An interesting Greek season – seemingly, the steady improvement of the country’s football reached a point of relative stagnation. Change of generations was a possible reason – the country’s pool of players was not very big and finding new talent was not easy. Veterans reached their peaks years ago and at least in their original clubs they were not contributing enough. Big and disturbing transfers were the news before the season started. Internal shuffling of players, not new imports. Three players were the big controversy:
Antonis Antoniadis, the legendary striker of Panathinaikos moved to the arch-enemy Olympiakos. The need was obvious – Antoniadis was already 33 years old. In a new club perhaps he was to be useful… but he was Panathinaikos’ legend and fans do not take easily such transfers. Perhaps Antoniadis did not really like playing for Olympiakos; perhaps he was no longer capable of playing for big clubs – he did not really shine in Olympiakos and did not last longer than an year.
The other big transfer involved even bigger star:
Mimis Domazos, on the left of Mavros, moved to AEK. Bigger legend than Antoniadis and captain of Panathinaikos for many years, he went to another big rival. Difficult move for both camps – Panathinaikos’ fans were not happy to see their hero playing for big rivals, but the fans of AEK had their own dilemma: not only Domazos was old, not only he was associated with the enemy camp, but he took the place of their own hero Mimis Papaioannou. Both stars were 36 years old… it was not a promising change, for there was not young and coming player coming… Papaioannou was captaining AEK for ages, he lead them to the title in 1977-78 – and suddenly he became a reserve of thye captain of Panathinaikos.
Losing two legends needed immediate compensation and Panathinaikos was involved with the third big transfer of the season: they got Giorgios (or Jiorgos) Delikaris from Olympiakos. On the surface – the most promising transfer, for Delikaris was at his prime at 27. Adored by Olympiakos’ fans, already a legend in Pireaus… going to the arch-enemy… and didn’t liking the transfer at all. Delikaris never warmed the hearts of Panathinaikos – he was quite open about not liking the transfer. He asked not to play against his former club. He greeted and chatted with Olympiakos’ fans before and after games. He was telling them that he belonged to them.
Delikaris never became a true star of Panathinaikos and even did not last long. An enigmatic person, he suddenly retired from football in 1981 and enveloped himself in silence, staying outside public eye as well.
The second compensation was a German striker, who was playing in Greece since 1974. Walter Wagner was well known name in Greek football, 29 years old at the time. Previously, he played for AEK and in 1977 was transferred to Aris (Thesaloniki). Panathinaikos got him from there, obviously to replace Antoniadis. Looked like a good deal – Wagner and Delikaris were much younger than Antoniadis and Domazos. Panathinaikos was trying to build a new team gradually replacing the old stars with… younger stars, well established, experienced, dependable… but were they really better than the old horses? Wagner joined another foreigner in attack – Oscar Alvarez, who built his reputation entirely in Greece, playing for PAS Giannina. He arrived in Panathinaikos in 1977. Just in case, a third Latin American was added – Benitez Gomez, who never played before in Greece. He did not make waves… played only in 9 games this season, scoring a single goal. Wagner did not live to expectations either – he played 17 matches, scoring three times. Alvarez on the other hand performed well – 15 goals in 33 matches. Delikaris spent the season mostly on the bench… 6 matches and 1 goal… some superstar. Panathinaikos’ scheme misfired. So did Olympiakos’: Antoniadis was a far cry from the menace he used to be – he played in only 13 matches, however his scoring abilities apparently remained intact – 7 goals. The big reshuffling worked only for AEK.
Of course there were many other transfers, but nothing so big, including the new imports, who were largely anonymous players and some of them hardly even played during the season. Like Antonio Gomez Benitez who signed with Panathinaikos. Apparently, he came from Colombia… well, at least he played there in 1975 for Deportivo Cucuta. Panathinaikos paid 2 500 000 drachmas a 26-years old striker, who appeared in 9 matches and scored 1 goal. Nobody even learned his nationality… in Greece, he was – and is – considered Argentine, Uruguayan, and Brazilian. He did not last in Athens, moving to Rodos for the next season, which was his last in Greece. He was the only mysterious flop: Panionios signed two Peruvian, whose names were misspelled – Nuniez and Ohieda. No reason to get the names right… Carlos Felipe Nunez played 13 matches and scored a single goal. Santiago Ojeda registered 14 appearances, also scoring once. The only club which managed to get good performance from previously unknown players was PAS Giannina – the club recruited a whole bunch of South Americans a few years back, played them by hook or crook – some under new Greek names, some because of real or faked Greek roots, some as foreigners – and they not only helped the small club to stay in First Division, but established themselves firmly, becoming valuable commodity – the key striker of Panathinaikos, Oscar Alvarez, was one of the first crop. PAS Giannina continued to dig their gold mine – they introduced two newcomers in 1978: called Correa and Ruiz. Added to their existing 4 Latinos, the club again a total of 6 foreigners… and played them all under rules permitting only 2 foreign players on the pitch.
It was not just foreign players, but also foreign coaches. An old practice… 13 out of 18 first league clubs had foreign coaches in 1978-79. English, Italian, Yugoslav, Polish, Bulgarian… some famous, like Kazimierz Gorski (Panathinaikos), Frantisek Fadrhonc (Panachaiki), Ferenc Puskas (AEK), some not so. AEK (Athens) did not employ a Greek coach since 1965. To a point, foreigners helped Greek football, but it also hit and miss approach – Gorski, for instance, did not achieve anything with Panathinaikos. Was it just bad luck – he coached the team during frustrating time of generational change – or was it his own mistakes – the club seemingly did not recruit really strong players during his spell – is hard to say. Foreigners were expected to win and the quick tempered Greek hardly waited longer than a season. Ferenc Puskas did not last even a season – and AEK were leading! To a point, the Greek football was slowly improving for the most of the 1970s, but reached a point of stagnation in 1978 – largely because the pool of local talent was small. Reshuffling of established players was more a necessity than a whim. The real improvement affected the national team more than the clubs – about 20-25 strong players existed, enough for the national team, but not for the whole of Greek football. And may be the national team prevented a major slump back into obscurity – the stagnation did not last long .