Maria Lazarou

Maria Lazarou
Personal information
Full name Maria Lazarou
Date of birth (1972-09-30) 30 September 1972 (age 52)
Place of birth Serres, Greece
Height 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s) Midfielder
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
Artemis Drama
Kavala 86
1994–1995 FC Rumeln-Kaldenhausen
Illiopouli Thessaloniki
Olympiada Thessaloniki
2001–2004 PAOK
International career
1991–2004 Greece 111 (26)
Managerial career
2006–2008 Illiopouli Thessaloniki
2008–2009 Aris
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Maria Lazarou (Greek: Μαρία Λαζάρου; born 30 September 1972) is a retired Greek football player who played for Greece women's national football team, which she also captained, and a former football manager.

Club career

Lazarou played for several clubs in the Greek Alpha Ethniki, and also had a spell in-between in the German Fußball-Bundesliga with FC Rumeln-Kaldenhausen.[1]

In 2002, Lazarou was part of the squad of PAOK that played in the UEFA Women's Champions League for the first time ever, in the 2002–03 season; PAOK lost in all three matches they played, but in the final match they managed to score for one and only time, in an 8–1 defeat, with Lazarou being the scorer.[2][3]

Lazarou retired in 2004, after the 2004 Summer Olympics, but she returned to playing again in 2006 as a player-coach for Illiopouli Thessaloniki, and then Aris, a club founded in 2008, and being actually the successor team of Illiopouli; Aris actually "absorbed" Illiopouli, with the latter adopting the badge, name and colours of Aris, with the newly created club continuing to play in Women's Alpha Ethniki (top-tier league) in the place of Illiopouli.[4][5]

International career

Lazarou appeared 111 times for the Greece women's national football team,[6] including six appearances in the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup qualifying rounds[7] and appearances at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens,[8] which she also captained,[9] and is the top scorer of the Greece women's national football team with 26 goals.

Managerial career

Lazarou, after having retired in 2004, returned to playing again in 2006 as a player-coach for Illiopouli Thessaloniki, and then Aris.[5][4]

Nowadays, she is not involved with football and works as a private-sector employee.

Honours

Lazarou won four Greek A Division (top-tier league) with four different clubs and one league in Germany with the semi-professional team of FC Rumeln-Kaldenhausen.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Fussball-Notizen" [Football News]. Βerliner-Ζeitung.de (in German). Berliner Zeitung. 5 January 1995. Archived from the original on 9 June 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  2. ^ "Αφιέρωμα: Η παρουσία των ελληνικών ομάδων στο Women's Champions League" [Tribute: The presence of the Greek clubs in Women's Champions League]. KingSport.gr (in Greek). King Sport. 17 August 2021. Archived from the original on 21 June 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  3. ^ "Maria Lazarou". PlayMakerStats.com. oGol. Archived from the original on 21 June 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  4. ^ a b "Πιότρ Βλόνταρτσικ: Το σημείο αναφοράς του Άρη – Άρης και στις γυναίκες" [Piotr Włodarczyk: The benchmark of Aris – Aris also in women]. MakThes.gr (in Greek). Makedonia. 2 September 2008. Archived from the original on 21 June 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Γενέθλια για το τμήμα ποδοσφαίρου των γυναικών του Άρη, κλείνει 13 χρόνια από την ίδρυσή του" [Birthday for the women's department of Aris, 13 years have passed since it was founded]. PressAris.gr (in Greek). Press Aris. 1 July 2021. Archived from the original on 21 June 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  6. ^ "FIFA Women's Century Club" (PDF). FIFA. 25 August 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 November 2012.
  7. ^ Maria Lazarou – FIFA competition record (archived)
  8. ^ "Maria Lazarou Biography and Statistics". Sports-Reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
  9. ^ "Women chase Olympic gold". UEFA. 11 August 2004. Archived from the original on 25 June 2022. Retrieved 25 June 2022.