Dimitrios Papadopoulos - playing career

He started his career from the youth academies of Greek minnows Akratitos, and made his debut in 1999, contributing to the team's promotion to Alfa Ethniki in 2001 for its first time in history.

Shorthly after he was transferred to Burnley in England, where he stayed for 2 seasons, playing a total of 35 games and scoring 6 goals. On 20 August 2002 he won his first cap for Greece and in July 2003 he moved to Greek giants Panathinaikos. He starred in his very first season with the team, becoming its top scorer with 17 goals in 26 games in the 2003/4 double winning season for Panathinaikos which marked the team's first championship honor in almost 10 years of Olympiakos domination in Greek championship.

He was subsequently voted best footballer of that year in the league and was awarded a place in the Euro 2004 Greek squad that went on to win the tournament. He played in the game against Russia and had a contribution in Greece goal that determined its qualification to the next round. He also took part in the Greek Olympic Football team during the Olympic Games of Athens 2004 in the very same summer.

He has been since an integral part of Panathinaikos offense signing a 3 year extension with the team in the summer of 2006 and his stellar performances were one of the reasons that the team's board let fellow start Michalis Konstantinou leave the team. Thus far he has earned 20 caps scoring twice for the national team.

On November 13, 2008 Serie A club Lecce announced to have signed Papadopoulos in a free transfer.^[2] He made his Italian Serie A debut for Lecce on January 18, 2009 in a home match at the Stadio Via del Mare against Genoa C.F.C. coming on as a substitute for Gianni Munari late in the match. He scored his first goal in the Serie A on April 19 against A.S. Roma at the Stadio Olimpico.

[edit] Honours

Panathinaikos

• Greek Championship: 2004
• Greek Cup: 2004

Greece

• European Championship: 2004

Panathinaikos

• Greek Cup: Runners up 2006-07

Individual

• Greek Footballer of the Year: 2004