“They ask me if my birthday is special. No. I don’t wait a year. I have a birthday every day. It’s a gift from God to wake up every day and see your wife and kids.” Over the past ten years, these are the words that have come from the lips of the Greek footballer who managed to score the most goals, play the most matches and win the biggest victories. Every game day he plays against the same strong opponent and defeats him. With a full attack, as he knows from his time in the stadiums.

Nikos Kizeridis has a birthday today. He is 52 years old. He sees another year weighing on him, but at the same time keeping him at a safe distance from cancer. Former ace Ari got the difference he wanted thanks to goals scored, although he knows full well that there are always delays in games.

This is a life lesson and a reminder of important things, a conversation with Niko. With a man who, at the age of only 42, found out that he was suffering from an aggressive and rare form of cancer of the lymph nodes.

He never scolded him, his sports life seemed to him the best “shield”. He never imagined that this disease would knock on his door. “I didn’t believe in it, but it was my secret fear. Sometimes I woke up from a dream seeing this nightmare. In my experience, I finally understood that what you fear is coming,” he said in an earlier interview, attributing his arrival to his own bad choices and the bad psyche they created for him later.

We found him at the football academy he runs in Düsseldorf, where he has been living for the last 12 years. So, to wish him a happy birthday, let’s also take some of his power. He does not want to constantly talk about his battle, which has become and remains an example of life and courage for those who have experienced and are experiencing it. He prefers not to go back to the old ways, though, as he told us, “I beat it, but I can’t stop thinking about it, especially on the days I go for regular checkups. There are days when I am afraid, when I am anxious. But just then, I feel it awaken in me, and immediately turn the paper over. I am optimistic, I see the positives, and things are getting better.”

Over the past three years, the veteran center forward has become a grandfather to his eldest daughter. His other three female angels, as he calls them, are his wife Sophia and two other daughters. The little girl got her nursing degree. Good reasons for happiness. “God loved me to give me four women in my life who love me and are always there for me. These were the angels that were above my head during difficult times.”

He went to Germany when he went bankrupt in Greece. The final blow was the inclusion of Aris in Article 44. Debt, a lifetime earnings in excess of 300.00 euros, was lost. He started from scratch, working on delivery to survive, until a big challenge knocked on his door. But there he also met a doctor who took him in and made him believe that he could emerge victorious. Once he got back on his feet, he managed to get back on the grass through practice.
He graduated with a UEFA A diploma, managed two teams (men’s and women’s) in the local divisions, founded a football academy to teach young children the secrets of the ball game, and taught football in schools. He forgot about everything on the field. This was his medicine. He gave everything to succeed before the pandemic came.
“Everything died in Germany almost two years ago. The stadiums were closed. Unfortunately, even today we can end the coronavirus, but the consequences remain. The children did not return to school as the financial crisis made parents see it as an unnecessary expense. In communication with relatives and friends at home, I think that Germany has suffered much more from the coronavirus and the war in Ukraine than Greece.”