Vasilis Chatzipanagis
Born in the USSR to Greek immigrant parents Vasilis Chatzipanagis, a.k.a. "Vasia" played for a local club team and was capped in the USSR U-21 side. He was aware of his Greek heritage and wanted more than anything to play in Greece. So after trying out for various teams, he ended up playing for Iraklis Salonika in the late 60s through the early 80s. He is widely considered the best Greek player ever. He led Iraklis to a cup victory (against Olympiakos in 1976) and added the extra edge making the team competitive for the league title every year. [Panathinaikos FC|Panathinaikos]] tried to buy him but Iraklis did not sell.
Vasia is so revered he has received the title of "The Greek Maradona" as he played the same position and was an absolute magician with the ball. In the end Iraklis never had any success in European Championships and he never received any exposure outside of Greece. He was also never allowed to play for the nt as he had played a few games for the USSR U-21 and UEFA forbid him from playing for the Greek National Football team. Lack of exposure outside the boundaries of Greece - who at the time was considered a poor footballing nation - hurt Vasia's chances to gain the fame that he so deserved.
He played in 281 games of the Greek championship and scored 61 times. He started with Pahtakor before he came to Greece. He played only once with the Greek National football team in 1976 against Poland (1-0) in Athens and again, this because he had played with the Olympic team of the USSR.