Themos Asderis

Asderis started his career as a referee almost immediately after his retirement as a football player in 1930 and refereed football matches in both Athens and Thessaloniki for a season, but with meager results. In fact, he, alongside Sotiris Asprogerakas and the Hungarian former manager of AEK, Josef Sveg, were among the few pre-war referees in the history of Greek football. He also became the manager of Asteras Athens.^[5]

He was one of the few people who had contact with football and very quickly returned to AEK, taking over the technical leadership of the club, after the removal of Emil Rauchmaul. With Asderis at the bench AEK won their first ever title. On 8 November 1931 in the first Greek Cup final in the history of the institution, they defeated Aris by 5–3 at Leoforos Alexandras Stadium.^[6] In the same year, the state-run newspaper "Acropolis" organized a Christmas Cup in Athens with the participation of AEK, Panathinaikos, Olympiacos, Apollon Athens and the Austrian Admira Wacker. AEK also won the "Acropolis Cup" with 4–3, to a surprise of the Austrian fans and became the first team to win two Cups in a season with Asderis as their manager.^[7]

He remained at the bench of AEK until 1933 and continued as an assistan of Kostas Negrepontis in a period of decline for the team. After a renewal in their roster and with the arrival of the players of their academy, which was the first in Greece, such as Kleanthis Maropoulos, Tryfon Tzanetis and Michalis Delavinias, AEK were ready to start their domestic domination. In 1937 AEK did not participate in the championship and thus they returned to their roots. They traveled to Istanbul in an intense emotional charge and participated in mini tournaments with Güneş and Fenerbahçe. They lost in the first game to the Turkish champions by 2–1, but won Fenerbahçe by 3–2. At that time the club was ready for big things and proved it with the first ever domestic double in Greek football in 1939.^[8] The following season was the last appearance of Asderis on the bench of AEK, again as an intermediate link in the tenure of Negrepontis. The team won the championship again and looked to the future with optimism, since their generation of players was unique and won their opponents with great ease. He continued at the bench of Ethnikos Piraeus.^[9] Unfortunately, the World War II came, as Mussolini ordered his troops to invade Greece after the historic refusal of Metaxas to surrender the country to the Italians and football was no longer priority.^[10]

Asderis spent a period at the bench of Panathinaikos,^[11] where he helped them stand alongside the other Constantinopolitan and founding member of AEK Fokiona, Dimitriadis, during the very difficult years of the Occupation. With the release of Greece and the restart of the national football championships, came the call from Olympiacos. Asderis became the first coach in the history of Greek football to work in all the clubs of the big three (followed by Helmut Senekowitsch and Jacek Gmoch) and at Olympiacos more mature than ever, he won the championship, as well as the Cup in 1947.^[12][13] Asderis was also part of the technical staff during three of the four spells of Negrepontis on the bench of Greece. In 1951 and at the age of 50, the Asderis retired from active role, having done everything in football as a footballer, as a coach and as a referee. He had written his name in the history of both AEK Athens and Olympiacos with a domestic double.

Asderis had a wife name Marika who was an agent of Panathinaikos.^[5] He ran a book and stationery shop with a lottery agency in Pangrati. On 21 March 1975, Asderis collapsed and died on the pavement on his way home from his shop.^{[1][4][14][15]}