The Rise and Fall of Sotiris Ninis

The Rise and Fall of Sotiris Ninis

By Greg Gavalas

It’s been 10 years since Panathinaikos left their most recent footprints in European Football, after being paired with AS Roma in the round of 32 for the Europa League everyone know it would be tough but a very good Panathinaikos team was able to get the better of the Italians and Europe was talking about one guy – Sotiris Ninis.

Not even 20 years young at the time, the Greek midfielder dazzled in both games and lead the greens who boasted players like, Giorgos Karagounis, Djibril Cisse, Sebastian Leto, Kostas Katsouranis, Lazaros Christodoulopoulos, Gilberto Silva and Dimitris Salpigidis to name just a few of the Trifili stars of those years.

Panathinaikos would win the series 6-4, winning both games 3-2 and Ninis was on a high after helping the club win the double in the same year.

In an extensive interview in Greece earlier this year, Ninis spoke about his intentions to get back on the field and if that meant a return to Greece so be it as it’s a perfect way to restart his career. 

We have seen many Greek players come back home and enjoy good returns to form like Apostolos Vellios and Yiannis Fetftazidis, the latter’s return to domestic football with Aris had seen him being recalled to the Ethniki and producing wonderful football, if there was one other player who could come back and do what Fetfatzidis did, it would be Ninis.

Since his amazing time and rise at Panathinaikos, the Apollon Junior, took off for Parma in the Seire A in 2012. Some decent performances on the field were not enough at the time and it would be the start of a decline.

After a decent start in the first half of season 2012/13, Roberto Donadoni would come into Parma and Ninis would not get playing time, as such he was also not called up for the Ethniki, under Fernando Santos at the time due to lack of games, as a result Ninis would be keen for a loan move and the move to PAOK would be virtual in 2013/14.

The PAOK move under coach Coach, Huub Stevens, would not go to plan, the Dutchman would play Ninis as a defensive mid for the most part with Alexandros Tziolis however Ninis was not feeling it and whilst the fans expectations was for goals and assists, as Ninis was known from his PAO days, this wouldn’t materialize.

As Stevens is released by PAOK due to poor results, former PAO and PAOK player, Giorgos Girogiadis comes in as coach, given the history, Ninis feels Giorgiadis would be someone he can work with however that would prove to be anything but close to what happens as Giorgiadis would remove Ninis from all plans, at times, he would give Ninis hope of game time only to ask everyone on the bench to warm up, but for Ninis and the second goal keeper, and with that Ninis’s time at PAOK was over as was the hope of joining the Ethniki in Brazil for the World Cup.

The period from 2012 to 2014 would hurt Ninis psychologically, he would go to two teams, Parma and PAOK, work hard to get into both teams plans only for new coaches to come in and, for whatever reason, not use him at all, all this would also hurt his National Team appearances and eventually cost him a World Cup, after been part of the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012.

Ninis would make a mistake in the summer of 2014, after Parma had announced he was not in their plans, he would terminate his contract before finding another club to sign with, as such, and without a manager now, Ninis would be club less.

The return of Takis Fyssas to Panathinaikos would see talks between the two men emerge, with Yiannis Anastasiou at the PAO bench and Ninis desperate to play football again, his return to the Trifili would happen half way through the 2014/15 season.

Despite an injury in his second game back and a month off, Ninis starts to play well and is even recalled back to the National Team.

For season 2015/16 Ninis is still at PAO but a very poor start to the season and sees Anastasiou let go and Italian Andrea Stramaccioni in.

The Italians introduction would be another stumbling block for Ninis, Stramaccioni would tell Ninis, he knows him from his time at Parma and that he is not the type of player he wants, Ninis would work hard to get the Romans approval but to no avail and after the holiday season of 2015, Ninis and other players who were the picks of Anastasiou would all be told they are not in Stramaccioni’s plans.

In 2016 and after another disturbed season, Ninis would sign with Belgian club, Charleroi, and would make his last mark at a decent level in Europe.

Ninis starts very well and fits into the coaches and teams style of play very well, he sees out the 2015/16 season with the club and is ready for 2016/17.

Coach at Charleroi, is Belgian Felice Mazzu, starts by basing the teams game around Ninis and the team is doing well, as is the Greek midfielder.

Surprisingly, Ninis is left out of two games in a row, despite showing great form. The team starts losing and Ninis is brought back into the 11. Ninis is scoring and bringing assists to the team but again gets left out for no great reason.

In a state of confusion given his form, Ninis speaks to the coach and then the president to get an understanding of what was happening and only found each man would not take any accountability and point to the other. 

A bizarre scenario that left Ninis lost.

After some drama Ninis would be told by the president, he will not continue with Charleroi and with interest from another Belgium team, Mechelen at the start of 2017, Ninis would sign there.

Sadly the Mechelen move would not get real traction and would prove to be a very bad move. Ninis was told at the start of the year the team was set but if he was happy to work his way into the 11 he could, with a stubborn coach to please, Ninis would then injure his knee and is out for months.

In August 2017 the coach tells him he is will not be using him which effectively costs Ninis the start of the 2017/18 season.

From here on in it’s only a tale of hard luck and regret, Ninis does not play for 6-7 months after some back surgery and on return only a team in Israel, Maccabi Petah-Tikva were interested in his services, whilst Ninis didn’t want to go there, he had no choice if he wanted his career to get back on track.

After singing there, the coach who brought him on is sacked after two games, when the new coach comes in it’s a rollercoaster experience with him, on off, on off all season, in December the clubs president tells Ninis he is no longer needed and to look for a new team, which meant another 6 months of no football as Sotiris wouldn’t be able to play for a third team in one season.

Ninis would make another mistake in 2018/19 when, instead of returning to Greece and signing with a club at home, he would sign with an Israeli second division team, Hapoel Ashkelon, 21 games and 4 goals, a far cry from the PAO glory days and one has to wonder if we will see Ninis back on the fields in Greece again.

The talented midfielder turned 30 in April and in my opinion is one of the greatest talents that never was really, Ninis a rare player that made the Ethniki play with flowing football, it’s hard to put your finger on what really went wrong, a lot of the bad luck can also come from poor managers over his career, like the Charleroi fiasco which eventually saw their president say, the issue was not Ninis but his manager.

We saw a pattern with coaches too, they either loved him or didn’t want him, a mystery in itself, for sure Ninis had injury problems and his coach at Maccabi Petah-Tikva does elude to keeping him out of the rough games.

There was talk of Ninis signing with Atromitos at the start of last season, but the move never happened, then in the midst of a COVID-19 off season, the announcement came that Ninis fans were waiting for, the midfielder signed with Volos FC and has made a good transition back into the Greek Super League with the club.

The season is on track for the player, small minutes of game time have increased over the weeks and last week Ninis played his first 90 minutes in the game with Panetolikos. 

To close, I will say this, he is a great footballer and I enjoyed every moment I watched him, especially some nice goals for the Ethniki against Lithuania and Israel.

Long may the revival of his career continue.

Israel Goal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u3B6opettw

Lithuania Goal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76KFDTbupxk

Hellas Football

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