Pieros Sotiriou was born on 13 January 1993 in Nicosia, Cyprus and he is a Cypriot international footballer who plays as a striker for FC Copenhagen in Denmark after joining from APOEL. Sotirou is a product of Olympiakos Nicosia academies. He made his official debut with Olympiakos in the 2009\u201310 season, when the club was competing in the Cypriot Second Division, appearing in four matches and scoring one goal. On 19 March 2011, he made his Cypriot First Division debut, playing the last 11 minutes in a match against Doxa Katokopias and he added a further five appearances in the 2010\u201311 season. The next season (2011\u201312), he made 16 league appearances (2 at starting line-up, 14 as a substitute) and scored his first Cypriot First Division goal on 18 September 2011, in the third matchday against APOEL where Olympiakos lost by 1\u20134. In June 2012, it was rumoured that Sheffield Wednesday was interested in him and also on 5 August 2012, he was trialled at S.L. Benfica, but finally stayed at Olympiakos. On 16 November 2012, he renwed his contract with Olympiakos, signing a three-year contract extension. His most productive season with Olympiakos came in 2012\u201313, when he appeared in 29 league matches (28 at starting line-up, 1 as a substitute) and scored 8 goals. At the end of the 2012\u201313 season, he has been awarded the “Young player of the season” award by Cyprus Football Association. On 24 December 2012, it was announced that Sotiriou’s transfer from Olympiakos to APOEL was already agreed by the two clubs, but he stayed to Olympiakos until the end of the 2012\u201313 season and his four-year contract with APOEL got activated in June 2013. He made his debut on 29 August 2013, in the 2013\u201314 UEFA Europa League play-off match against Zulte Waregem at GSP Stadium, coming on as a 68th-minute substitute in APOEL’s 1\u20132 defeat. During the 2013\u201314 season, he appeared in three 2013\u201314 UEFA Europa League group stage matches for APOEL and won all the titles in Cyprus, the Cypriot League, the Cypriot Cup and the Cypriot Super Cup. He scored his first official goal for APOEL on 20 September 2014, netting the second goal in APOEL’s 3\u20131 away victory against Ayia Napa for the Cypriot First Division. On 10 December 2014, he made his first UEFA Champions League group stage appearance, coming on as a 65th-minute substitute in APOEL’s 4\u20130 defeat against Ajax at Amsterdam Arena. On 15 December 2014, he scored twice in APOEL’s enthralling 4\u20134 home draw against AEK Larnaca for the Cypriot First Division. In the 2014\u201315 season, he managed to add two more titles to his collection, as APOEL won again both the Cypriot championship and the cup. On 28 April 2016, Sotiriou scored the opening goal against title rivals AEK Larnaca and sealed the victory which secured APOEL’s fourth consecutive Cypriot First Division title. He scored his first goal in the European competitions on 19 July 2016, netting the second goal in APOEL’s 3\u20130 home win against The New Saints for the second qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League. On 24 August 2016, Sotiriou opened the scoring in APOEL’s 1\u20131 home draw against FC Copenhagen for the play-off round of the UEFA Champions League, but his goal wasn’t enough as his team defeated 1\u20132 on aggregate and dropped down to the UEFA Europa League group stage. On 19 September 2016, Sotiriou signed a three-year contract extension with APOEL, running until 31 May 2020. On 29 September 2016, he scored the only goal in APOEL’s 1\u20130 away victory against Greek giants Olympiacos for the group stage of the UEFA Europa League. On 3 November 2016, he scored again in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League, netting the winning goal in APOEL’s 1\u20130 home victory against Swiss side BSC Young Boys. He scored his first ever hat-trick on 8 January 2017, netting three goals in APOEL’s 5\u20130 home win against Aris Limassol for the Cypriot First Division. On 23 February 2017, he scored with a flying volley against Athletic Bilbao, as APOEL won 2\u20130 at home and overturned the 3\u20132 deficit from the first leg to advanced to the last 16 of the UEFA Europa League for the first time in their history. Following his successful 2016\u201317 season with APOEL, Sotiriou awarded the “Player of the season” award by Cyprus Football Association. On 25 April 2017, it was announced that FC Copenhagen had secured his signature on a five-year contract running from 1 July 2017. On 10 October 2012, Sotiriou was called for the first time into the Cyprus national football team for the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification matches against Slovenia and Norway, but he remained on the bench in both matches. He made his debut for the national team on 14 November 2012, in a friendly match against Finland at GSP Stadium, coming on as a 63rd-minute substitute in Cyprus’ 0\u20133 defeat. He scored his first international goal on 13 November 2016, netting the second goal in Cyprus’ 3\u20131 home victory against Gibraltar for the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pieros Sotiriou was born on 13 January 1993 in Nicosia, Cyprus and he is a Cypriot international footballer who plays as a striker for FC Copenhagen in Denmark after joining from APOEL. Sotirou is a … Read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-players-cyprus","tag-19","infinite-scroll-item","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50","resize-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charityidols.com\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}