Leonidas Kabantais

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Personal information
Leonidas Kabantais

Date of birth	March 8, 1982
Place of birth	Athens, Greece
Height	183 cm (6ft )
Nickname	"Leo"
Position	Striker
Club information
Current club	AEK Athens FC
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
2002-2004 2004-2005 2005-2005 2005-2006 2006-	Aris FC AEK Athens FC Anorthosis Famagusta FC(loan) Panionios NFC(loan) AEK Athens FC	18 (3) 11 (2) 4 (1) 12 (2) 3 (2)
National team**
2002-	Greece	- (-)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. ** National team caps and goals correct as of August 18, 2006.

Leonidas Kabantais (born in March 8, 1982 in Athens, Greece) is a football player, currently playing for AEK Athens FC

Image:Kabantais.jpg‎

Kabantais

1 Career
2 Trivia
3 Sources
4 External links

[edit] Career

[edit] In Aris FC

Kabantais began his professional career in Aris FC in 2002, appearing in 11 matches in Alpha Ethniki (from 2006 has been renamed to Super League), scoring 2 goals. He remained in Salonica for another year, scoring 1 goal in 7 appearances.

[edit] The Move to AEK Athens

He joined AEK Athens in 2004, while AEK had been facing serious economical problems. Although Demis Nikolaidis (Chairman) and Ilija Ivic (Manager Director) knew that he had injury problems with his knee, they decided to sign him. Kabantais, picked number 11, which was used by Nikolaidis, who was a fan favourite), By that time, AEK had no great player for a second Striker (The first one was Nikos Lyberopoulos, the co-captain). However, Kabantais missed the chance to help AEK Athens, scoring just 2 goals in 11 appearances, due to serious injury problems.

In Season 2005, Fernando Santos proposed him to go on-loan, to gain the required experience. He agreed, and moved to Anorthosis Famagusta FC, where Temuri Ketsbaia (a former player of AEK Athens) was a player-manager. However, Kabantais returned after 6 months, in January of 2006, having personal problems with Ketsbaia.

He moved then to Panionios NFC ( a relegation batller team) for 6 months. Panionios had the option of buying the player. At first, he was not considered to play very well, even though he appeared in almost every game, scoring 2 very important goals. Additionally, the last 3-4 appearances were very good.

In 2006, Ilja Ivic told him that the best for him was to go on-loan again. However, Kabantais was unwilling to go, unless the new manager would told him so. Serra Ferrer (the new manager), gave him enough chances to prove his worth, as he did. However, Ferrer did not register him for the Champions' League matches, which upseted Leonidas, but he later showed his worth.

Even though not considered a first team regular, he was one of the best players in the friendly matches. Serra Ferrer, trusted him in the derby vs Panathinaikos. Leonidas, even thought he didn't score, did a good game.

The next match, in which Kabantais played, was versus Aris and Larissa. These two matches were critical for AEK, and Leonidas managed to score in each game once. (in both matches, he was in the first team). Versus Kerkyra, Kabantais, was awarded two clear penalties, and the fans was chanting "Leonida, Leonida, gamise tous tin kolotripida" ( Leonida, Leonida, fuck them in the ass"). He was announced as Most Valuable Player in that match. That was the first time Kabantais was given this award.

[edit] International career

Kabantais played for the Greek Olympic Team in 2004.

[edit] Trivia

One of his best friend is Simos Krassas. They have been playing for AEK Athens for 1 year, and then they were both given on-loan to Panionios NFC

[edit] Sources

AekFC.gr
Sportime.gr Information for loan-moves, wages
[1] Football Manager, information about the wages.

[edit] External links

AEK Athens - Current Squad

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Leonidas Kabantais

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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