Sotirios Kyrgiakos

Sotirios Kyrgiakos

Kyrgiakos in 2011
Personal information
Full name	Sotirios Kyrgiakos
Date of birth	(1979-07-23) 23 July 1979 (age 37)
Place of birth	Trikala, Greece
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Playing position	Centre back
Youth career
1996–1998	Panathinaikos
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1998–2005	Panathinaikos	60	(5)
1999–2001	→ Agios Nikolaos (loan)	53	(3)
2005–2006	Rangers	43	(1)
2006–2008	Eintracht Frankfurt	51	(8)
2008–2009	AEK Athens	19	(0)
2009–2011	Liverpool	30	(3)
2011–2013	Wolfsburg	9	(0)
2012–2013	→ Sunderland (loan)	3	(0)
2014	Sydney Olympic	2	(0)
Total		270	(20)
National team‡
2002–2010	Greece	61	(4)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 23 May 2014. ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 6 March 2011

Sotirios Kyrgiakos (Greek: Σωτήρης Κυργιάκος) (born 23 July 1979) is a retired Greek footballer who played as a central defender most notably for Premier League club Liverpool and internationally for the Greece National Football Team.

Kyrgiakos made his first football steps with a local team, Thyella Megalochoriou. It did not take long for him to be recognized. At the start of the 1996–97 season he became a member of the Panathinaikos football academy. He is well known as alani. He lived and played football at the Paiania athletic complex, the club's training ground. In the wake of the 1999–2000 season he became a member of Agios Nikolaos, a second division club and won the respect of president Lampros Maris whom Kyrgiakos considers as his second father. He stayed with Agios Nikolaos for two years and in 2001 he took part in the pre-season camp at OFI Crete.

The centre-back injuries at his parent club, Panathinaikos, just before the Third Qualifying round matches with Slavia Prague for the 2000–01 Champions League meant that he had to return to Paiania and become a regular member of the starting line-up. In the 2003–04 season, Kyrgiakos won with Panathinaikos the Greek League and Greek Cup against the eternal rival Olympiacos.

The following January, Kyrgiakos joined Rangers during the 2004–05 season with a view to a permanent deal. With his new club, he won a second consecutive championship and also the Scottish League Cup, scoring two goals in the 5–1 win against Motherwell in the final. He initially failed to agree terms with Rangers and held talks with Everton, Portsmouth and Schalke 04 and the Italian club Genoa before finally agreeing a one-year deal with Rangers. He scored a famous winning goal against F.C. Porto in the UEFA Champions League that year, and ended the season with three goals after also scoring against Peterhead in the Scottish Cup and Dunfermline in the league. He left the club by mutual consent in May 2006 after his contract ran out.