Kostas Eleftherakis
Midfielder, born July 18, 1950. His nickname was the deer. 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. 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 C. Aslanidis (Secretary General of Athletics, appointed by the military government of the days) would stand in the way.
An injury he sustained in May of 1977 would force him to stay away of the game for six months. He would never regain himself completely after that. Three years (1980) later he retired from football.
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)
Kostas Eleftherakis "To Elafi"
born: 18/07/50
First began his career at Fostiras and was signed by PAO in the summer of '68. His appearance in the Champions Cup final vs Ajax was the highest point in his career. He also scored 2 goals during that campaign. Real Madid made a 35 million drachma offer for him after the signed Red Star coach Milianic who met PAO the season before but Aslanidis- the general secretary of Greek sport- left the offer in a desk draw even though it was a mythical amount of money at the time. Th same happend when Everton made an offer though Billy Bighan who coached Greece in the early '70's. He was such a good player that he was invited to play for the World XI. Sadly a serious knee injury finished off his career prematurly, not before he won another Greek league title with AEK in his penaltimate season
season at club: 12 - league games: 309 - league goals: 85 - cup goals: 11 - games in europe: 21 - goals in europe: 2 - games w/ NT: 35 - goals w/ NT: 5 - leagues: 4 - cups: 2