Giorgos Dedes is a Greek former footballer of Asia Minor descent who played as a forward. His main characteristics were his speed, his technique and his shooting. He competed in 430 games in total on the Greek Championship for Panionios and AEK Athens, scoring 181 goals. He was the top scorer of the league in 1970–71 and 1975–1976. In 1971, he was awarded the bronze boot after becoming the third best scorer in Europe.
Club career
Early years
Son of Athanasios and Nikoleta, Giorgos was the fifth of their six children. Dedes was nephew of AEK Athens' legendary goalkeeper, Christos Ribas, and his elder brother, Kostas played for Pannafpliakos. As a boy he supported AEK Athens and he was a great fan of Kostas Nestoridis. In 1957 his family moved to Athens and Giorgos played alongside his brother for Phivos Neou Kosmou. In 1960–61, Phivos Neou Kosmou won the B1 league of Athens Football Clubs Association and Dedes was one of the basic scorers.
Panionios
At the age of 17 he was discovered by Panagiotis Pallas of Panionios and he was recommended to the technical director of the team, Thanasis Papathanasiou. Dedes was transferred to Panionios; the transfer fee was 1000 drachmas and some other players as an exchange. Two months later, the coach of the team, Ioannis Skordillis and Nikos Zakardis gave him the chance to play for the first time against Fostiras. On 28 March 1965 Dedes scored the fastest hat-trick in Alpha Ethniki in a period of 120 seconds after the 88th minute. In the 1969–70 season, Dedes scored five goals in a game in an 8–0 victory against Olympiakos Nicosia, which is the club's largest victory. That was a rare record which only a few Greek footballers have achieved. Dedes has also scored four goals in a match on two occasions. He played for Panionios for 14 years, winning a Balkans Cup in 1971. He was the top scorer of the Greek Championship with 28 goals, becoming the 3rd scorer in Europe behind the Croatian, Josip Skoblar of Olympique de Marseille with 39 and Keita of Saint-Étienne with 33.
AEK Athens
In 1974 Dedes transferred to the Greek giants AEK Athens of Loukas Mparlos. Although he was a free agent, AEK Athens paid 500,000 drachmas to have him. In three years of playing for AEK Athens he achieved 50 caps scoring 35 goals. Furthermore, in season 1975-76 he once more became the top scorer of the Greek Championship, scoring 16 goals.
Return to Panionios and retirement
Dedes returned to Panionios for the 1977–78 season to finish his career. He was honoured with the Golden Cross, the club's greatest award. Dedes describes the award as "priceless" and it is the centerpiece of his medal collection.
International career
In 1962 Dedes was called to the Greece U-18, for which he played in two matches against Turkey, a 1–0 defeat in Athens and 1–0 win in Smyrni where he was the scorer in the 18th minute. With the U-19 team he competed in two games for the qualifying matches of UEFA European Under-19 Championship against Turkey. With a 2–1 victory in Athens and a 1–1 draw in Ankara, Greece managed to qualify for 1963 UEFA European Under-18 Championship in London. Dedes played in both 3 matches of the tournament in which he scored two goals in a 7–2 victory against Germany. Greece didn't qualify for the quarter finals as they finished third in the group. In 1969 Dedes played the only game for Greece U-21 against Israel. He managed 20 appearances and scored seven goals for the Greek national football team from 1966 to 1973. He played his first match on 16 October 1966 in a 2–1 win against Finland for the UEFA Euro 1968 qualifying. He scored his first two goals for Greece on 21 November 1968 in a 4–1 home victory against Egypt. Dedes was a regular in the 1970 FIFA World Cup qualification squad where he scored twice. His first goal for the tournament was in a historical 2–1 victory against Portugal on 11 December 1968 in Karaiskakis Stadium and the second was in a 2–2 draw against Romania on 16 April 1969 with Dedes taking the lead for Greece. He made his last appearance for Greece on 31 January 1973 in a match against Bulgaria as a second-half substitute in a match which ended 2–2.
