Demetris Kizas

Dimitris Georgiou Kyzas was born in Paralimni, in the Famagusta district of Cyprus, on 6 September 1953. In his home town he was known by the nickname "Mitroushis". He began playing football with the local club, Enosis Neon Paralimni, in 1967, at the age of 14.

According to the club's own account, published after his death, he established himself in the first team as a central defender while he was doing his military service, under the Czech coach Svatopluk Pluskal. Because army duties sometimes kept him from training, he once missed out on a league match against AEL because Pluskal required three training sessions before picking a player. He was in the team that beat Omonia 4-1 at Paralimni in February 1972. In an interview with the Greek newspaper Eleftherotypia, he later said that he had been deeply marked by the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974.

With Enosis Neon Paralimni he reached the Cypriot Cup final in 1974 and 1975. At the final of 6 July 1975, scouts from Panathinaikos who had come to watch players from Anorthosis noticed him and his teammate Dimitris Oikonomou instead. He spent the 1975-76 season with the Athens club on loan with an agreed transfer, and joined permanently the following summer for what Enosis described as a very significant fee.

He played four seasons for Panathinaikos and made more than 90 appearances. He won the Greek league and cup double in 1977 and was part of the team that won the Balkans Cup. In 1981 he moved to Panachaiki in Patras, played the 1982-83 season for OFI in Crete, and returned to Panachaiki in 1983. He stayed there until he retired in 1989, and helped the club win the Beta Ethniki, the Greek second division, in 1984 and 1987. Greek Wikipedia credits him with 196 appearances in the Greek first division, among the most by any Cypriot.

For the Cyprus national team he won nine caps and scored one goal. He made his debut as a half-time substitute in a friendly against Greece at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia on 1 April 1975, and played in qualifiers for the 1976 European Championship against England, Czechoslovakia and Portugal. In January 1980 he scored a penalty in a 1-1 friendly against Greece in Nicosia. His last international was a 1982 World Cup qualifier against France at Limassol on 11 October 1980. Greek Wikipedia records that Greece also wanted to call him up, which was not possible because he had already played for Cyprus.

After retiring he made his permanent home in Patras, where he raised his family. He went on to manage a hotel in the city. He remained closely involved with Panachaiki, serving as a member and as president of the club's former players' association, and in 2016 the club honoured him for his overall contribution.

Demetris Kizas died on Sunday 18 October 2026, at the age of 73. Sports reports from Patras said he died after a long battle with a serious health problem; no further details were made public. Some reports gave the date as 19 October, but the Cyprus Football Association, whose statement was published on Monday 19 October, said he had died the day before, and Panathinaikos and Cypriot outlets reported his death on 18 October.

Panathinaikos said it was deeply saddened and recalled his part in the 1977 double. Enosis Neon Paralimni said that for those who had seen the club in the early 1970s he was still regarded as one of the greatest players to wear its shirt. The Cyprus Football Association called him a great figure of Cypriot football, and Panachaiki and the wider Patras football community mourned a former defender and longtime leader of the club's veterans. Funeral arrangements had not been reported at the time of writing.

Kizas belonged to a generation of Cypriot players who made their names in the Greek league in the 1970s and 1980s. At Panathinaikos he was part of a trophy-winning side, and at Panachaiki he became one of the club's important figures over most of a decade, then kept his link with the club for the rest of his life through its former players' association. In Paralimni he is remembered as one of the outstanding players of the club's early years.