Kirastas, Ioannis

In clubs

Ioannis spent most of his playing career at Olympiacos from his native Piraeus. In the nine seasons spent on the left edge of the red-and-whites' defense ^[1] , he became the champion of the country five times and won the Greek Cup three times. Before the 1981/82 season, Kirastas moved to the main rival “ Panathinaikos ”, with whom he won the championship twice and six times in the Cup, playing libero ^[1] and reaching the semifinals of the 1984/85 Champions Cup .

In the national team

November 15, 1974 Kirastas made his debut in the national team of Greece , replacing Konstantinos Iosifidis after the break home friendly match against Cyprus . For 11 years in the team Ioannis took part only in one major tournament - Euro 1980 , where the Greeks took the last place in their group, and he spent two matches in which they lost to the Netherlands and Czechoslovakia . Kirastas's last game for the national team ended in a crushing defeat in Athens from Poland (1: 4) as part of the disastrous selection for the 1986 World Cup .

After the completion of his playing career, Ioannis could not stay out of the game for a long time, so he immediately took up coaching work, starting with the Athens regional leagues ^[1] . He coached many different teams, including Ethnikos from Piraeus, Paniliakos , Panionios and others.

In the 1999/2000 season, Kirastas returned to Panathinaikos and won second place in the championship with the Greens, becoming the coach of the year in Greece , after which he resigned ^[2] . After spending the rest of the year as head coach of Heraklis , he returned to Panathinaikos, who coached until December 2001 . Despite the successful performance of his players in the Champions League , Kirastas resigned after a home defeat in the PAOK championship (1: 2) ^[3] .

He was married, had three daughters: Rowle, Evelina and Vera ^[1] . He left football for the sake of family and fishing ^[1] .

On March 5, 2004, Kirastas was taken to a hospital in critical condition. He suffered from a rare Fournier's disease (pathogenic necrotic gangrene and multiple organ failure), which was already at an advanced stage. On March 11, doctors began surgical treatment of the wound, in the hope that it would not be able to stop the development of sepsis. After the operation, Ioannis began to show the first signs of improvement, it seemed that he was gradually recovering and could breathe without the help of special equipment. On the morning of March 29, his condition suddenly deteriorated, and on April 1 he died in the intensive care unit ^[1] .

Team

As a player of the national team of Greece:

• European Championship :
  • Member: 1980

As a player of Piraeus Olympiacos:

• Greece Championship :
  • Champion: 1972/73 , 1973/74 , 1974/75 , 1979/80 , 1980/81
  • Second place: 1971/72 , 1976/77 , 1978/79
  • Third place: 1975/76
• Greece Cup :
  • Winner: 1972/73 , 1974/75 , 1980/81
  • Finalist: 1973/74 , 1975/76

As a player of Panathinaikos:

• Greece Championship :
  • Champion: 1983/84 , 1985/86
  • Second place: 1981/82 , 1984/85
• Greece Cup :
  • Winner: 1981/82 , 1983/84 , 1985/86

As a coach of Panathinaikos:

• Greece Championship :
  • Second place: 1999/2000

• Player profile on EU-Football.info (English)
• (English)