Apostolos Nikolaidis (athlete)

Apostolos Nikolaidis (Greek: Απόστολος Νικολαΐδης, 19 April 1896 – 15 October 1980) was a Greek athlete, football manager and businessman. He was a leading board member and president of Panathinaikos A.C..

For the singer, see Apostolos Nikolaidis (singer).

Apostolos Nikolaidis as basketball player with Panathinaikos in 1919

Life and career
With the football team of AEK (on the right)

He was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, a member of the Greek community. After his graduation from the Robert College in Istanbul, he moved first to Thessaloniki (where he competed as an athlete of Aris Thessaloniki) and later to Athens in 1917 and joined the family of Panathinaikos. He was an athletic phenomenon, as he successfully competed in decathlon, football, basketball and volleyball and also a successful racing driver. He was member of the Greek team of 1920 (in Antwerp), both as a football player and as a track athlete.[1] He played football for more than ten years and contributed to all sports departments of PAO. He became also manager of the Greece national football team.

In 1926–27 he was elected president of the Hellenic Football Federation and for a period of more than twenty years president of the Hellenic Amateur Athletic Association (1945–67). Moreover, he was president of the Automobile and Touring Club of Greece. For many decades, he was a board member of Panathinaikos A.C. and in 1974 he became president of the club. His contribution was significant to the transformation of Panathinaikos to a successful multi-sports club, apart from football.

From 1974 to 1976 he was also president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee. He was also a businessman and owner of Softex.

Upon his death, as an honour, his coffin was carried on the shoulders of eight athletes from different PAO departments: Ikonomopoulos, Kamaras, Antoniadis (football), Zacharopoulos (track), Georgantis, Iliopoulos (volleyball), Garos, Kalogeropoulos (basketball). The home stadium of Panathinaikos at Alexandras Avenue was named after him in 1981, at a ceremony presided by the then Prime Minister Georgios Rallis.

References
  1. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Apostolos Nikolaidis Olympic Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
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