In football there are legends, and there are also myths. Legends can possibly be decoded and documented. You can explain why a team or a player became a legend. Conversely, with football “myths” unravelling the real from the imagined or perceived is not easy, sometimes it’s impossible. One such example came in the summer of 2006.
One of the most prominent players ever in Greek football, Georgios Delikaris, better known as Giorgos, decides for the first time since 1981 to break his silence.
As sportscaster Giorgos Helakis remembers: “I met him for the first time in my life. His speech was almost allegorical and sometimes poetic. Sometimes he speaks with his silence, and sometimes with his sorrowful eyes. The dialogue that follows is authentic.”
In Greece, there have been players with a greater contribution than Giorgos Delikaris, with great organizational or scoring abilities. However, no one was as brilliant as him.
“Mr. Giorgos, what was your finest moment on the field?”
“Sunday afternoons”.
“All Sundays?”
“On Sunday afternoons I would wait outside the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium for the kids from Keratsini and Drapetsona,” he said, referring to two working-class districts next to the municipality of Piraeus, Greece’s largest port city.
Helakis remembers then saying, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”
“They would arrive and we’d go eat. Then I’d hand them game tickets.”
“But, Mr. Giorgos…”
Helakis then quickly added that Delikaris gave him a friendly pat on the back and said, “yes, that…”
That was his finest moment, not even the championship with Olympiacos, nor the adoration of the fans, nor a goal he scored against West Germany with the national side, or even a cap with a Mixed World team that included giants such as Pele, Johann Cruyff and Eusébio.
Delikaris has his own concept of right and wrong, and morality, in general. He has an instinctive reaction to injustice.
His father was mistreated in post-Civil War Greece, at times sent into exile and other times persecuted. The situation scarred his son. It created in him a sense of justice and morality that marked his choices and his reactions on and off the pitch. Delikaris’ teammates often had difficulty understanding his reactions and behavior.
Another example: In 1971, the national armed forces team is returning home after winning a game abroad. On the plane there is a discussion among the players about the possibility of a bonus for the victory, but it’s immediately established that there is no such possibility. Delikaris announces to his teammates that he will doll out the bonus money himself.
On the Club side, most of his objections and differences with Olympiacos’ management emerged during the period when the great Nikos Goulandris left the presidency. The Olympiacos team captain objected to the fact that foreign players join the team and sign contracts of a specific duration while Greek players are contract-bound for eight years and mostly receive smaller compensation.
Delikaris can’t be interpreted so easily. He is adored by the fans, often besieged by female admirers but follows his own code of conduct.
Who can compare with him
He was brilliant and unconventional, even in the way he fought.
Another example: at Panathinaikos’ Leoforos Alexandras Stadium in October 1978 during the European qualifiers. The national team is already leading opposing Finland by an impressive 7-1. In the midfield, Greek international and AEK Athens star Christos Ardizoglou has just entered the game as a substitute. A very fast winger, he passes the ball to Delikaris and expects a quick “give-and-go” to move up the field. He’s left with only the expectation, however, as Delikaris controls the ball and instead moves back towards his goal, much to his teammate’s peevish surprise. Delikaris, who is the team captain, quickly spins around and doesn’t pass to either Ardizoglou or Mike Galakos, another star of the era, who’s running along the side of the pitch.
He essentially spins around his own axis, and as you’d expect, the Finnish defenders come towards him. Delikaris completes the turn and appears to pass the ball forward, with the footage, as seen on television, not showing any other player. All of a sudden Galakos appears where the ball is directed and enters the Finns’ box to score a beautiful goal. Delikaris had seen his teammate’s run but doesn’t give him the ball immediately. He doesn’t even pass to Ardizoglou, who is making a move in front of him. He spinned to pull the defenders towards him before aiming a “tricky” pass into the unguarded backfield ahead of Galakos.
Two legends ready for kick-off: Mimis Domazos (left), the “General”, and Giorgos Delikaris, the “Greek George Best”, before an Olympiacos-Panathinaikos derby at the Karaiskakis Stadium.
An unpredictable player
No one but his more experienced teammates knew what he was thinking on the field and his next moves. At times he would “disappear’ during a game and then, suddenly, make a magical move that would completely disorientate the opposing defense. There have obviously been players in Greece with a greater contribution than Delikaris; players with greater organizational or scoring abilities, but very few had the football “genius” that this legend exhibited.
Two significant absences marked Delikaris’ career. The first was in the Olympiacos game against Anderlecht, played in the western Greece city of Patras. An injury kept him out of the game in which Hungarian referee Palotai’s poor calls denied the team a qualification. Everyone said that if Delikaris had played, even the unheralded ref could not have stopped the Reds.
A second time was his absence, again due to injury, from Greece’s appearances at the Euro 1980 tournament in Italy. The national team had qualified for Italy by beating the Soviet Union 1-0 at the Leoforos Alexandras Stadium with a goal by Takis Nikoloudis. The “golden goal” was the culmination of a play that started with an impressive individual run by Delikaris, who had rendered half the Soviet defense useless with repeated dribbles and “dummies” (feints).
His departure
At the same time, Delikaris was forever remembered by his decision to leave Olympiacos – and he never explained the reasons.
It’s another milestone in his career that merely embellished his near-mythical standing in Greece’s football world.
“It’s a secret that I’m not going to reveal. I’m going to keep it to myself. I was hurt, I suffered, I still hurt over this decision. However, that’s enough. I punished myself over my weaknesses,” he had said in a very rare interview.
He again returned to a very reclusive mode and even declined to be honored for his football contributions by then Deputy Minister of Sports Giorgos Lianis, remaining silent after a sole appearance at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium 20 years ago, where he became the object of adoration by Olympiacos fans. It was as if he appeared to restore relations with those who never adored another player so passionately.
Giorgos Delikaris was marked by his decision to leave Olympiacos and never explained the reasons – another episode that fueled his legend.
Out-of-sight and modest
The kids from Drapetsona and Keratsini, back in the more innocent era of the 1970s, will always remember that there was no other footballer like him, on and off the pitch.
He declined to grant interviews or even cooperate for tributes; Delikaris today lives in the semi-mountainous district of Penteli, facing the greater Athens agglomeration from the north. Unfortunately, he’s faced health problems in recent years.
True to his personality, he’s done absolutely nothing to maintain his football legend.
“At our meeting in the summer of 2006 the conversation ended like this,” Helakis recalls.
“Mr. Giorgos, since you retired, have you ever played football again, even with your friends?
“Mmmm, once…”
“Where did you play, we didn’t hear anything…?
“Well, I was going up a hill and at the top of it some kids were playing ball…”
“Did you play with them?”
“Their ball was rolling downhill towards me. I thought then… (pause)”
“What did you think?”
“Return it to them with a pass…”
“That’s all, one pass since you stopped playing?”
“No. I caught it with my hands and gave it to them…”
