A decade ago, in 2015, Savvas Theodoridis was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 80. He had been born on February 18, 1935 and throughout the course of eight decades had lived a life replete with successes and accomplishments.
Theodoridis was an international with the Greek national team, playing in the goalkeeper’s position, he was part of the “Legend” Olympiacos side that had won consecutive championships in the 1950s. He was a pharmacist by training, a bon viveur, a good father to his sons and an even more doting grandfather. After hanging up his cleats and taking off his keeper’s gloves, he studied in Greece and abroad for his pharmacy degree, before eventually returning to football as a high-ranking team executive, both for his beloved Olympiacos and for the national football federation.
It was back then, in 2015, that his two adult sons, Theodoros and Dimitris, begged their father to stop “running all the time” to football fields and look after his health.
“Do you know what I said to Theodoros one day when he was nagging me? Every day without Olympiacos is a wasted day. I don’t know how many days I have left, but all of them will be with Olympiacos and for Olympiacos,” he once said during a conversation in Madrid on the eve of a Champions League final — and there is no doubt he meant it.
Doctors had thrown up their hands, saying there was nothing they could do to save him, while giving him only a few months to live. Always combative, courageous and tireless, Savvas lived with Olympiacos – and for Olympiacos – for another five years. He passed away at the age of 85 in August 2020.
“Olympiacos exists so you can be next to it, always,” was what the great keeper used to say
Savvas Theodoridis accomplished a great deal with Olympiacos. And he bestowed a priceless gift on all who knew him: the opportunity to choose the image by which they would remember him. There’s Savvas posing at the age of 23 like a 1950s pop star in a photo that was often propped up among vinyl records and books in teens’ bedrooms – indicative of how he stood out from other footballers of the era. And there he is in his Olympiacos jersey, which he trained hard to wear, watching his first championship season from the bench, as he was still a reserve keeper.
His own father paid for his transfer to Olympiacos from the small local club Enosis Ambelokipon, essentially covering the fee for then Olympiacos president Giorgos Andrianopoulos.
One image is of Savvas in the national team jersey, which he wears with pride and a smile on his face.
There’s Savvas Theodoridis the professional man, who gave up football to qualify as a pharmacist, something he’d promised his parents to do. Having earned his degree, he returned to the field – without fanfare or telling his relatives – and played football in lower-division Athens teams as a center forward!
Then there’s Savvas, Olympiacos’ sports director, the team leader during away games, the Olympiacos official who led the team onto the pitch in the rival stadiums of Leoforos Alexandras, Nea Filadelfia and Toumba. There is Savvas in the headlines of his beloved “Fos” sports newspaper, ready to take on even his friend, the publisher Theodoros Nicolaidis, in comments in his own newspaper.
There’s Savvas, the tenacious member of the board of the Hellenic Football Federation (EPO) during periods when even the word “Olympiacos” was forbidden.
There is also Savvas Theodoridis embracing, like a loving elder, some of the greatest players who ever wore the red-and-white stripes, like Giorgos Delikaris, Nikos Anastopoulos, Giovanni and Chori Dominguez. There was Savvas for whom Olympiacos’ players are the best in the world, regardless of their name.
There’s Savvas chasing down a ball that’s gone out-of-bounds to hand it to the players during a game in Livadia, so Olympiacos could score a late winning goal. There’s Savvas shouting that he will take the team and leave the stadium if police don’t respect the safety rules at a Cup final. Then there’s Savvas explaining to managers Ernesto Valverde, Leonardo Jardim, Marco Silva and Pedro Martins what the derby against Panathinaikos means.
There’s Savvas talking to some of the greatest players of our time in a hotel lobby before a Champions League final, where Cambiasso explains to those present that “this is the Legend of Greek football”.
