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Stelios Giannakopoulos
Personal information
Full name	Stylianos Giannakopoulos
Date of birth	July 12, 1974 (1974-07-12) (age 33)
Place of birth	Athens, Greece
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.74 m)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Bolton Wanderers
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1992-1993 1993-1996 1996-2003 2003-	Ethnikos Asteras Paniliakos Olympiacos Bolton Wanderers	032 0(6) 084 (26) 189 (63) 128 (18)
National team2
1997-	Greece	066 (12)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 11:20, 16 December 2007 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 31/08/2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Medal record
Competitor for  Greece
European Championships
Gold	2004 Portugal	Greece

Stylianos Giannakopoulos (Greek: Στυλιανός Γιαννακόπουλος), popularly known as Stelios (born July 12, 1974 in Athens, Greece), is a Greek football player who currently plays for Bolton Wanderers as a midfielder.

Contents 1 Club career 1.1 Early career 1.2 Olympiacos 1.3 Bolton Wanderers 1.4 Trivia 2 International career 3 Honours 4 References 5 External links

Stelios started his playing career in 1992 in his homeland of Greece, spending his first season with Ethnikos Asteras. Having been thrust immediately into first-team action, he found himself scoring six goals in his opening season, before moving to Paniliakos. In the three years he spent there, he scored 26 goals in 84 games and soon attracted the attention of bigger clubs.

Olympiacos were successful in getting his signature in the summer of 1996 where he spent the next seven seasons. As a regular player, Stelios was very successful with the club making a total of 189 appearances and scoring 63 goals in all competitions. Olympiacos won the Greek championship in every single season while Stelios was with them and reached the quarter finals of the Champions League during the 1998-99 season.

However, after ten years playing in Greece he was snapped up by Bolton Wanderers. The manager at the time Sam Allardyce described Stelios as "...an attacking midfielder who knows how to score goals. His main attribute remains his ability to make late runs into the penalty area and his flair to shoot accurately from range^[1]." It was at this point that the popular name 'Stelios' came about as the player unconventionally chose for his first name to be printed on his shirt instead of his long surname. He made his Bolton début against Manchester United and helped Bolton reach the 2004 Carling Cup final and their highest ever Premiership finish in his first season. His fine form continued in to the next two seasons with one of the highlights being the winning goal he scored against Arsenal in an FA Cup Fourth round match played at the Reebok Stadium on January 28, 2006.

With Sam Allardyce leaving the club at the start of the 2007-08 season and only a year left on his contract, there were rumours of Stelios moving to another Premiership club or returning to Greece. However Stelios stayed at Bolton and although he was not as regular a player as previous seasons (due to injury and managerial changes) he was able to help Bolton with a string of late goals. The first one during injury time in the Carling Cup 3rd round tie against Fulham FC at Craven Cottage and the second one in the Uefa Cup, when Stellios scored in the 3rd minute of injury time to salvage a 1-1 draw against Aris Salonika.

Stelios has also been likened to former WWE superstar Kurt Angle.

Stelios has the distinction of being part of the substitution that holds the record of the largest difference between the number of letters in the surnames of two players in a Premiership substitution. This occurred when he was replaced by Ibrahim Ba during a league game for Bolton Wanderers on January 31, 2004^[2]." . The difference was 12 letters, 14 and 2.

Stelios made his international debut on 12 March [[1997] against Cyprus. One of his most important and memorable goals with the Greek national team was in a 1-0 away victory against Spain, in a EURO 2004 qualifier which ensured automatic qualification for Greece. He was also one of the key players that featured in the team which were victorious in the 2004 European Football Championship.

• European Championship: 2004
• Greek Championship: 7
• Greek Football Cup: 1

• Stelios Giannakopoulos career stats at Soccerbase

v • d • e Bolton Wanderers F.C. – current squad

2 Hunt • 3 Samuel • 4 Nolan • 5 Méïté • 6 Speed • 7 Stelios • 8 Campo • 9 Helguson • 10 Wilhelmsson • 11 Gardner • 12 Walker • 14 Davies • 15 Cid • 16 Andranik • 17 Guthrie • 18 Alonso • 19 McCann • 20 Vaz Té • 21 Diouf • 22 Jääskeläinen • 23 Džemaili • 24 J. O'Brien • 26 Al Habsi • 27 Braaten • 28 Michalík • 29 Harsányi • 31 A. O'Brien • 37 Sinclair • 38 Sissons • 39 Anelka • 43 Woolfe • 46 Jamieson • Manager: Megson