Christos Arvanitis

Christos Arvanitis

Personal information
Full name	Christos Arvanitis
Date of birth	(1953-01-23) 23 January 1953
Place of birth	Edessa, Greece
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position	Goalkeeper
Youth career
–1971	Ethnikos Piraeus
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1971–1978	Ethnikos Piraeus	172	(0)
1978–1982	Olympiacos	55	(0)
1982–1985	AEK Athens	76	(0)
1985–1987	Olympiacos	20	(0)
1987–1989	Levadiakos	41	(0)
Total		364	(0)
International career
1978	Greece	1	(0)
1983	Greece Olympic	2	(0)
Managerial career
1990–91	AE Kos
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Christos Arvanitis (Greek: Χρήστος Αρβανίτης; born 23 January 1957) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

Club career

Arvanitis started his football career playing for the youth departments of Ethnikos Piraeus. In 1971 he was promoted to the first team of Ethnikos, where he had a very good presence. Thusm in 1978, he was transferred to Olympiacos.

In the "red and whites" after spending a year as a substitute, he replaced Panagiotis Kelesidis in the starting eleven and with his performances greatly helped Olympiacos to win the championship in 1980. Later, however, he was displaced from the eleven by the then rising star of Greek football, Nikos Sarganis, as a result of which he looked for a new football club in his career. In his 4-year spell he won 3 convective championships, from 1980 to 1982 and a Cup including a domestic double in 1981.

In the summer of 1982, the president of AEK Athens, Michalis Arkadis brought him to the club, alongside his teammate Takis Nikoloudis for a total fee of 12 million drachmas. A goalkeeper with great reflexes and an amazing jump, but also unstable at times, he was nevertheless a goalkeeper with a positive presence in the league. The manager, Zlatko Čajkovski immediately gave him a starting shirt. He had a major contribution in the conquest of the Cup in 1983, keeping a clean sheet in the final against PAOK. The acquisition of Theologis Papadopoulos resulted in his sideline from the starting eleven.

On 16 December 1985 he returned to Olympiacos for a fee of 6 million drachmas. He played at the club until 1987, where he won yet another league. Afterwards he signed for Levadiakos where he ended his career in 1989.

International career

Arvanitis competed once with Greece, on 11 January 1978 in an away friendly win against Cyprus by 0–2. he was an international player both with Greece U21 and with the Olympic team, playing twice in 1983.

After football

After the end of his career Arvanitis was a goalkeeping coach in all the teams he had played for. At Olympiacos, Levadiakos, Ethnikos, but also in AEK for some months of the 2012–13 season. Since October 2015, he worked at the football academy of the amateur AEK. In 2017 he worked as the technical director of the Nestoras FC, academy of the legendary Kostas Nestoridis.

Honours

Olympiacos

• Alpha Ethniki: 1979–80, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1986–87
• Greek Cup: 1980–81
• Greek Super Cup: 1980

AEK Athens

• Greek Cup: 1982–83