There’s Savvas taking no prisoners in front of the television cameras, when he thinks his Olympiacos is being wronged. Conversely, there’s Savvas who avoids planes and drives the length of Greece hundreds of times to be present at every game Olympiacos plays on the road. There’s a beaming Savvas holding a jersey given to him by Gianluigi Buffon, moments after he’s told the Italian legend that he, too, was a goalkeeper.
There’s Savvas speaking on television after an Olympiacos victory being watched by his grandchildren in Switzerland, who shout out “grandpa, grandpa”. There’s Savvas calling Kostas Fortounis from Madrid to tell him he should never leave Olympiacos. There’s Savvas selflessly offering his support to the presidents of Olympiacos, but who also helped the club financially in periods when it had no sponsor. There’s Savvas, the bon vivant who loves Mykonos, celebrating with raised fists, showing up at the ground just an hour after a chemotherapy therapy to everyone’s amazement.
Savvas Theodorides at the time when he stood “Cerberus” in front of the Olympiacos goal
From the mid-1950s until the early 1960s, Savvas Theodoridis was the championship-era Olympiacos’ goalkeeper, a legend among legends. And after he hung up his gloves, he dedicated himself to the red-and-white family until his dying day.
Then there’s Savvas who isn’t only unafraid of cancer, but laughs at the disease for five whole years. There’s Savvas, supported by Christian Karembeu, showing up in 2020 to receive his championship medal, making all the stars in the sky shine red and white, and having Olympiacos President Evangelos Marinakis dedicate the title to him.
Finally, there’s the beloved memory of Savvas Theodoridis, with Marinakis ordering the UEFA Conference League trophy to be taken to his grave, sending shivers down the spine of everyone at Olympiacos who loved him.
Still standing and proud
Numerous images of Savvas Theodoridis over the seven decades he served Olympiacos, sufficient for everyone, friend and opponents alike, to choose their personal favorite.
Perhaps one of the most iconic is one that few witnessed: In March 2020, Savvas opening the gates of the Rentis training center for the players and coaches to return to practice after quarantine, visibly drained by his now daily battles with the illness, but his spirit unbroken and unbreakable. He welcomed the players one by one, patting each on the back, frail but standing still, proud and unique, a keyholder of the history of a club whose modest soldier he had always been.
Olympiacos’ manager at the time, Pedro Martins, was shocked, and told Savvas that, for him, he would always be the greatest man he had ever known in football. Olympiacos rolled over the competition in the playoffs to win that season’s championship.
How could the players have looked him in the eye, if they didn’t make him proud one last time?
A life lived with and for the players, as a father, a friend and as a true Olympiacos man.
A stance on life
This image of Savvas in front of the Rentis center’s entrance captures an attitude to life–an Olympiacos fan’s manifesto.
Olympiacos, Savvas used to say, exists so that you can be there for it, always and in every situation. Everything else–disasters and triumphs, victories and defeats, celebrations and disappointments–are of lesser importance. What counts is “living with Olympiacos and for Olympiacos,” as he used to say.
Savvas Theodoridis had the unshakeable belief that the Olympiacos team he played for was the best of all time, mostly because its players were also great fans of the Club.
“I played eight years and stopped at the age of 26. Don’t compare us to the current teams. Back then, our exploits travelled by word of mouth. There were no televisions, so the team’s reputation was spread by those lucky enough to watch us. Can you image how much people loved that Olympiacos side?
“One time we went to Drama (northern Greece) for a match and 5,000 fans from Piraeus followed. Ten thousand people came to our training sessions,” he said in an interview.
“When we beat Pele’s Santos at the Leoforos Alexandras Stadium, they lifted me up onto their shoulders. People came down to Omonia Square on foot from Alexandras and they all realized that the team that was sweeping the titles in Greece also had a standing internationally. It was hugely satisfying,” he added.
He won five championships and five Cups playing as a goalkeeper, but as an Olympiacos man he won something even more important: immortality.
Anyone who met him and looks at the youth on the Olympiacos emblem sees Savvas.
