Giannis Kanakis

Kanakis started football at Elpida Kavalas and continued at AE Kavalas, competing in the defensive line.^[1] In 1949, he was transferred to AEK Athens following the suggestion of the manager, Kostas Negrepontis.

At AEK, he was relocated in the position of the wide midfielder. After the retirement of club's star player, Kleanthis Maropoulos and the departure of Poulis, Kanakis became the team's captain. He was one of the team's leading players in the first half of the 1950s and with the arrival of Kostas Nestoridis in 1955, they formed an amazing offensive duo. On 24 June 1956, he won the Cup with AEK, scoring the winner with a power shot in the final 2–1 against Olympiacos.^[2] On 25 October 1959, he scored in the 3rd minute in the away match against Ethnikos Piraeus and became the first player in the history of Greek football who scored in the newly formed first national division.^[3][4][5] He managed to compete in 6 times in that season's championship scoring 2 goals.^[6] In the second round match against Ethnikos Piraeus at the Nea Filadelfeia Stadium, he was honored for his presence,^[7] before retiring as a footballer, passing on the captainancy of the team to Andreas Stamatiadis. With AEK he won 2 Cups and a Athens FCA League in 1950.^[8][9]

Kanakis played for Greece once, in the away friendly 1–0 defeat against France B in Marseille on 14 October 1951.^[10]

He was also anointed an international with the Military team, scoring 10 goals, winning the World Military Cup in 1952 and scoring the winner against Belgium.^[11][12][13]

Kanakis he worked at the PPC alongside his football career.^[9] After his retirement as a footballer he remained close to AEK and he even served them as curator from 1977 to 1979.^[14] He died on 24 March 2016, aged 88.^{[15][16][17][18]}