Leonidas Kabantais (born in March 8, 1982 in Athens, Greece) is a football player, currently playing for AEK Athens FC

Leonidas Kabantais

Career

in FC Aris

Kabantais began his professional career in Aris FC in 2002, appearing in 11 matches in Alpha Ethniki (from 2006 has been renamed to Super League), scoring 2 goals. He remained in Salonica for another year, scoring 1 goal in 7 appearences.

The Move to AEK Athens

He joined AEK Athens IN 2004, while AEK had been facing serious economical problems. Although Demis Nikolaidis(Chairman) and Ilja Ivic (Manager Director) knew that he had injury problems with his knee, they decided to sign him. Kabantais, picked number 11, which was used by Nikolaidis, who was a fan favourite), By that time, AEK had no great player for a second Striker. However, Kabantais missed the chance to help AEK Athens, scoring just 2 goals in 11 appearences, due to serious injury problems.

In Season 2005, Fernando Santos proposed him to go on-loan, to gain the required experience. He agreed, and moved to Omonoia, where Temuri Ketsbaia (a former player of AEK Athens) was a player-manager. However, Kabantais returned after 6 months, in January of 2006, having personal problems with Ketsbaia.

He moved then to Panionios FC ( a relegation batller team) for 6 months. Panionios had the option of buying the player. At first, he was not considered to play very well, even though he appeared in almost every game, scoring 2 very important goals. Additionally, the last 3-4 appearences were very good.

In 2006, Ilja Ivic told him that the best for him was to go on-loan again. However, Kabantais was unwilling to go, unless the new manager would told him so. Serra Ferrer (the new manager), gave him enough chances to prove his worth, as he did.

Even though not considerer a first team regular, he was one of the best players in the friendly matches.