In a sport like football where the importance of team dynamics is instilled over the individual, and the quest for silverware is the team objective, it is rare for a footballer to be remembered amongst so many.
Yet Ulysses Kokkinos is a player and character that transcends time and fading memories. A God given talent to play football, he played the game like few others. It was not enough to play to win and score goals for Ulysses, he played to entertain and he played for the people.
They loved him and he loved them in return. He played with instinct, flair and imagination and when you couple this with amazing athleticism and rock star good looks you had the complete marketer’s dream. He was a player that probably was more suited to the Maracana in Brazil rubbing shoulders with the great Mane Garrincha yet Victorians were blessed he chose to come to Australia in the late 1960’s to become the George Best of Australian football.
He was famous for scoring goals for his beloved South Melbourne Hellas and equally famous for enjoying the company of beautiful women. He went against the conservative theories of the time that suggested footballers should stay away from love making the night before the game by insisting a quiet night with a beautiful lady and a glass of wine was the tonic for playing better football. This interview brought him on three television shows and print media all over the country at the time when soccer was not getting mainstream publicity.
This helped create the playboy superstar footballer persona he has enjoyed his whole life but at times also struggled with. He is very conscious of the fact he wants his legacy to be of a great footballer and not as a sex god. What must be remembered above all else is Ulysses Kokkinos was a seriously good footballer. Athletic, explosive pace, both feet, predator instinct and gifted in the air he was able to sign at Panathinaikos of Athens Greece in 1969, the golden era for the club and Greek football. At the time they were one of the strongest teams in Europe with legendary players like Domazos and Antoniou. He stayed there two years and was on the cusp of being part of domestic Greek football history in 1971 when the team made the European Cup final against Johan Cruyff’s Ajax at Wembley before he turned his back on the contract due to the insistence of the coach to play him right full back instead of his preferred position of striker.
Ulysses wanted to come home and his true love and passion was always South Melbourne Hellas. He had to do it his way, many would have sacrificed their game to be part of such a special team in Europe but it was not his way to compromise in anything in life. By his own admission he may have been able to achieve even more than he did in his playing career by being more disciplined outside the field but he had an insatiable appetite for life and people, he loved adventure and his free spirited nature unfortunately was not conducive at times for the life of an athlete.
His former team mate, the respected South Melbourne and Panathinaikos past champion Jim Pyrgolios described him perfectly. “Ulysses was something else, he was an excitement machine. God gave him everything a footballer would want, he was a crowd favourite and the women loved him also off the ground. He was a star player but I believe if he was more disciplined with his lifestyle he would have enjoyed an even greater career but this was not his way. He is a good loyal friend with a big heart and the game was better for having him part of it.” Ulysses arrived to Australia in late 1965 as a young man not expecting to find such a special football club like South Melbourne Hellas.
This time was also the golden era of South Melbourne Hellas where premierships were being won in full stadiums with a fanatical Greek migrant supporter base that looked upon its players as heroes. Ulysses was shocked to see so many great players at the club. Margaritis, Bedford, Ackerly, Mandalis, Mantarakis, Kambouropolos, Pyrgolios and Nestoridis created a super side and he knew then he wanted to be part of this amazing story. He did write his own chapter in the history of the famous ‘blue and whites’ and managed to be a top goal scorer and play in a championship side in between his two trips back to Greece. Fame sat easily on his shoulders and he was comfortable amongst the people. He firmly believes that without the people there is no game.
“South Melbourne Hellas is the greatest Greek story in Australia. I played for a few teams but I just love Hellas. I am a Hellas boy. “I was very fortunate to play in such a great era with so many great players.
“My mentor was Con Nestoridis (former AEK Athens legend and South Melbourne great) and the person I most admired in the game was Jim Pyrgolios. “For me every game I played for Hellas was a highlight of my life, every minute of every game. “I go to grounds today and people still come up to me during the game and say, ‘Ulysses, go on the ground and show them how to play!’ This makes me happy knowing people still appreciate and remember my career. “I feel great satisfaction that I made so many people happy and this is the greatest gift football gave me.”
Ulysses’ biggest challenge was life after football and, like so many great players, he struggled without the game he loved. He candidly explains how he suffered a form of depression after he retired and at times still does today. Gone was the adulation, gone was the great income, gone was the game he loved to play and was so good at. There was emptiness and a feeling of great loss. How does one assimilate into every day life when you used to send 20,000 of your fellow country men into raptures of ecstasy every time you scored in your beloved blue and white shirt?
Most players learn to move on but every player endures life after football as a compromise to the dizzy adrenalin of playing the game and when you are wired like Ulysses Kokkinos, a born entertainer, the task is so much harder. This may be the reason he chose to chase the fast life after his career and some of the troubles he encountered later in his life are well documented but sitting down with him this week I managed to see a man at peace with himself, a man not jaded with life, but a man still with a warm heart and a genuine zest for people and life. He craves the love of the people like all great entertainers who have experienced the privilege of touching people’s lives yet when I asked him how he wanted to be remembered I was taken aback with the his humble and simple reply, “I would like to be remembered as a South Melbourne Hellas player. That’s enough for me.”
This Ulysses, we can assure you have achieved. You will be remembered as a South Melbourne Hellas player and for many of us, so much more. Whilst most of us read the news, you made the news, even though sometimes not always for the right reasons, but you never failed to remain relevant and attract publicity. He added further. “I love the people of South Melbourne, they are in my heart. Many times my fellow teammates asked me why I walked 20 metres to talk to a supporter and I always told them, ‘Can you imagine the stadium without them?’ These people made Ulysses Kokkinos. I would be nothing without them!” Not many people can say they lived the life of George Best and many Greeks in Melbourne would say George Best lived the life of Ulysses Kokkinos.
NOTE: Ulysses would like to wish a speedy recovery to his good friend, ex South Springvale President Chris Pisimidis.