Takis Lemonis

Panagiotis Lemonis

Personal information
Date of birth	(1960-01-13) 13 January 1960
Place of birth	Colonus, Athens, Greece
Playing position	Midfielder
Youth career
1972–1976	Ethnikos Ellinoroson
1976–1978	Αttikos
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1978–1987	Olympiacos	174	(22)
1987–1991	Levadeiakos	118	(24)
1991–1993	Panionios	28	(3)
Total		320	(49)
National team
1982–1983	Greece	2	(0)
Teams managed
1996–2000	Asteras Zografou F.C
2000–2002	Olympiacos
2002–2003	APOEL
2004–2005	Kallithea
2005–2006	Levadeiakos
2006	Skoda Xanthi
2006–2008	Olympiacos
2008–2009	Panionios
2009–2010	Omonoia
2010–2011	Panionios
2012	Panetolikos
2013	Levadiakos
2015–2016	Al Raed
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Takis Lemonis (Greek: Τάκης Λεμονής; born 13 January 1960) is a former Greek football player and manager.

Playing career

Takis Lemonis played for local club Attikos before playing for Olympiakos from 1978 until 1987. He also played for Levadiakos (1987 - 1991) and Ιonikos 1992, Panionios (1992 - 1993),finishing his career in Ethnikos at 1994. During his playing career Lemonis was capped twice by the Greek national football team.

Coaching career

Having stopped football as a player, Lemonis studied coaching in England and, in 1996, became head coach at Asteras Zografou. In 2000, he returned to Olympiakos as the assistant coach and, after the dismissal of Ioannis Matzourakis, as head coach. Lemonis had domestic success at Olympiakos by winning two championships in a row.He left the team in October 2002. He has since coached APOEL F.C. in Cyprus (2003), Kallithea FC (2005) and Levadiakos upon their return to the Alpha Ethniki for the 2006 season.

Olympiakos under the leading of Takis Lemonis won the championship with 12 points difference in 2001 and beat AEK in a match practically final of the championship with a 4-3 in an impressive match in April 2002. He also managed to win AEK 6-1 and Panathinaikos 1-4 in Leoforos, Panathinaikos' historical castle, which together with this season's 4-0 against Panathinaicos again are the biggest domestic victories a Greek team has ever achieved during the last 20 years.

In September 2006, Lemonis once again replaced Ioannis Matzourakis, this time as coach of Xanthi FC. He resigned in December 2006 and, later that month, signed a six months contract and replaced Trond Sollied as the head coach of Olympiakos.

Although Olympiacos was eventually crowned champion, the loss of the derby of the eternal enemies, the disqualification by a lower division club in the Greek Cup and the loss of Rivaldo led Olympiacos fans to boo Lemonis, Sokratis Kokkalis (the chairman of the club) and the players. However the chairman decided to extend Lemonis's contract for two more years which keeps Lemonis in the club until summer 2009. The 2007-08 season started badly with Olympiacos losing points in the Greek Superleague and drawing with Lazio at home. The away match with Werder Bremen was critical for Lemonis. However Olympiacos prevailed 1-3 (his first win in an away Champions League match) and Lemonis was given an extension. Lemonis was doing better on his second spell with Olympiacos, leading the way to a second away victory in Champions League away game against SS Lazio, a home win of 3-0 against Bremen (6-1 tally in favor of Olympiakos between the two teams), and a devastating 4-0 win against Panathinaikos in the Greek Cup eighth-finals.

As coach of Olympiacos, Lemonis has achieved a great amount in both their domestic and UEFA Champions League campaigns. He achieved Olympiacos' greatest margin of victory in the competition by defeating Bayer Leverkusen 6-2 in 2002-03. In his second reign as coach, Lemonis gave Olympiacos their first away win in the competition against SV Werder Bremen, and a trip to the Round of 16 for only the second time in their history in 2007-08.

On 12 November 2008, Lemonis signed a contract for rest of the 2008-09 season and replaced Ewald Lienen as the head coach of Panionios. He finally resigned on 3 December 2008 after the refuse of the Panionio's board to accept his request to dismiss three members of Panionio's coaching and management staff.^[1]

On 17 March 2009, he signed a two-year contract with Omonia.^[2] In 2010, Lemonis led Omonoia to its 20th Championship. He returned to Greece coaching Levadiakos, Panetolikos and Panionios.

Managerial statistics

As of 10 February 2016

Palmeras as player

Olympiacos

• Greek Championship (4): 1980, 1981, 1982, 1987
• Greek Cup (1): 1981

Palmeras as coach

Olympiacos

• Greek Championship (4): 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008
• Greek Cup (1): 2008; Runner-up (2) : 2001,2002
• Greek Super Cup (1): 2007

Omonia

• Cypriot Championship (1) : 2010
• Cyprus FA Shield (1) : 2010

References