Takis Nikoloudis

Dimitris "Takis" Nikoloudis (Greek: Δημήτρης "Τάκης" Νικολούδης; born 26 August 1951) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a midfielder and a former manager.

Nikoloudis was involved in sports from a young age, joining Iraklis. According to the customs of the time, the young athletes were involved in more than one sport within the club, until they chose which one to focus on. Thus, apart from football, Nikoloudis was also active in basketball, even playing for the youth team of Iraklis. His talent in football led him to focus on the sport and, after his participation in all the infrastructure teams of the club, he was promoted to the men's team of Iraklis in 1969.

Playing as a holding midfielder, he impressed with his clever game despite his young age. He played with Iraklis for eight consecutive seasons, being one of their best players. However, his career at Iraklis was tarnished when his name was involved in the bribery case. On 28 May 1975, shortly before the semi-final of the Cup between Iraklis and Panathinaikos at Kaftanzoglio Stadium, the former Panathinaikos and Iraklis player, Giorgos Rokidis, following the orders of Antonis Mantzavelakis, an agent of Panathinaikos, visited the team of Iraklis at the hotel, offering money to Nikoloudis and Chaliampalias to have reduced performance in the match. During his Rokidis was holding a bouquet and thus the case was named as the "flower case". The management of Iraklis excluded the two players from the match squad as "disciplinary offense". A judicial process followed, where the guilt of all was documented and at the meeting and vote of the Special Committee of the HFF, Panathinaikos was acquitted due to doubts due to the vote of Giorgos Andrianopoulos, while Rokidis and Chaliampalias were banned for life. For Nikoloudis there was leniency and acquittal with the mitigating factor of his young age. This case caused a rupture in the relations of Nikolouis and the management of the club, with the player being out of favor and not competing in the Cup final, when they won the trophy against Olympiacos. This resulted in his transfer to AEK Athens in the summer of 1976.

Nikoloudis immediately adjusted in the team and under the manager, František Fadrhonc he became an integral member of their midfield. On 15 September 1976, Nikoloudis scored his first goal, introducing to the people of AEK his "thunderbolt" free kicks and opened the score at the UEFA Cup game against Dynamo Moscow at home in a 2–0 win. In the next round of same tournament he also scored another free kick, this time against Derby County equalizing the score in an epic 3–2 away win. On 25 March 1979, he scored a brace in the away win against Panachaiki. On 8 April 1979, Nikoloudis scored with a power shot in the area the decider goal against Panathinaikos and three minutes later he was expelled alongside Livathinos, after a fierce fight between the players. During his spell at the club he won the domestic double in the season 1978 and the Championship in 1979, while he was a key member of the team that reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup in 1977.

The summer of 1979, found the owner of AEK, Loukas Barlos, in a difficult financial situation, trying to maintain the club's great roster at the time. One night Barlos met by chance the president of Olympiacos, Stavros Daifas. The first cited his financial difficulties to the latter. That eventually brought the transfer of Nikoloudis to the red and whites in December 1979 for the fee of 6 million drachmas.

On 11 May 1980, his goal against Panathinaikos at Karaiskakis Stadium shaped the final 1–0 which gave Olympiacos his first professional title, sent Olympiacos to a play-off match for the championship. In the match which took place at Volos, the red and whites won with 2–0 against Aris and won their first professional title, as well. With Olympiacos, he won 3 straight championships and 1 Cup including a domestic double in 1981.

In the summer of 1982, the return of Zlatko Čajkovski to AEK Athens' bench was combined with the return of Nikoloudis to the club. However, he was a shadow of his former self from his first spell at the club. In June 1983, before the end of the season, he left to Canada to briefly play for Inter-Montréal in the 1983 Canadian Professional Soccer League, but the club folded midway through the season, due to heavy financial losses. Upon his return to Greece, one month later and with AEK having won the Greek Cup, his role at the team was decreased and he eventually left in December. He was transferred to Apollon Kalamarias, where he played for a year. In Apollon he played alongside his brother, Grigoris and the two of them contributed in keeping the team in the first division. Afterwards, Nikoloudis competed with Levadiakos in the second division until the summer of 1986, when he retired as a footballer.

Nikoloudis was a member of Greece U21, which in 1971 won the Balkan Youth Championship, while with the military team he finished at the 3rd place in the World Military Cup in 1972.