In his second year, he played increasingly regularly for the under-18 team and scored once as Forest finished second in their section of the FA Premier Academy League.
He plays as a left winger or at left back. As a boy, he played tennis to a good standard, and played football for the junior teams of his local club, Enosis Neon Paralimni. When he was 16, he took up an apprenticeship with English club Nottingham Forest"s youth academy, together with several other Cypriot players.
He remained with the club into a third year, but returned to Cyprus in late 2011, where he trained with and then agreed a short-term contract with them.
His contract with Forest was cancelled by mutual consent, and he formally signed for Anorthosis in the January 2012 transfer window. Laifis made his first-team debut for Anorthosis the next month, in their 2011-2012 Cypriot Cup second round second-leg match against Second Division club APOP Kinyras, as a 61st-minute substitute for Vincent Laban.
That was his last competitive appearance until July 2013, when injuries to Valentinos Sielis and Andreas Avraam left a vacancy at left back for pre-season friendlies. Laifis performed well enough to be given a place in the starting eleven for the second leg of the second qualifying round match against Allsvenskan club Gefle.
He played the full 90 minutes as Anorthosis let slip a 3–0 lead from the first leg and were eliminated 4–3 on aggregate.
Alki Larnaca
Laifis was loaned to Alki Larnaca early in the 2013-2014 season. He made 15 appearances, scoring once, in First Division matches, before returning to Anorthosis in late January 2014. Return to Anorthosis
Laifis made 10 First Division appearances in what remained of the 2013-2014 season, and continued as a first-team regular.
Laifis represented Cyprus internationally at all under-age levels.
He helped the under-19 team reach the elite qualification round of the 2012 European championships, and made his first appearance for the under-21s in March 2013, when he played the first half of a 2–0 defeat to Belgium in a qualifier for the 2015 European under-21 championships. He made his senior debut on 16 November 2014 in a Union of European Football Associations Euro 2016 qualifier against Andorra.