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Jobs4Football meets Andreas Kikilias-Strakas

Jobs4Football spoke with Andreas Kikilias-Strakas to discuss his journey in the world of football as he approaches 10 years in the game, his current role as a general manager in Greece and his ambitions for the future .

Kikilias-Strakas is currently the general manager for Niki Volos FC, who currently compete in the second tier of Greek football, in comparison to 2018 when he was an assistant ticketing manager for Brentford FC.

He said: “When you first put your foot into the industry you don’t know anything, in a short space of time I went from working as a ticketing executive and then an assistant ticketing manager at Brentford to becoming the general manager at a football club, but this doesn’t mean that I am satisfied I want to keep progressing and learning as much as possible.”

“I moved to London originally as an academy secretary at Brentford and was planning to work my way up the ranks, but at the end of the 15/16 season they decided to close down their academy. From there the club offered me a role as a ticketing executive and after two years doing that I moved back to Greece due to personal reasons.”

After moving back to his home country Kikilias-Strakas joined Greek second tier team Olympiacos Volos FC as head of operations, the club he was at before moving to London but was previously the general manager and club delegate, which saw him represent the club at UEFA conferences when they qualified for the Europa League.

After two years he then transferred to his current role at rivals Niki Volos as the general manager where he has been at for a year and a half, and the Volos local is helping create a bright future for the club.

“We are trying to get as much brand exposure as we can and expand our influence even further then our local community, of course we are always here to help the community, but we are trying to grow the club and we have already made big strides in trying to achieve this.

“We have started the reconstruction of the training ground which means we can now hold the first team and academy in one training complex, this is a big thing for the club because one of the issues for teams in Greek football is infrastructure, so with this reconstruction it will help the club to progress.

“In recent times the club has gone through a number of relegations and even went through bankruptcy a few years back so the first goal is to stabilise the club and then from there as our infrastructure, scouting network and academy begins to grow we can then look at trying to make the step up to the top tier.”

Kikilias-Strakas is approaching five years as being a general manager in a role that is demanding and requires good leadership and communication skills in an everchanging industry, but what does a typical week look like for him as the general manager?

“I wouldn’t say there is a typical week in my role as it is constantly changing, but pretty much I overlook all the different sectors in the club, ranging from board meetings to representing the club to the federation, I am involved in all aspects of the club. For example, this week we have started discussions with the Esports industry to help create exposure for our brand but next week it will be something completely different.”

As well as his experience in world of football over the past decade, he also has achieved a master’s in sport business management and a bachelor’s in business administration. Whilst having made big strides in such a short amount of time, Kikilias-Strakas has even bigger goals for what he hopes to achieve in the future.

“Being a general manager at a football club allows you to explore a number of different sectors like marketing, communications, player registrations, travel and so this opens up a number of options for the future, but my long term goal is too get involved with UEFA or FIFA.”

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