He experienced it all during his 13 years at Olympiacos. From the Reds’ crisis of faith to the roar that greeted the Legend’s first championship title after the “barren years”. It was May 1997 when Koulis Karataidis lifted the first division championship trophy and let out a cry of triumph that perfectly expressed the emotions he shared with his teammates and millions of fans around the world.
Kyriakos “Koulis” Karataidis, born in the northern city of Kastoria on July 4, 1965, was an iconic footballer who united two Olympiacos generations. He was one of those who lived through the 1987-1997 era, maturing as a player amidst the adversity of this difficult decade for Olympiacos, and who went on to enjoy the team’s subsequent domination of Greek football all the more for it.
One of the truly outstanding figures who led the way for the Reds—and for Greek football as a whole—down the years, he started playing football for the local team in Kastoria before transferring to Olympiacos in 1988. On settling down in Piraeus, he would be a defensive mainstay of the team for the next 13 years. He captained Olympiacos for years and led its defense.
Starting out on the left, he later played in the center back position and as a sweeper, a role in which he excelled. Until the 2000-01 season, when he retired, he held the Olympiacos record for European and domestic appearances. Specifically, he made 363 appearances for Olympiacos in the Greek first division league and 80 in the Cup, four in the league Cup, one in the Super Cup, 24 in the Champions League, nine in the Cup Winners’ Cup and 19 in the UEFA Cup – Europa League: A grand total of 500 games.
As far as his trophy display goes, he won five Championships (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001), three Cups (1990, 1992, 1999) and one Super Cup (1992). He made his début with the national team on January 17, 1990, in a friendly against Belgium at home. He went on to earn a total of 34 caps for Greece and took part in the 1994 World Cup in the United States, where he played once—against Bulgaria.
‘When we were winning, you felt like a god, but when we were on a losing streak, you felt like the lowest of the low. I remember when we lost, we couldn’t leave the house for three days, not even to buy a paper’
His début
The team captain’s legendary Piraeus début took place on October 9, 1988, at the Karaiskakis Stadium. The match against Panionios would actually see him score his first goal in an Olympiacos jersey. The Legend would win 0-1. That’s not a typo, because Panionios was technically the home team, as their own field was out of action. Karataidis had been acquired a few months earlier from Kastoria, and the game marked the beginning of his long career with Olympiacos— a career which spanned both the “barren years” and the red-and-white “golden age” that followed.
When Karataidis arrived at Olympiacos, Giorgos Koskotas was president and there were other players of Pontic descent on the team—meaning Greeks whose families had been displaced from their ancestral homelands on the southeast Black Sea coast amidst the tumult of the population exchanges of the early 1920s. It wouldn’t be long before the Olympiacos fans were calling them the “Black Sea Gang”.
The period that followed was difficult, with Karataidis treated unfairly and undervalued on several occasions, both on and off the pitch. Like several of his teammates, Karataidis was put through the wringer. However, he did establish an honest and sporting relationship with opposing players, as well as both the “older” Olympiacos fans and with Gate 7, in particular. The latter’s members kept the Club on its feet during these difficult times.
A passionate defender, when the referee blew his whistle to start the game, he gave it everything he had. His duels with Dimitris Saravakos and Krzysztof Warzycha, both stars with Panathinaikos Athens, have gone down in history. He also arrived in time to play against AEK Athens’ Thomas Mavros and Demis Nikolaidis as well as against Olympiacos great Nikos Anastopoulos, when the latter donned a Panionios jersey for the second time. However, he always showed his opponents respect, and when a game was over, they returned the favor. Perhaps because Karataidis was the leader every team and their fans would like to have had for themselves, meaning a captain who embraces every player and makes them feel at home with the club. One who impresses on them the weight of tradition on their—in this case, white-and-red-clad shoulders—and infuses them with his passion.
It may well be that today, the younger generations of Olympiacos fans who did not live through the “barren years” cannot fully grasp how crucial this team captain was back then, when the stands seethed not only from the heat, but also with fans’ thirst for new titles. However, most of all, with indignation at the unfair treatment meted out to Olympiacos both on and off the pitch.
His greatest duels
Karataidis is a local football figure of enormous importance, a “rock” in the Olympiacos defense. His is first remembered for marking a stunning Saravakos.
“One of the best players I’ve ever faced. He had tremendous quality, and the lad was he fast off the mark Then Panathinaikos brought in Warzycha, too. He’d have you running after him for 90 minutes straight. He had a different style from Saravakos,” Karataidis recalls.
He also described Nikolaidis as a great fighter: “He was short, and he was explosive. But his greatest asset was his unwavering will to win. He was smart, too.”
He remembers teammate Lambros Choutos as virtually unstoppable in one-on-one exercises during training at Olympiacos’ Rentis center, but describes Raul, the Real Madrid forward, as the most difficult opponent he faced in his career. They played opposite each other six times and both players gained insights into the other man’s style of play.
Karataidis marking Panathinaikos star striker Dimitris Saravakos during an “eternal derby” between the two sides in the early 1990s.
Hard times
Karataidis’ transfer from Kastoria to Olympiacos was anything but straightforward. In 1986, the veteran midfielder Christos Terzanidis had recommended him to Panathinaikos, but the transfer didn’t proceed. The following year, he was offered to PAOK Thessal0niki, and then AEK Athens showed an interest. Finally, while the Kastoria board members met and he was expecting them to stick him in a taxi to AEK, the route changed at the last minute, and the cab actually dropped him off in Piraeus, at Olympiacos’ offices.
During his time at the Club, Karataidis would also get to experience moments he wouldn’t wish on his worst sporting enemy. Having to go on strike with the rest of the team after the Olympiacos players were left unpaid for more than six months; fans showing up at practice sessions to ask him and other players to tell the president at the time to quit intense performance-related mood swings.
As he once said: “When we were winning, you felt like a god, but when we were on a losing streak, you felt like the lowest of the low. I remember losing to Panathinaikos and not wanting to leave the house for three days, not even to buy a paper. My shame wouldn’t allow me, all of which really impacted on you as a person.”
His tenure with Olympiacos witnessed five championships (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001), three Cups, and one Super Cup.
The victory lap
Karataidis was lucky enough to hang up his cleats when he was still at the very top of his game—a champion, no less.
On May 18, 2001, at the celebration of Olympiacos’ fifth consecutive championship win the team’s 1-0 victory over Athinaikos took a back seat that day. The victory lap by the Olympiacos players, with Koulis Karataidis in tears, who was unable to understand how the “barren years” he’d lived through from 1987 were gone for good, and were replaced by years of celebrations and titles.
His teammates lifted him up onto their shoulders, just as he had shouldered the burden for Olympiacos for 13 consecutive seasons.
