Vassilis Torosides: A child catches the stars …

If you ask him what a job he would do if he didn’t become a footballer? He doesn’t know how to answer you. After all, football was the purpose of his life from his childhood. And it happened even more when fate played a bad game. Only at the age of 14, shortly before Millennium, Stathis’ father returning from his workout told him that « one day you will become a national leader ».

How much ball was seeing dad …

He always had him with him, though he could not live with the success of the prediction that came true. For two…

« He left » in 2004 but Vasilis continued to play for him too, and with him … If you are looking to find the secret to the success of the most complete footballer of the first 20 years (at least) of the 21st century of Greek football, a large part of it is on the joint career with his father. He was in his heart all the way that looks like a fairy tale. No dragons and bad witches.

From Aris Petinou to Xanthi to the reputation of Olympiacos, Roma and Bologna and National Greece that Vassilis Torosides, the great protagonist of our history, did not just wear her armor, entered the pantheon with her tops.

As he did with Olympiacos, who believed him a kid and won him by acquiring him from Xanthi in January 2007. To write his own story there, marking an entire era of the leading Greek club. With the armor again in hand. How much ball you saw Stathis …

It was justified…

The « Toros » of Greek football was over in Xanthi, playing his first professional match in 2002. On 17/10/2005 being a key member of the team, he scored his first goal, an unlikely shot outside the 4-1 area with Hercules, celebrating it with his hands pointing to his father in the sky.

In January 2007, Vasilis Torosides was the next big thing of Greek football. By difference. All the big teams were « besieging » him. Olympiacos won him over. « Certainly Olympiacos is the largest team in Greece. The fact that he comes out in recent years has been an incentive for me. Coming here I was sure that the team would win the championship and that made me think about it above, because a player wants from an early age to win the Greek championship and the Greek Cup.

There is a big difference from Olympiacos from the other teams « were the words of » Toro « one and a half months after his signature to the Piraeus team. He played against Panionios for the first time in G. Karaiskakis (1-0) Basic at the right end of the defense. Takis Lemonis, who threw his scope for his value, did not think about him to give him the basic jersey at his home. And Basil’s big journey began.

« My father was always saying never to forget where you started … » Basil Torosides’ post started in « Goodbye » in his big football career

Magic numbers

From January 2007 to January 2013, in the first big red and white term, Torosides lived it all! He won championships, cups, Super Cup, he became the best player of the season (2010) and participated as a key and irreplaceable member of all Olympic teams in those six years. A member of the teams that broke the double -dip in the Champions League, key to all the big wins and qualifications of the club.

Leaving January 2013 for Roma, where he played until 2016, everyone knew that the red and white career had not been closed. Two years in Bologna and in the summer of 2018 he returned to his « home ». Until September 2020 when football stopped… the converter had written 7 championships, 4 cups, 1 Super Cup, 221 appearances with Olympiacos, 20 goals and 25 assists! The leader for the most years with the reds he continued to serve after the end of the big football career.

Only goalkeeper

If you close your eyes and think of Vasilis Torosides? Only goalkeeper will not make a picture. This was also the only place he did not play in Olympiacos and overall in his career. But you will remember great looks and amazing goals. As with AEK at OAKA (2009), with a « hanging » from the center, such as Montpellier in France, with Alkmaar and Herta in G. Karaiskakis, PAOK and Panathinaikos at 4-0 in 2008!

Kill Bill of Greek football was … Ah! He was « galloping » on the right side in his youth, he learned to play left back, first in our National and then when he needed his teams. He became a stopper along the way and especially towards the finale (he had stated that in the end he preferred this position) he played a central huff with Valverde and not only, we saw him as a right -wing extremist and in special occasions even higher on the court.

Or national

438 appearances, 31 goals and 33 assists wrote « Toro » at the collective level and fully justifying the prediction and faith his father had played in 101 games of our national team, wearing his armband. Torosides, who has to say that he was the one who, with his own goal, gave our country’s first victory in the World Cup. In 2010 in South Africa, Greece beat Nigeria 2-1 with a goal by Torosides, one of the 10 he achieved with the coat of arms in the chest he honored as few. Returning back to our National Jovanovic era as athletic director to provide his vast experience to young children.

Sweet ‘goodbye’

The era of Coronovan brought up and down our lives and sports. So the final of the Cup between Olympiacos and AEK was about to take place on the empty due to the Panthessalos virus on September 12, 2020. It was the last « show » for Vasilis Torosides, playing 79 minutes on the team with Pedro Martins, who wanted him for another year.

But Toro had made his decision before the cross. When, after the last whistle, Vangelis Marinakis, recognizing his enormous contribution to the club, gave him the mug to lift it up, he knew he had decided properly. It was the sweetest goodbye to the kid with the endless talent that started then, in the late 90s, a career that sent him to the stars!

In an attempt not to bend over the crying, Torosides turned back time was asked if the decision he had made in 2007 to catch a port was right. « It was perfectly right » he said. And how can he not be happy that his career was red? At Olympiacos he achieved everything. His leader became, marked with his presence the story of Olympiacos in which he possesses an important part. He never forgot where he started, faithful to the beginnings of his father Stathis who was always with him, in the heart of Basil, on this fairytale journey in football.

« My father always said never to forget where you started … » began Vasilis Torosides’ post at « goodbye » in his big football career, thanking those who stood, his mother, his brothers, his wife and his children, and his children,

« My father Stathis, no matter how much I miss you, you never missed my life, you were and you are always here … I never forgot and when I will not forget … » closed the « goodbye » of a child who made his dreams a reality and is a reference point in his country’s top club.