000200000000000000♠2	7001666700000000000♠66.67
Total				7001970000000000000♠97	7001340000000000000♠34	7001200000000000000♠20	7001430000000000000♠43	7001350509999900000♠35.05

Club

Olympiacos

• Greek Superleague: 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03
• Greek Cup: 1999; Runner-up 2001, 2002, 2004

International

Greece U21

• UEFA Euro U21: Runner-up 1998