Traianos Dellas

Traianos Dellas (Τραϊανός Δέλλας; born 31 January 1976) is a Greek professional football manager and former player.

He is the current manager of Super League club OFI.

Dellas started playing football professionally in 1993 at Aris for two years, where he helped the Thessaloniki side qualify for the 1994–95 UEFA Cup.

In the summer of 1994, Dellas was loaned to Panserraikos for two seasons, where he quickly became a regular.

Dellas came back to Aris before leaving for England to join Sheffield United.

He was best remembered by fans at Bramall Lane for a game against Tranmere Rovers in March 1999.

With the Blades 2–0 down, Dellas came on as a substitute and scored twice as they won 3–2.

His other goal came from an impressive 30-yard strike in a home game against Portsmouth, another late winner.

In 1999, Dellas returned to his native Greece to play for AEK Athens through a recommendation by Vasilis Dimitriadis.

He won the Greek Cup in 2000, playing alongside the likes of Demis Nikolaidis and Vasilios Tsiartas.

Dellas had a fairly good presence for two years in the team, but a fall-out in 2001 with then-club president Makis Psomiadis and head coach Fernando Santos led to his release.

After the departure from AEK, Dellas signed for the Italian club, Perugia.

However, Dellas was dropped from Perugia's first team after a disagreement over his contract and he did not make a single appearance in the last six months of the season, playing only eight matches overall.

Dellas earned his first cap for Greece in April 2001 in a 2–2 draw with Croatia.

After leaving the club Dellas caught the attention of Serie A club Roma and he joined the team on a free transfer in 2002.

After finally establishing himself as a starter following the move of coach Fabio Capello to Juventus, Dellas's performances were outstanding.

He was an integral part of Greece's Euro 2004 winning squad, during which he became the only player to score a silver goal in an international football match.

He played alongside Fanis Katergiannakis, who was also part of the Greek squad at Euro 2004.

He earned the peculiar honour of being one of three players alongside Francesco Totti and Vincenzo Montella who were not consistently booed by the fans during training and games during Roma's disastrous 2004–05 season.

After failing to renew his contract with the club, Dellas became a free agent.

He would eventually miss nearly 8 months of football due to back and hernia injuries and thus, expected offers from the big clubs of Europe failed to materialize.

Dellas had an exceptional tournament at Euro 2004, partnering again with his former teammate at AEK, Michalis Kapsis in the centre of what became an almost impenetrable Greek defence, leading to him being voted onto the tournament all-star squad.

During the semi-finals, he scored the only silver goal ever in the last minute of first half of extra time against the Czech Republic, allowing Greece to progress to the final.

This was his only goal for the Greek squad.

The coach of Greece called him 'the Colossus of Rhodes' in respect of his performances in the tournament and the moniker is now widely used in the press.

After Euro 2004, Dellas continued to be the heart of the Greek defense, but missed nearly eight months in 2005 due to injury.

In the summer of 2005 Dellas decided to return to AEK, where his former teammate and good friend Demis Nikolaidis was the president.

His absence was seen as a major factor in Greece's failed 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign.

He renewed his contract in June 2007 for a further two years and became team captain.

Here Dellas played alongside players like Rivaldo, Pantelis Kafes and the talented Sokratis Papastathopoulos.

In AEK came very close of winning the league, but the opportunity was lost due to the "Valner affair" and the title went to Olympiacos.

On 23 July 2008, Dellas and AEK agreed to terminate his contract by mutual consent after failing to agree on a new contract.

On 24 July 2008 agreed to sign a two-year deal with Cypriot football club Anorthosis Famagusta.

Dellas helped the team to qualify for the UEFA Champions League in the season 2008–09, in the same group with his rival club when he was at AEK, Panathinaikos and Inter Milan of José Mourinho.

On 5 June 2010, Dellas agreed to sign with AEK Athens again, this time for one year, possibly intending to end his career at the team he supports.

Nikos Liberopoulos also returned at the club and alongside Dellas formed their leading duo.

On 12 December 2010, Dellas scored his first goal in the Greek championship after two years' absence, against AEL.

On 16 March 2011 he scored in the semi-final of the cup against PAOK and sent AEK to the final of the tournament.

On 30 April 2011, Dellas won with AEK his second Cup.

He played at AEK for one more season when on 26 May 2012, Dellas announced his retirement from professional football.