Papadopoulos playing for Dinamo Zagreb |
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Dimitrios Papadopoulos | ||
| Date of birth | 20 October 1981 | ||
| Place of birth | Gagarin, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union | ||
| Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||
| Playing position | Striker | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Celta Vigo | ||
| Number | 11 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1989–1999 | Akratitos | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1999–2001 | Akratitos | 57 | (20) |
| 2001–2003 | Burnley | 39 | (3) |
| 2003–2008 | Panathinaikos | 126 | (50) |
| 2008–2009 | Lecce | 14 | (1) |
| 2009–2010 | Dinamo Zagreb | 13 | (2) |
| 2010– | Celta Vigo | 25 | (0) |
| National team | |||
| 2001–2004 | Greece U21 | 7 | (7) |
| 2002– | Greece | 24 | (3) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18 September 2011. † Appearances (Goals). |
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Dimitrios Papadopoulos (Greek: Δημήτρης Παπαδόπουλος; born 20 October 1981 in Gagarin, about 100 km from Tashkent, Uzbekistan – then part of Soviet Union) is a Greek footballer, currently playing for Celta Vigo.
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He started his career from the youth academies of Greek minnows Akratitos, and made his debut in 1999, contributing to the team's promotion to Alfa Ethniki in 2001 for its first time in history.
Shorthly after he was transferred to Burnley in England, where he stayed for 2 seasons, playing a total of 43 games and scoring 8 goals. On 20 August 2002 he won his first cap for Greece.
In July 2003 he moved to Panathinaikos. He starred in his very first season with the team, becoming its top scorer with 17 goals in 26 games in the 2003/4 double winning season for Panathinaikos which marked the team's first championship honor in almost 10 years of Olympiakos domination in Greek championship.
He was subsequently voted best footballer of that year in the league and was awarded a place in the Euro 2004 Greek squad that went on to win the tournament. He played in the game against Russia and had a contribution in Greece goal that determined its qualification to the next round. He also took part in the Greek Olympic Football team during the Olympic Games of Athens 2004 in the very same summer.
He has been since an integral part of Panathinaikos offense signing a 3 year extension with the team in the summer of 2006 and his stellar performances were one of the reasons that the team's board let fellow start Michalis Konstantinou leave the team. Thus far he has earned 24 caps scoring 3 times for the national team.
On 13 November 2008 Serie A club Lecce announced to have signed Papadopoulos in a free transfer.[1] He made his Italian Serie A debut for Lecce on 18 January 2009 in a home match at the Stadio Via del Mare against Genoa C.F.C. coming on as a substitute for Gianni Munari late in the match. He scored his first goal in the Serie A on 19 April against A.S. Roma at the Stadio Olimpico.
On 26 June 2009 he signed a three year contract worth 650 000€ per year with the Croatian champion Dinamo Zagreb. Dimitrios Papadopoulos starts to play more regularly and even though in March 2010 goes to Celta Vigo for his contribution to the Dinamo Zagreb, scoring goals to go forward in the Croatian cup and the Croatian League to win the Croatian title.
On 22 January 2010, Papadopoulos signed a contract with Celta Vigo until the end of the season. Things looked good for him, but in late April, he got injured and was unable to play quite regularly. During the next summer, Celta Vigo signed striker David Rodríguez and winger De Lucas in order to strengthen the squad. This fact relegated Papadopoulos to the position of third striker of the team and therefore he was not included in many of the team's lineups during that season. At the beginning of the 2010/2011 season, Celta Vigo's manager Paco Herrera claimed that he would not count with Papadopoulos any more,[2] putting pressure on him to force him to leave the club, due to his high salary and his poor performances. Although he has played more than 20 matches so far, he failed to score a single goal. His contract will expire in 2013.
Dimitrios Papadopoulos made his debut in the Greek National Team the 20 November 2002 against Republic of Ireland and he was included in the squad of Euro 2004 that went on to win the tournament. His pass for the goal of Zisis Vryzas allowed Greece to pass the turn and qualify against France and then become Champion of Euro 2004. As Euro 2004 winners, Dimitrios Papadopoulos was included in the Greek squad for the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup in Germany. Otto Rehhagel included him also for qualification to the UEFA Euro 2008 in Switzerland and Austria.
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