Kostas Eleftherakis
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Kostas Eleftherakis was a midfielder, born July 18, 1950. His nickname was "the deer" (to elafi). He started his career playing for Fostiras. He later joined Panathinaikos in 1968. At age 21 he was playing in Wembley Stadium against Ajax Amsterdam. He scored 2 goals during that campaign to reach the final. Following that game, Real Madrid and Everton expressed interest in acquiring him. Real Madrid would offer an inconceivable (for the time) 35 million drachmas for Kostas Eleftherakis. But Costas Aslanidis (Secretary General of Athletics, appointed by the Greek military junta of 1967-1974) would stand in the way. The same happened when Everton made an offer through Billy Bingham who coached Greece in the early 1970s.
He was invited to play for the World XI.
An injury he sustained in May of 1977 would force him to stay away from the game for six months. He would never regain his form completely after that. Three years (1980) later he retired from football, but not before he won another Greek league title with AEK in his penultimate season
He played a total of 331 games in the Greek A Division - he scrored 90 goals (he played 308 games with Panathinaikos, scoring 85 goals)
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