Takis Ikonomopoulos


Panagiotis "Takis" Ikonomopoulos is a Greek former footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

Career

In 1963, a month after coach Stjepan Bobek arrived at Panathinaikos, Takis Ikonomopoulos was transferred to Panathinaikos from Proodeftiki. He was nicknamed "The Bird" after his impressive dives, and had a glorious career wearing the colours of PAO.
While playing for Panathinaikos, he managed to not concede a single goal for 1,088 minutes. The record spanned from 17 January 1965 until 9 May 1965. Takis Ikonomopoulos' record places him in spot number 19 in the World's Top Division Goalkeepers of all time with the longest time without conceding a goal.
He played for Panathinaikos at the 1971 European Cup Final. He played the whole European competition using the shirt of his idol Jose Angel Iribar, legendary keeper nicknamed "El Txopo" from Athletic Club of Bilbao and the Spanish national team, which he got from a Spain-Greece game in 1970.
Ikonomopoulos had set up a gym at home and used to put extra hours of training there. One of the boys who used to hang out and watch the bird train was Giannis Kyrastas.
Besides Proodeftiki and Panathinaikos, Ikonomopoulos also played for Apollon Athens and Panachaiki. After retiring as a football player, he went on to work with Panathinaikos as a goalkeeping coach.
In 2002, Takis Ikonomopoulos became responsible for coaching Panathinaikos' first team during the four last matches of the season—after coach Sergio Markarian had been barred from entering any stadium for 40 days following an incident with Olympiakos Piraeus FC.