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Giorgos Giannotas
Personal information
Full name	Georgios Giannotas
Date of birth	21 February 1989 (age 36)
Place of birth	Ptolemaida, Greece
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Youth career
2002-2005	Eordaikos
Senior career*
Years	Team
2005-2007	Eordaikos
2009-2013	Agios PAvlos F.C.
2016	Panathlitikos Sykeon
2018-2020	Floga Lagadikion
2020-2026	APE Lagadas
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Giorgos Giannotas is a Greek former professional footballer who last played as a Goalkeeper for Greek club APE Lagadas.

Club career

Eordaikos F.C.

Giorgos was born in the industrial city of Ptolemaida and joined its local youth football team in 2002. At the age of 16 he was promoted to the first team of Eordaikos, given the chance to appear 7 times with the team, because the first 3 goalkeepers of the team were facing from time to time problems referring to lung cancer due to the heavy carbon pollution level of the city caused by the local factories.

Agios Pavlos F.C. and humiliation

Giannotas moved in 2007 to Thessaloniki to study agronomy and agricultural science at the university. On his first year he didn't find a club to sign for, while showing no interest for football. In December 2008 while Giannotas was walking at his neighbourhood in Sykes (area of Thessaloniki), he was approached by a german guy who asked him in german if he was a goalkeeper-because of his height- because he was looking for one for his team. Giannotas said "yes" and the german guy adviced him to cut right away smoking, drinking and eating too much and join a gym to lose weight because by summertime he would offer him a contract with his team. They exchanged facebook accounts and wnet their ways. Giannotas told the very same night his friends what happened and they told him that if he was a german talking about a team name St. Paul, he must be talking about FC St. Pauli! The next day Giannotas started private german lessons to learn the language before immigrating and also crossfit. On 1st July Giannotas caught a plane to Hamburg and went straight to the headquarters of the team asking for his contract. They were all surprised telling him that he was making a mistake. Giannotas texted the german guy asking what was going on. The german guy answered that he was expecting him at the football picth of St. Paul in Thessaloniki to sign for the team named St. Paul (Άγιος Παύλος) and play in 2nd amateur division of Thessaloniki. Giannotas collapsed but St. Pauli managment paid his ticket back because the hadn't laughed like that for ages! Giannotas returned to Thessaloniki and signed for Agios Pavlos F.C., while being mentaly and physically exhausted... He bever achieved high performances for the team due to his poor pshychology which caused him also transsphincteral fistula, illness which led him 3 times for surgery and long periods of recovery. In 2013 he was out of the team...

Sykes and UEFA issues

In 2015 he was offered a contract from Panathlitikos Sykeon, simply known as Sykes. Giannotas went out with his freinds to celebrate about his new challenge of his career before signing the contract. Giannotas was out of alcohol for along time and after drinking only one beer containing alcohol he got drunk. He ended up like that to sign the forms of his contract. But while drunk, at the gap with the title "NAME" he just wrote "George Sykes" underneath instead of his full name, having mistaken it with the gap titled "TEAM", in which he wrote "Sykes" again! Without checking the papers, Agios PAvlos F.C. sent them to the Greek Fottball Association and from there straight to FIFA and UEFA headquarters. That's the moment that his troubles began... When the papers where checked, UEFA sued George Sykes another real-time player who was playing for Dartford Football Club in the National League South championship in England for signing two contracts at the same time with two different clubs! George Sykes was almost thrown out of his team but instead they prefered to send him on loan to Canvey Island F.C. of the Isthmian League till the problem was solved. George Sykes sued Giannotas for destroynig his career and giving false details asking for 50.000£. After apologising, Giannotas started working to collect the money as a dj for parties, as a promotion salesman and also as a game master in some escape rooms in Thessaloniki. Moreover he began working at a regular base in a mushroom farm taking advantage of his univeristy degree. He tried to play for Sykes by 2016 but he was so exhausted that after 1 month and 3 appearances he left the club.

Floga Lagadikion F.C.

The mushroom farm he worked at was next to the football picth of Floga Lagadikion F.C.. During training sessions and matches, Giannotas, taking advantage of his playing career, would stay at the farm protecting the cropse from the falling balls using his goalie skills. The coach of Floga Lagadikion F.C. saw that and admired his class especially when he saw Giannotas making a plonzon to protect a basket filled with Amanita muscaria. They called him to sign for the club. At last Giannotas found a home reaching high levels at his performance! " I don't only guard my nets! I also guard my farm!", he stated. He stayed for almost 3 years at the club before the scouts of APE LAgadas noticing him.

APE Lagadas

On June 2020 Giannotas signed for APE Lagadas, a team in which he stayed for 7 years, the best of his career. He had his ups and downs but kept a steady pace leading his team to relegation after two years. He was playing for the club while working as a parnter for the farm, making their mushroom company APE Lagadas's major sponsor.

Later Years

After retiring Giannotas kept on working for the mushroom farm paying no attention to the world of football.

Legacy

Many people said that Giannotas had no skills at all and decided to choose the goalkeeper position because he wouldn't have to run and so he could stay stable and gaze at girls in the crowd. While playing in Floga, the opponents scored once while he was talking to a girl wearing tights behind his nets. "He did it for the chicks!", people say. No matter what, Giannotas will always be remembered as a player who gave nothing at all but trouble to football.