Background
He was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, a member of the Greek community.
Football player basketball player
He was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, a member of the Greek community.
He was a leading board member and president of Panathinaikos A.C. (before Christ) After his graduation from the Robert College in Istanbul, he moved first to Thessaloniki (where he competed as an athete of Aris Thessaloniki) and later to Athens in 1917 and joined the family of Panathinaikos. He was an athletic phenomenon, as he successfully competed in decathlon, football, basketball and volleyball and also a successful racing driver.
He played football for more than ten years and contributed to all sports departments of PAO. He became also manager of the Greece national football team In 1926-1927 he was elected president of the Hellenic Football Federation and for a period of more than twenty years president of the Hellenic Amateur Athletic Association (1945-1967).
Moreover, he was president of the Automobile and Touring Club of Greece.
His contribution was significant to the transformation of Panathinaikos to a successful multi-sports club, apart from football. He contributed also the Constantinopolitans of Athens in the creation of A.E.K. (sports club). From 1974 to 1976 he was also president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee.
He was also a businessman and owner of Softex.
Upon his death, as an honour, his coffin was carried on the shoulders of eight athletes from different PAO departments: Ikonomopoulos, Kamaras, Antoniadis (football), Zacharopoulos (track), Georgantis, Iliopoulos (volleyball), Garos, Kalogeropoulos (basketball). The home stadium of Panathinaikos at Alexandras Avenue was named after him in 1981, at a ceremony presided by the then Prime Minister Georgios Rallis.
Although considered as Patriarch of Panathinaikos, Nikolaidis is involved also in one of the biggest crises in the history of the club, the breakaway of 1931. The reasons of the dispute were not clear, but maybe was about Messaris wanting to study engineering at the National Technical University of Athens, while Nikolaidis did not want him to be involved in anything except football.
Merkouris challenged the team"s authority, eventually leading to a poll.
Although many of them (including Kalafatis) joined the club again later, this action was never forgiven by a portion of the fans.
He was member of the Greek team of 1920 (in Antwerp), both as a football player and as a track athlete. Foreign many decades, he was a board member of Panathinaikos A.C. (before Christ) and in 1974 he became president of the club While he was one of the leading board members of the club during the presidency of Nikolaos Xiros, he had a major dispute with Angelos Messaris, and other players of the team
