DIMITRI’S DAY – FUTSAL HELLAS DIMITRI NICOLAOU

by Yannis Mostrios

In the most festive of all days, Dimitri’s Day was celebrated with the honors that he has always deserved. The final match of the Hellenic Cup was played last night with Platon winning their first ever trophy in their history beating Athina’90 3-1. The spectacular event took place in Athens and had the honorary presence of Spain’s National Team Head Coach Josè Venancio Lopez Hierro, who moments earlier received the award for the Best National Futsal Coach of the World, and of course the one and only Mico Martic who has been close to this effort from the very first moment.
Platon was the better team and managed to control the game for the greatest part playing well in defense. The early lead of Athina’90 with Begai got the two teams going, while Kavvadias scored twice to answer back for Platon. The game was intense, not so good in quality but very exciting till the end. Grapsas finished Athina ‘90 off in the 38th min with a personal goal to start the celebrations for the Platon fans. In a full capacity DAIS Hall with more than 800 spectators, futsal was reborn yesterday in Greece with a glamorous event that began on Saturday with the press conference and a short seminar by Mico Martic. On Monday the celebrations began with a short ceremony in honor of Dimitri Nicolaou, and the awarding ceremony for the best national coach of the world award to Venancio Lopez presented by Futsalplanet.com and Umbro and awarded by Elena Nicolaou, Dimitri's wife.

In the years to come Futsal Hellas will proudly continue the efforts to develop futsal around the world, and continue the legacy of Dimitri. We are especially proud to have Venancio and Mico with us this year, as their presence inspires us to try even harder. Their on going efforts to stay close to the sport and the people that support it are a blessing to all of us who see the potential of futsal in the near future. As for next year we plan to be better and bigger and invite all of you who missed this year’s event to join us in celebrating futsal that way we really should.

Special thanks to our sponsors:
-> ACS DOBFAR
-> 11885
-> Body Fuel
-> Domino’s Pizza
-> Pan Graph
-> Powerade
-> Goal Newspaper
-> Freddito (Illy)

Note from Futsalplanet: once again we can just say a huge thanks to all the people who loves Dimitri and organized this unforgettable day in his memory. Thanks to Dimitri's family, to his friends (they're so many!) with a special mention for Yannis Mostrios. See you next year!