The Olympiacos and Greek football family mourns the loss of a distinguished member, with Nikos Youtsos passing away at the age of 81.
Olympiacos and Greek football plunged into mourning on Tuesday (07/11) as it became known that one of the most important strikers who have worn and honored the red and white shirt, Nikos Youtsos, passed away at the age of 81.
His last Karaiskakis appearance was in the recent Europa League group stage match against Freiburg, with this giant of Greek football spending the last 20 days in the intensive care unit of the Metropolitan Hospital and finally leaving from us on Tuesday, having been intubated since Sunday.
He was born on April 16, 1942 in Makrohori, Kastoria and grew up in Hungary (he had taken refuge there as a political refugee with his mother and sister), with the first team of his career being the Hungarian Czepel, in which he played for four years (1960 -64) having 11 goals in 36 appearances.
In the summer of 1964 he returned to Greece on behalf of Olympiakos and that choice marked his football career and made him famous and popular, with “Georgios Karaiskakis” being his home for a whole decade and during this time to win 4 championships and the same number of Greek Cups, even scoring 100 goals in 276 games.
His scoring prowess and dynamic style gave rise to the legendary phrase “Enter Yucho”, which became a catchphrase on the lips of Red and White fans and has remained vivid in everyone’s memory to this day, with Yucho leaving Olympiakos in 1974 and to end his career at his compatriot Ethnikos in 1976.
In addition to his great achievements with the red and white jersey, Youtsos also honored that of the representative group of our country, after wearing the jersey with the national emblem 15 times (1965-1970) and scoring 6 times.
His relationship with Olympiakos was so strong that he made history as the first long-serving coach to sit on the Piraeus bench in their European game, on September 27, 1994 against Marseille at the Velodrome, in a rematch between the two teams for the UEFA Cup (a 3-0 win for Massalou, in the second leg in favor of them 2-1 in Faliro where Nikos Alefantos was then sitting on the Olympiakos bench).
In addition to the many friends he made through his great career on the courts and the countless fans he acquired over the years, Nikos Youtsos left behind a beautiful family he created: his wife and support for 60 years, Lilian , his children Leonidas and Alexandra and his grandchildren.
