Stylianos Giannakopoulos (Greek: Στυλιανός Γιαννακόπουλος), popularly known as Stelios (born July 12, 1974 in Athens, Greece), is a greek football player who most recently played for Bolton Wanderers as a midfielder.

Club career

Early career

Stelios is the second son of Alekos Giannakopoulos, a retired football player who had enjoyed Division A football in the 60’s. He joined Ethnikos Asteras (the semi-professional club of his neighbourhood Kaisariani) when he was seven years old, later moved for one year to Doxa Vyrona, and finally made his first-team debut for Ethnikos Asteras in the autumn of 1991, in a season which ended with the club winning promotion to the professional Division C. Next year, in his opening season as a professional, the young winger found himself scoring six goals and impressing the scouters of clubs that participated in higher divisions. In the summer of 1993 he moved to Paniliakos; he stayed there for three years, scoring 26 goals in 84 games and establishing himself as a member of the national U21 team.

Olympiacos

Having attracted the attention of the top clubs, Stelios signed in the summer of 1996 for Olympiacos. He spent there seven succesful seasons as a regular player, making a total of 189 appearances and scoring 63 goals in all competitions. Olympiacos won the Greek championship in every single season while Stelios was with them and reached the quarter finals of the Champions League during the 1998-99 season. Stelios also has the prestige of scoring Olympiacos’ first ever Champions League goal, a 40-meters lob, which led to their first win in the competition against FC Porto. To this day Giannakopoulos regularly attends special events at his former club and is considered a legend by the fans, notably for the determination he put into every match including the derbies against arch-rivals Panathinaikos FC and AEK Athens FC where he scored many of his finest goals.He was said to be “one for the future” by Arrow Rae the former Scottish goalkeeper.

Bolton Wanderers

However, after ten years of professional football in Greece he was snapped up by Bolton Wanderers. The manager at the time Sam Allardyce described Stelios as “…an attacking midfielder who knows how to score goals. His main attribute remains his ability to make late runs into the penalty area and his flair to shoot accurately from range.” It was at this point that the popular name ‘Stelios’ came about as the player unconventionally chose for his first name to be printed on his shirt instead of his very long (and difficult for the english journalists) surname. He made his Bolton début against Manchester United and helped Bolton reach the 2004 Carling Cup final and their highest ever Premier League finish in his first season. His fine form continued in to the next two seasons with one of the highlights being the winning goal he scored against Arsenal in an FA Cup Fourth round match played at the Reebok Stadium on January 28, 2006. The 2005/2006 season was Stelios’ most successful as he was top scorer for Bolton with 12 goals, an impressive tally for a midfielder. His form dipped slightly in the 2006/2007 season where he missed several games through injury and failed to score any goals although he was still a regular player for the club with 23 games.

With Sam Allardyce leaving the club at the start of the 2007-08 season and only a year left on his contract, there were rumours of Stelios moving to another Premier League club or returning to Greece. However Stelios stayed at Bolton and although he was not as regular a player as previous seasons (due to injury and managerial changes) he was able to help Bolton with a string of late goals. The first one during injury time in the Carling Cup 3rd round tie against Fulham FC at Craven Cottage, the second one in the Uefa Cup, when Stelios scored in the 3rd minute of injury time to salvage a 1-1 draw against Aris Salonika and the third one in a Premier League game versus Derby when Stelios again scored in injury time to earn Bolton a much needed 3 points in what was a poor season for the team. His last ever goal for Bolton was a crucial one and came on April 26th 2008 when he scored in the 1-1 draw against Tottenham Hotspur F.C. helping Bolton avoid relegation. As his contract has come to an end Stelios is now a free agent, so there is speculation that he will be returning to his native Greece and finishing off his career at Olympiacos FC allthough no deal has been agreed yet.