| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Nikolaos Nioplias | ||
| Date of birth | (1965-01-17)17 January 1965 (age 60) | ||
| Place of birth | Galatini,Kozani, Greece | ||
| Height | 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) | ||
| Position | Midfielder | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1981–1982 | Neoi Galatinis | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1982–1993 | OFI | 257 | (31) |
| 1993–1996 | Panathinaikos | 73 | (4) |
| 1996–2002 | OFI | 159 | (30) |
| 2002–2004 | Chalkidona | 44 | (4) |
| Total | 533 | (69) | |
| International career | |||
| 1988–1995 | Greece | 44 | (1) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 2005–2007 | Greece U19 | ||
| 2007–2009 | Greece U21 | ||
| 2009–2010 | Panathinaikos | ||
| 2011–2013 | Cyprus | ||
| 2015 | Atromitos | ||
| 2016–2017 | OFI | ||
| 2021–2022 | OFI | ||
| 2023 | Levadiakos | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Nikos Nioplias (Greek:Νίκος Νιόπλιας; born 17 January 1965) is a Greek professionalfootballmanager and former player.
His career began withOFI in 1983, winning theGreek Cup in 1987, and he remained for a decade before moving toPanathinaikos.[1] In his first season, he wonthe cup again and in 1994–95 they completed the domestic double.[1] The next season the Athens side retained the title and Nioplias was a member of the team which reached theUEFA Champions League semi-finals in 1995.
In 1996, he returned to OFI and remained for six seasons until 2002, when he moved to Chalkidona FC.[1] He played for the newly promoted side until summer 2004 when he ended his career, having racked up 509 Greek top-flight appearances.[1]
He played forGreece under-18 at the 1984 UEFA European under-18 championship.[2] In 1988, as a member ofGreece under-21, he helped his team reach the final of the1988 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.[2] He was promoted to thesenior team the same year, and was a member of the squad which qualified to the1994 FIFA World Cup.[1][3] He appeared in all three games Greece played at the World Cup, losing every one of them.[3]
In total, he made 44 appearances and scored 1 goal for Greece.[4]
After getting his coaching diploma, in January 2005 he was appointed as the coach of theGreece national under-19 football team.[5] He led the team to the2005 U19 European Championship which took place inNorthern Ireland, but failed to progress past the group stage, despite a victory against the hosts.[5] This was due to two straight 3–0 defeats in the remaining games of the group, with Nioplias blaming the poor fitness of his players.[6]
Two years later, he led Greece to the final of theU19 European Championship after remaining unbeaten in their group, which featured Spain, Portugal and the host nation Austria.[7] Greece than beat Germany 3–2 in the semi-final with a 90th-minute header after Greece had a player sent off in the 61st minute.[8][9] The final between Spain (who beat France in the other semi-final) and Greece was played on 27 July and Greece lost 1–0, despite a convincing second half display.[10]
Nioplias was named coach of theGreece national under-21 football team in September 2007 after his success withGreece under-19 in Austria.[11][12]
Nioplias was appointed as thePanathinaikos head coach, alongsideKrzysztof Warzycha[13] on 8 December 2009, immediately after the former manager,Henk ten Cate, was released.[14] Nioplias stated: "It is a great honour for me to be the manager of Panathinaikos. Starting from today, we are getting to work. My aim is to achieve as a coach what I have achieved as a player: to win titles".[14] He managed to dothe double in 2010, winning both theGreek Superleague and theGreek Cup.[15]
He left Panathinaikos on 15 November 2010 by mutual consent due to a disappointing run of results domestically and abroad.[16]
In June 2011, Nioplias agreed with theCyprus Football Association to be the manager of theCyprus national football team until the end of theUEFA Euro 2012 qualifiers and for the2014 World Cup qualifiers.[17] He made his official debut in a EURO 2012 qualifier against Portugal,[18] where his team suffered a 0–4 defeat at home.[19] After Cyprus' 0–2 loss toSlovenia on 12 September 2013, Nioplias resigned in the wake of Cyprus's poor showing in the2014 World Cup qualifiers.[20][21]
In January 2016, Nioplias replaced Nikos Goulis and had achieved the promotion of the club from2015–16 Gamma Ethniki to Football League (nowSuper League 2). He was replaced exactly a year later byNikos Papadopoulos.
In March 2021, after Georgios Simos's sacking, Nioplias returned to OFI and has since then resulted in a negative win/loss ratio. Nioplias was sacked in October 2022, after losing 1–0 to Super League 2 clubA.E. Kifisia during the fifth round of the2022–23 Cup.
| Team | From | To | Record | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | Win % | ||||
| Greece U19 | 2005 | 2007 | 21 | 11 | 4 | 6 | 052.38 | |
| Greece U21 | 2007 | 2009 | 19 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 047.37 | |
| Panathinaikos | 2009 | 2010 | 42 | 26 | 8 | 8 | 061.90 | |
| Cyprus | 2011 | 2013 | 18 | 2 | 2 | 14 | 011.11 | |
| Atromitos | 2015 | 2015 | 18 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 050.00 | |
| OFI | 2016 | 2017 | 17 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 052.94 | |
| 2021 | 2022 | 53 | 16 | 17 | 20 | 030.19 | ||
| Levadiakos | 2023 | 14 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 078.57 | ||
| Total | 202 | 93 | 46 | 63 | 046.04 | |||
OFI
Panathinaikos
Panathinaikos
OFI
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