Vasilis Hatzipanagis

In November 2003, to celebrate UEFA's 50th anniversary, he was selected as Greece's Golden Player of the past 50 years by the Hellenic Football Federation. Now aged 50, Hatzipanagis said: "It is very touching to see that you are not forgotten, that your contribution is appreciated even after so many years."

Another highlight for Hatzipanagis was his first appearance for the Greek national side, in a friendly match against Poland at the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium in May 1976. The Athens crowd were bewitched by the long-haired wonder, who seemed to do whatever he wanted with the ball. Afterwards, Hatzipanagis was notified that he was ineligible for international duty, having played for the USSR. His second appearance with the national team came many years after his retirement: he played for 20 minutes in the friendly match against Ghana on 14 December 1999 - where he was honored by the Hellenic Football Federation for his overall contribution to the game of football.

Further recognition did come on 22 June 1984, when he was invited to join a World XI featuring other legends such as Franz Beckenbauer, Mario Kempes, Kevin Keegan, Dominique Rocheteau, Peter Shilton, Jean-Marie Pfaff, Hugo Sanchez, Ruud Krol, Felix Magath and his countryman Thomas Mavros for a match against New York Cosmos in New Jersey.

He was called up to the Soviet Union under-19 squad. He was promoted to the senior squad and represented the Soviet Union Olympic team in the 1976 qualifying tournament. His debut was made in a 3–0 home win against Yugoslavia. He even managed to score his team's last goal in his debut. Hatzipanagis featured in three more matches (two matches against Iceland and one against Norway). However, despite being told by national coach Konstantin Beskov that his ability was "way above Greece's level", he turned his back on the Soviet league – where as a left-sided attacker he was considered second only to the great Oleh Blokhin – to move to the land of his fathers.

With the Reign of the Colonels finally over a year ago, Hatzipanagis signed for the Thessaloniki club Iraklis, and such was his reputation that he filled the stadium for his first match in December 1975. The Iraklis fans would be one of the reasons this exceptional talent never joined another team, the other being his contract with Iraklis was heavily favoured towards the club making it almost impossible for him to leave in spite of his desire to test himself in a better league. Despite interest from Lazio, Arsenal, Porto and Stuttgart, the club's board feared the consequences of selling the crowd favourite, and Hatzipanagis stayed at Iraklis until 1990. His farewell appearance for the club came in a UEFA Cup first round match against Valencia on 19 September, in a 0–0 draw. In the second leg on 3 October, the team lost 2–0 at the Mestalla Stadium, with Hatzipanagis an unused substitute.

Vasilis Hatzipanagis (Greek: Βασίλης Χατζηπαναγής , Greek pronunciation: [va'silis xad͡zipana'ʝis] , born 26 October 1954) is a retired Greek footballer. He played for Iraklis in the Greek Alpha Ethniki and Pakhtakor in the Soviet Supreme League. He also played for Greece and the Soviet Union side. He has been described as "the Greek Maradona".

Hatzipanagis was born in 1954 in Tashkent (capital city of Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic), to Greek political refugees. He was scouted by Pakhtakor. They wanted to invest in this raw, yet refined player, but the law was strict: he had to apply for Soviet citizenship to be eligible for the Soviet top flight. Hatzipanagis made his professional debut at the age of 17. During his time there, he made ninety six appearances and scored twenty two goals, and gained promotion from the Soviet First League to the Soviet Supreme League in 1972.