Tryfon Tzanetis

Tryfon Tzanetis
	Tryfon Tzanetis
Personal information
Date of birth	1918
Place of birth	Smyrna, Ottoman Empire
Date of death	8 September 1998 (aged 79–80)
Place of death	Athens, Greece
Position(s)	Striker, center back
Youth career
?	A.E. Kalogreza
?	Eleftheroupoli
Senior career*
Years	Team
1935–1951	AEK Athens
Total
International career
1949	Greece
Managerial career
1950–1951	Egaleo
1951–1952	AEK Athens
1954–1955	AEK Athens
1956–1957	AEK Athens
1958–1959	Egaleo
1960–1961	Greece
1961–1962	AEK Athens
1962–1964	Greece
1965–1967	AEK Athens
1967–1968	Apollon Athens
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Tryfon Tzanetis (Greek: Τρύφων Τζανετής 1918 – 8 September1998) was a Greek footballer and a later manager. He was best known as a great figure for AEK Athens during the 30's and 40's, partnering Kleanthis Maropoulos in AEK's front line.^[1] Tzanetis also contributed to AEK by coaching the club during the 50's and 60's.

Early life

Tzanetis was born in 1918 in Smyrna, from Naxian parents. After the Asia Minor disaster, his family moved to Athens and installed at the district of Nea Ionia.

Club career

Chatzistavridis, Tzanetis, Maropoulos and Christodoulou in 1939

Vasiliou (left) with Chatzistavridis, Tzanetis, Maropoulos and Kitidis in 1940

Tzanetis started playing football in the youth departments of A.E. Kalogreza which merged with Eleftheroupoli football club in the 1936–37 season. In 1933, people of AEK Athens scouted him and he signed a sport's card with the club. He started from the youth departments of AEK and he was promoted to the men's team in 1935, alongside Maropoulos and participated in an official match.

He was a member to the great team of the yellow-blacks in the late 30s, having teammates, such as Kleanthis Maropoulos, Spyros Sklavounos and Spyros Kontoulis. He started his career as a striker, but later in his career he became a central defender, when the then coach, Jack Beby relocated him, in the WM system that he applied since he came to Greece in 1948. His presence was imposing. He was insightful, extremely fast, creative and team and in addition to being an aggressive midfielder, he was also distinguished by his inhibitions. With AEK he won 4 times the FCA Championship, 2 consecutive Panhellenic Championships and 3 Greek Cups, including the first domestic double by a Greek club in 1939.^[2]

International career

He wore once the jersey of Greece on 25 May 1949, against Italy B in a 2–3 defeat, with Tzanetis coming from the bench on the 46th minute.^[3]^[4]

Managerial career

In 1950 after his playing days were over, Tzanetis took up coaching Egaleo in the first division of Athens for a season before returning to AEK Athens.

He found himself as the coach of AEK in many periods in the 50s and 60s (1951, 1954, 1956, 1961 and 1965), leading the club to the Greek Cup in 1966.^[5]

Tzanetis also coached Apollon Athens which was the last club of his career. He was also a selector of the Greece military national football team, where he won the World Military Cup in 1962.^[6] From 1960 to 1964 (in two different periods) he was the coach of Greece with a record of 5 wins, 1 draw and 5 losses.

After football

Tzanetis had a wife named Lela and two kids, Manolis and Mary.^[7] He identified on the pitch and in life with Kleanthis Maropoulos, with whom he remained friends and partners in a sporting goods store in the center of Athens, until the end of the latter's life, in 1991. Seven years later, Tzanetis died.^[8]

Honours

As a player

AEK Athens

Panhellenic Championship: 1938–39, 1939–40
Greek Cup: 1938–39, 1948–49, 1949–50
Athens FCA Championship: 1940, 1946, 1947, 1950

As a coach