Stelios Manolas (Greek:Στέλιος Μανωλάς, born 13 July 1961) is aGreek former professionalfootballer who played as acenter back forAEK Athens and a current manager. Widely regarded as the best Greekdefender of his era, he is one of the few Greek footballers to have played his entire professional career for a single club. In 2021, theIFFHS chose him in Greece's best XI of all time.^[1]

Manolas started football from a young age, playing on the streets and vacant lots in and around theAthens suburb ofGalatsi, where he lived during his childhood. In his early teens he, alongside his friendKostas Antoniou, played for the small amateur club, Aetos Galatsi,^[2] where he was discovered by scouts and brought to the attention ofAEK Athens. At the age of 15, he was playing for theyouth teams of the club. Over time, he was distinguished for his technical skill, intelligence and tactical mind. On 2 January 1980, he signed his first professional contract with the club.^[3] He made his debut shortly after on 3 February 1980 in a 1–1 draw againstKastoria and from the next season onwards, he became a regular in the defense of the yellow-blacks.^[4]

As a youngster, his solid technical training, dynamism and perception and a fighting spirit, were shown in his efforts on the pitch for team defense and attack. He was a mastermind of the defense, influenced his teammates and boosted their confidence. Even though he was started his career as aright back, he was converted into acentre-back byHans Tilkowski, a position he competed for the rest of his career. Almost throughout his career he was one of the best players and one of the natural leaders of AEK. He gave his best in winning many titles, while alongsideToni Savevski, were the main players that the team was based during the 90's. A top moment in his career, among others, was when he head blocked a shot byLajos Détári in front of AEK's goal line in the crucial game againstOlympiacos at theOlympic Stadium, that brought to AEK the1989 league title.^[5] Manolas had been targeted byPorto andMonaco, but as he stated, he would never leave the club, as he wanted to retire there. He played at AEK for 19 consecutive seasons, where he became their captain. In the summer of 1997 Manolas, dissatisfied with the then presidentMichalis Trochanas, withdrew from the club's activities for several months^[6] bur later returned, withENIC as the major shareholder, to end his career at the end of the season.^[7] His last match was againstSkoda Xanthi which earned him his 700th appearance.^[8]

Stelios Manolas ended his career having 447 appearances in theleague, second only toMimis Papaioannou and 12th in the history of the respective division, achieving a total of 34 goals. With AEK, he won the league 4 times, theCup 3 times, theSuper Cup 2 times and the onlyLeague Cup title ever played in 1990.^[9]

Manolas played forGreece in 71 matches from 1982 to 1994 and scored 6 goals.^[10] He was a member of the squad that played in the1994 FIFA World Cup, in theUSA.^[11]

After his retirement, Manolas became a certified coach in 2002 and worked forGreece U21 until 2004.^[12] In 2008 he held the post of technical director in AEK, where he resigned in 2009.^[13] In November 2012 he became the manager ofNiki Volos where he stayed for three months.^[14] In the summer of 2014 he returned to AEK, as the coach ofAEK Athens U20.^[15] In 2015, he was called from AEK as an interim coach to replaceTraianos Dellas in the men's team, and was then called again at the same position to replaceGus Poyet. During his second managerial period, he won the Cup in 2016.^[16]

Manolas is the uncle of former AEK Athens andOlympiacos international defender,Kostas.^[17] His son,Konstantinos, was also a footballer who played for AEK.

Scores and results list Greece's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Manolas goal.^[19]

List of international goals scored by Stelios Manolas

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	9 October 1984	Athens Olympic Stadium,Athens, Greece	Israel	2–2	2–2	Friendly
2	17 February 1988	Athens Olympic Stadium,Athens, Greece	Northern Ireland	1–1	3–2	Friendly
3				2–2
4	28 March 1990	Athens Olympic Stadium,Athens, Greece	Israel	1–0	2–1	Friendly
5				2–1
6	23 January 1991	Athens Olympic Stadium,Athens, Greece	Portugal	2–2	3–2	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying

As of match played 17 May 2016

Managerial record by team and tenure

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
Greece U21		1 July 2002	30 June 2004	17	5	6	6	20	18	+2	029.41
Niki Volos		6 November 2012	17 February 2013	16	6	7	3	16	9	+7	037.50
AEK Athens U20		1 July 2014	13 October 2016	34	18	4	12	58	38	+20	052.94
AEK Athens (caretaker)		20 October 2015	30 October 2015	2	2	0	0	6	1	+5	100.00
AEK Athens (caretaker)		20 April 2016	19 May 2016	4	2	1	1	5	4	+1	050.00
Total				73	33	18	22	105	70	+35	045.21

AEK Athens

• Alpha Ethniki:1988–89,1991–92,1992–93,1993–94
• Greek Cup:1982–83,1995–96,1996–97
• Greek Super Cup:1989,1996
• Greek League Cup: 1990

AEK Athens

• Greek Cup:2015–16

• List of one-club men in association football

• Stelios Manolas at Soccerway.com
• Stelios Manolas at National-Football-Teams.com
• Stelios Manolas atFBref.com
• Stelios Manolas atkicker (in German)
• Stelios Manolas at EU-Football.info

• 1961 births
• Living people
• Greek men's footballers
• Greece men's youth international footballers
• Greece men's international footballers
• AEK Athens F.C. players
• Super League Greece players
• Greek football managers
• 1994 FIFA World Cup players
• People from Naxos
• Niki Volos F.C. managers
• AEK Athens F.C. non-playing staff
• Men's association football central defenders
• Greek beach soccer players
• Sportspeople from the South Aegean
• 20th-century Greek sportsmen

• CS1 Greek-language sources (el)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from October 2020
• Articles containing Greek-language text
• Articles using sports links with data from Wikidata
• Pages using national squad without sport or team link