Sotiris Silaidopoulos

Sotiris Silaidopoulos (Greek: Σωτήρης Συλαϊδόπουλος; born 8 February 1979) is a Greek professional football manager and former player.

Early life and playing career
Silaidopoulos was born on the Greek island of Kos and started playing football at local club Antagoras F.C., where he later went on to play for the club's senior team at age 15.

In 1999 he signed for Super League 1 club Panionios F.C., where the 19-year-old initially joined the Under-20 team, while training with the senior side. At the end of 2000, Silaidopoulos suffered a severe knee injury that forced him to undergo multiple surgeries and prevented him to pursue a professional playing career.

After a long injury break, Silaidopoulos returned to the pitch in 2004 and played for lower division clubs, before he retired in 2009 and focused on his coaching career.

First steps into coaching
Following his retirement, Silaidopoulos started making his first experiences in coaching by taking over the U-15 team of Omilos Athlopaidion Kos at the beginning of the 2010–11 season. In the following season, he led the club's U-17 side to victory in the Dodecanese League.

Antagoras F.C.
In 2012, Silaidopoulos was approached by his childhood club Antagoras F.C. to take over the senior team after the club had overcome some financial turmoil and was forced to build up a new team in the 4th division. He accepted the offer and gained promotion to Greece's 3rd division in the 2014–15 season.

Panathinaikos F.C.
On July 1, 2015, Silaidopoulos was hired by Super League 1 club Panathinaikos F.C. and appointed as head coach of the club's U-16 team, which he led to win the Attica League in his first season in charge.

In the following two seasons, he was coaching the club's U-17s. During this period, the team reached the final of the prestigious 2017 Puskás Cup in Felcsút, Hungary only losing to champion Real Madrid.

His team finished first in the regular season of 2017-18 and lost the championship title in a penalty shoot-out against Olympiakos F.C., in which Panathinaikos conceived a late equaliser in extra time.

Since the 2018–19 season, Silaidopoulos has been the head coach of the Under-19 team of Panathinaikos. With many players being from the 2001 generation, his side was the youngest U-19 team in the Greek league and finished 5th in the championship. On international stage the team won the 2019 Tri-Series Tournament hosted by Aspire Academy in Qatar and finished as runner-up in the 2019 ICGT Tournament in the Netherlands losing 1–0 to Valencia in the final.

In the 2019–20 season, his team aimed to make the next step in its development. By the time the season was stopped in February 2020 due to the outbreak of COVID-19, Panathinaikos was ranked 2nd in the Super League K-19 after 24 games with just two matches remaining. Several players of this successful youth team have also been promoted to the club's senior team during the season.

On 12 October 2020, he was appointed as interim head coach after Dani Poyatos was sacked. He drew his only game 2–2 against OFI in the Super League. After László Bölöni was appointed as the new Head Coach of Panathinaikos, Silaidopoulos joined the coaching staff of the club's first team as Assistant Manager on October 19, 2020. After Bölöni was released from his duties in May 2021, Silaidopoulos again took over the club's first team as caretaker, coaching the team in the Super League games against Aris (0-0) and Olympiacos (1–4).

 Olympiacos F.C. 

Youth Academy
In July 2021, Silaidopoulos accepted the offer to join the Olympiacos FC Youth Academy as Head Coach of the U-19s and as Head of the club's “Tomorrow’s Legends” project that aims to oversee the development of youth players with potential for the first team. Under his leadership, the club's U-19s won the Greek Super League in the 2022–23 season for the first time in six years, with a total of 64 points in 26 games, and the league's best offense (scoring 59 goals) and best defense (only conceding 16 goals).

Historical achievements with U-19 in UEFA Youth League Following the championship title in the Greek U-19 Super League, Silaidopoulos was in charge of Olympiacos U-19 in the 2023-24 UEFA Youth League. By using the path for domestic champions, the Greek side qualified for the play-offs after defeating US Lecce and Gabala in the preliminary rounds. Silaidopoulos’ team continued their successful run in the play-offs by defeating Inter 6–5 in penalties after a 0–0 draw in 90 minutes.

In the round of 16, Olympiacos faced RC Lens and was again victorious in a penalty shootout, defeating the French side 4-2 and making the first Greek team in history to reach a quarter-final of the UEFA Youth League. By defeating FC Bayern Munich 3–1, Olympiacos successfully qualified for the semi-final tournament in Nyon for the first time in club history.

In the semifinal, Olympiacis defeated Nantes 3-1 in a penalty shoot-out after the match ended in a goalless draw (0-0) in regular time. In the final against Milan (3-0), three goals in a seven-minute second-half burst gave Olympiacos the title and Greece their first UEFA club trophy.

 First Team Assistant Coach & Interim Head Coach 

In April 2023, Olympiacos FC Sporting Director José Anigo took over the role as interim head coach from Míchel and Silaidopoulos joined him as assistant coach until the end of the 2022–23 season.

At the beginning of the 2023–24 season, Carlos Carvalhal took over as head coach of the club's first team. When Carvalhal was sacked in February 2024, UEFA Youth League-head coach Silaidopoulos took over the first team as interim coach. He was in charge at a 4–0 victory against OFI Crete F.C. in the Super League. Thereby, Silaidopoulos became the first Greek manager, who had been in charge of both Greek Super League power-horses Olympiacos and Panathinaikos in the past 50 years.

Silaidopoulos stayed on the first team's staff as Assistant Coach when José Luis Mendilibar joined Olympiacos FC as new Head Coach on February 12, 2024.

Olympiacos win 2023-24 UEFA Europa Conference League Five weeks after claiming the UEFA Youth League, Silaidopoulos added another major European trophy to his résumé. As the first team assistant coach for Olympiacos, he played a key role in the historic victory that saw Olympiacos become the first Greek team to win a European trophy. The team triumphed over Fiorentina with a 1-0 win in extra time during the UEFA Europa Conference League final, held in Athens on May 29, 2024.

The decisive moment came in the 118th minute, when striker Ayoub El Kaabi scored the winning goal in extra time. Olympiacos, who entered the 2023-2024 UEFA Europa Conference League after transferring from the UEFA Europa League, defeated Ferencváros, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Fenerbahçe, and Aston Villa in the knockout stages, securing their first European trophy in their inaugural final appearance.

Personal life
Silaidopoulos is married with one child. He speaks fluent Greek and English and also has basic knowledge of Italian and German. He is holder of the UEFA Pro, UEFA A, UEFA B and UEFA Youth Elite licenses and also received a diploma in Art History from the Ippokrateio-Lyceum of Kos.