Ioannis Amanatidis

Ioannis Amanatidis (Greek: Ιωάννης Αμανατίδης, Greek pronunciation: [ˈʝanis amanaˈtiðis]; born 3 December 1981 in Kozani, Greece)is a Greek football manager and former player. He is currently the manager of Iraklis. As a player, Amantidis played as a striker and Winger, and was active professionally in Germany. He also represented the Greek national side at senior international level.

Club

Amanatidis family immigrated when he was nine years old to Stuttgart where he joined SC Stuttgart. Two years later he went to VfB Stuttgart academy. In 2002 he started his Bundesliga career having already played on loan for Greuther Fürth in lower divisions. After a clash with then VfB Stuttgart coach Felix Magath over his lack of opportunities he was given on loan to struggling Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt where he impressed despite the eventual relegation of the team to second division.

In the summer he signed on free to Kaiserslautern, but after only one season he signed again to the newly promoted Eintracht Frankfurt side and has been instrumental in the team's attack ever since scoring regularly and eventually becoming the captain of the team since the 2007–08 season.

In April 2008, it was reported that the captain of Eintracht has agreed to an extension of his contract till 2012 with the club. On 18 July 2011, Amanatidis officially announced his retirement from professional football. He finished his career having 325 appearances (98 goals,24 assists) in all competitions.

Amanatidis earned his first cap for the Greece national team against Republic of Ireland national team in November 2002. However he was left out of the victorious Euro 2004 squad.

He was selected in the final squad for the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup and featured in the matches against Brazil and Mexico.

On 9 August 2010, Amanatidis decided to retire from international football. He stated, that "there are many strange and suspicious choices". "Some players are always in the starting 11 and many of us know the reasons of the selection, but if I say more, there are going to be many reactions", Amanatidis said.

Amanatidis' career high with the national team was his winning goal against Turkey in Istanbul in a highly passionate game.He was also selected in the final squad for the Euro 2008 finals and featured in all the matches, against Sweden, Spain and Russia.

After his retirement from football, in 2014, Amanatidis joined Iraklis U20 as a reserve team head couch. In 18 October 2016 he became coach οf the first team.

Club

Eintracht Frankfurt

• DFB-Pokal Runner-up: 2005–06