“The football player who messed with the colonels”: Tribute to Vassilis Bottinos from an Italian midfielder!

Special mention to his veteran footballer Olympiakou, Vasilis Bottinowho passed away on 2022due to coronavirus, he did the Italian “Il Nobile Calcio”, known for its tributes to players and teams of the past. Among other things, this site mentions the resistance he showedinside the stadium, against her regime Junta of the colonels.

In particular, reference is made to a typical event, which took place on December 31, 1967 in “Karaiskaki”during the match between Piraeus and Apollo of Athens. The “red and white” were ahead of me 2-0 at half time and the scorer of one of the two goals, Bootiesargued with the team’s hardware manager, Taki Ktena, as the latter ignored his complaints about his football boots. At that moment, a man from the stands was heard telling his player Olympiakou “I’ll kick you out of the team, better talk to Ktena”. THE Booties slapped him, learning later that he is Colonel Papapostolouwho had just taken over as general manager at the club and was his favorite child Konstantinou Aslanidiswhich then controlled Greek sports.

The player himself had characteristically stated, later, that he had become a “red flag”, since then, for the Hundred regime. “I had many problems with Aslanidis, who was informed about everything. He wouldn’t issue me a passport and wouldn’t let me leave. I had several offers, the biggest was from Germany, 1.5 million marks a year. But neither Olympiacos nor the dictatorship would leave me. “Even dead you will play here,” they told me, with frequent threats to my family.”he had specifically said.

The story surrounding the end of his career, which starts from his serious injury in 1970. THE Booties he had doctors orders not to play, but forced by the Junta to do so, threatened with court martial, as he later admitted. In addition, the Aslanidis he was the one who prohibited the transfer of the football player in Panathinaikosa little later, despite the intense interest of the then coach of the “greens”, Ferenc Puskaswho had also taken him to her doctor Real Madrid, to repair his injury. Somehow, he ended up at Panioniowhere he completed his career, at the age of only 29.

Editor: Thodoris Dimopoulos