A legend of Turkish football and a symbol of Fenerbahce, Lefter, as the Turks called him, was nicknamed "the professor".
Lefteris Antoniadis (Lefter Küçükandonyadis in Turkish) was a legend of Turkish football and a symbol of Fenerbahçe. He was born on 22 December 1925 on the island of Princes in the Propontis (Buyukada in Turkish). His father was a fisherman of Greek origin and his mother was Turkish. The Antoniadis family had ten children.
Lefteris showed his football skills from an early age and at the age of 16 he began his career in the neighborhood team of Istanbul Taksim, which competed in the local championship. After his military service (1943-1947) he was transferred to Fenerbahçe, with which he experienced glory and honor. He played for the "yellow canaries" of Istanbul for a total of fifteen years (1947-1951 and 1953-1964). He played in 615 matches and scored 423 goals, being the team's second top scorer, behind Zeki Riza Sporel (470).
Lefter, as the Turks called him, was nicknamed “the professor” (ordinaryus in Turkish), because he always had a way of unlocking opposing defenses and scoring goals. He was only 1.67 m tall and played as a left midfielder. His teammates called him “Küçük” (small in Turkish), a nickname that was a composite of his surname (Küçükandonyadis ). His name is legendary among Fenerbahçe fans, who still sing the slogan: “Ver Leftere Yazsin Deftere”, which means “Give Lefter, let him write in the notebook”.
His fame went beyond Turkish borders and in 1951 he was transferred to the Italian club Fiorentina, where he played in the 1951-1952 season. He thus became the first Turkish footballer to play abroad. The following year he played for Nice in France (1952-1953), before returning to Turkey and Fenerbahçe.
In 1964, at the age of 39, he transferred to AEK, where he played in only five games. In a match against Iraklis, he was seriously injured and his football career came to an end. He played 46 times for the Turkish national team (1948-1963), scoring 21 goals. He is the team's third top scorer behind Hakan Sukur (51) and Tuncay Sanli (22). On 23 April 1948, he faced the Greek national team in a friendly match held at the Alexandra Avenue stadium, in which the Turkish national team emerged victorious 3-1, with Lefter scoring his team's second goal. He participated in the 1948 London Olympics and the 1954 World Cup.
In 1956, he played for the Turkish national team in a 3-1 victory over the legendary Hungarian team of Ferenc Puskas. In fact, he scored two goals. After the match, the Hungarians admitted the superiority of their opponents, saying that if Turkey had played like this in the 1954 World Cup finals, they would have definitely finished in the top four.
When he stopped playing football, he worked as a coach. His career on the bench was short and lasted seven years. He started in Athens and the Aigaleo team and ended in 1972 in Samsun with Samsunspor. In between, he worked at Supersport United of Johannesburg and the Turkish clubs Orduspor, Bolusspor and Mersindimanyurdu. Lefteris Antoniadis died on 13 January 2012, at the age of 86.
Source: www.sansimera.gr
