Rizos Lellis

Rizos Lellis (Greek: Ρίζος Λέλλης; born 13 November 1947) is a former Greek professional footballer who played as a defender.

Lellis started playing football at the fields of his village, Anatoli. When he was at his junior high-school years, he and his family were settled to Larissa and thus he enrolled in the youth team of Iraklis Larissa.^[2] On 17 May 1964 Iraklis alongside other clubs from Larissa merged and created AEL and thus Lelis became member of the youth team of AEL.^[3][4][5] In the last two matches of the season, under Alexander Petrovic he was promoted to the men's team and from there onwards became a regular, at the age of 16. His appearances attracted the interest of the big clubs of both Athens and Thessaloniki.^[6]

In the summer of 1972, he made the big step of his career and was transferred to AEK Athens. There, he became a regular in their defense.^[7] With the yellow-blacks he competed in the UEFA Cup, playing against Salgótarján for the first round^[8][9] and against Liverpool for the second round.^[10][11]

Despite his good performance at AEK, Lellis returned to the newly-promoted AEL in the following season, due to the health issues of his mother.^[6] In 1975 when the club faced relegation,^[12] he stayed in the team, playing a season in the second division, before deciding to retire at the age of 29.^[6]

Lellis operated an PRO-PO agency in Larissa, since his playing days.^[6] After his football career he continued in operating it, until he opened a record store.^[6]

• Rizos Lellis at WorldFootball.net
• vissini.gr