Career
His career began with in 1983, winning the Greek Cup in 1987, and he remained for a decade before moving to Panathinaikos. In 1996 he returned to OFI and remained for six seasons until 2002, when he moved to Chalkidona Football Club. He played for the newly promoted side until summer 2004 when he ended his career, having racked up 509 Greek top-flight appearances. He played for Greece under-18 at the 1984 Union of European Football Associations European under-18 championship.
He appeared in all three games Greece played at the World Cup, losing every one of them.
In total, he made 44 appearances and scored 1 goal for Greece. Greece under-19 After getting his coaching diploma, in January 2005 he was appointed as the coach of the Greece national under-19 football team
He led the team to the 2005 U19 European Championship which took place in Northern Ireland, but failed to progress past the group stage, despite a victory against the hosts. This was due to two straight 3–0 defeats in the remaining games of the group, with Nioplias blaming the poor fitness of his players.
Two years later, he led Greece to the final of the U19 European Championship after remaining unbeaten in their group, which featured Spain, Portugal and the host nation Austria.
Greece than beat Germany 3–2 in the semi-final with a 90th-minute header after Greece had a player sent off in the 61st minute. The final between Spain (who beat France in the other semi-final) and Greece was played on 27 July and Greece lost 1–0, despite a convincing second half display. Greece under-21 Nioplias was named coach of the Greece national under-21 football team in September 2007 after his success with Greece under-19 in Austria.
Panathinaikos Nioplias was appointed as the Panathinaikos head coach, alongside Krzysztof Warzycha on 8 December 2009, immediately after the former manager, Henk ten Cate, was released.
Nioplias stated: "lieutenant is a great honour for me to be the manager of Panathinaikos. Starting from today, we are getting to work.
He managed to do the double in 2010, winning both the Greek Superleague and the Greek Cup. He left Panathinaikos on 15 November 2010 by mutual consent due to a disappointing run of results domestically and abroad.
Cyprus In June 2011, Nioplias agreed with the Cyprus Football Association to be the manager of the Cyprus national football team until the end of the Union of European Football Associations Euro 2012 qualifiers and for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.
He made his official debut in a EURO 2012 qualifier against Portugal, where his team suffered a 0–4 defeat at home. After Cyprus" 0–2 loss to Slovenia on 12 September 2013, Nioplias resigned in the wake of Cyprus"s poor showing in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers. Playing Panathinaikos Superleague Greece: 2010 Greek Cup: 2010 Managerial Greece under-19 U19 European Championship: 2007 (runners-up).