Zisis Vryzas

Skoda Xanthi

Born in Kavala, Vryzas started his football career at Skoda Xanthi where his talent attracted the interest of stronger domestic as well as foreign Clubs.

PAOK

In 1996, Vryzas was signed by PAOK, where he enjoyed great popularity among PAOK fans for his power, determination and devotion with which they describe his game and for scoring a handful of very important goals. The most significant memory of his career at PAOK occurred in the first round second leg of the 1997–98 UEFA Cup. It was the equaliser (1–1 on the night, 2–1 on aggregate) he scored in the 87th minute against Arsenal at Highbury, which resulted in a notable, historic qualification for PAOK against the English team who managed to win the double in the Premier League that same season.

Perugia

In 2000, while PAOK were struggling with endless financial problems due to the ineffective policy of debts and mismanagement of the main share-holder, consequently Vryzas was sold to the Italian Serie A relegation battlers Perugia. In Perugia, he once again gained popularity among the local fans for his work-rate and immediate adjustment to the new environment, which proved to be a key-factor for Perugia's constant presence in the Serie A, under the management of Serse Cosmi.

Fiorentina

His very positive performances with Perugia earned him a more lucrative contract at the once mighty Fiorentina in 2003. At that time he was struggling in Serie B. Ironically, the Viola…

Vryzas debuted for Greece in October 1994 in a home Euro 1996 qualifier against Finland, a 4–0 victory. He scored his first goal three months later, in a friendly against Cyprus at Larnaca, but had to wait until 2004 in Portugal to take part in a final stage of a tournament. Although not a very prolific scorer, Vryzas' work ethic, his ability to create disruption among opposition defenders, his talent to create chances and open spaces for his attacking partners, in addition to his aerial ability and passing skills made him a valuable member of all the Clubs he played for, as well as the Greece national team when they won the European Championship in 2004. He was a member of the starting eleven in Greece's five out of six matches including the final, and scored an important goal, in Greece's 2–1 group stage loss to Russia. The goal sent Greece into the quarter-final, on an equal goal difference (0) against contenders Spain (Greece progressed scoring four goals to Spain’s two).

On 8 January 2008, Vryzas was officially appointed as the Technical Director of PAOK. He joined the club's board along with former team-mate and current chairman of the club, Theodoros Zagorakis. During his first steps in his new career he succeeded in bringing to PAOK Pablo Contreras, Zlatan Muslimović, Vieirinha, Lino and Pablo Garcia in 2008. He succeeded selling Lazaros Christodoulopoulos and Christos Melissis to Panathinaikos for €4,300,000 and Daniel Fernandes to Bochum for €1,100,000. In July 2009, he continued and succeeded in bringing to PAOK Mirko Savini, Olivier Sorlin, Lucio Filomeno, Bruno Cirillo, Mohammed Abubakari and Vasilios Koutsianikoulis. On 9 October 2009, Vryzas was appointed as the chairman of PAOK, following the resignation of Zagorakis for personal reasons. On 11 August 2010, Vryzas resigned from the position of director of football from PAOK. Five days later, he became a colleague of Fernando Santos, the head coach of Greece. In 2012 he returned to PAOK as president and from the summer of 2014 he became their technical director. Vryzas is a misunderstanding figure in the history of the club. On 2010 PAOK were on the verge of economic collapse. There was also the scenario of the collapse of the Association in lower categories, under the weight of debts. With smart moves created a low budget team coached by Georgios Donis, which could cope economically keeping the prestige of the club up after playing in European competitions, namely the UEFA Europa…

Perugia

Intertoto Cup: 2003 Greece

UEFA European Championship: 2004