As many of you will know, before Christmas the European Minifootball Federation run a competition on our Facebook page to find the best goal from miniEuro 2013. We thank all of the many thousands of you that voted and we are delighted to say that the winning goal was that of Leonidas Papadopoulos of Greece.
We caught up with the delighted Leonidas to find out his views on being voted the best goalscorer of the tournament and also a little about his football career and his thoughts on minifootball in general
Congratulations on winning the goal of the tournament vote, you must be very proud?
Thank you very much. I would be more proud if we had won the tournament! The goal was one of my best moments there because it was the first match and me and my teammates were very nervous in the beginning.
Aside from your own wonderful strike, which one did you think was the best goal?
The second in the voting (Dimo Stankov – Bulgaria) was very beautiful too!
Tell me about what playing in the miniEURO meant to you – playing in your home country in front of such wonderful crowds must have been special?
I have played more than 600 games in my life but that was something special! When they called us I didn’t understand how big it was! it was the best thing I have done in my life.. Thanks go to everyone at the EMF, our crowd, coach Apostolos Gaifilias and to Thanos Papadopoulos and Stratis Sipetzis and the whole “organizing team” who organised the tournament and gave us this great opportunity!
Obviously the Greek team were knocked out on penalties, which must have been a real disappointment, but that experience against Germany must have been amazing? The atmosphere in Rethmyno was unique.
The games we played in Crete were amazing and that’s because of our wonderful crowd! The experience against Germany was disappointing because we had two opportunities to win the match. It was a shame to go out on spot kicks, as penalties are like roulette.
Do you have a message for the Greek fans about your plans in future miniEURO events?
Oh yes we have a message: to win the cup and bring it to Greece!
Obviously miniEURO is the highlight but tell me about your football background.
I have played football from 8 years old in Thessaloniki. Apart from miniEURO, perhaps the peak was as a professional for two years. I have also been to a European Cup with my university in Wroclaw.
My career has taken me to Paulos Melas, where I played for 4 years. I played a year at Olympiacos Kiminon, then moved to Makedonikos Litis, Olympiacos Terpsitheas (1 year), Eleutheriakos Kordeliou (1 year), Aea Ampelokipon (2 years) and now I play at Possidonas.
And finally, tell me about the way you see minifootball developing in Greece?
The Greek Championship, N’JOY UNI-League is at the top level. miniEURO 2013 has been fantastic for the whole country and it shows the great development in Greece!