propel Larissa to a top 5 position in the Greek Super League. Larissa were able to maintain this position until the end of the season which qualified them for European competition, something which Stelios admitted was a great achievement and totally unexpected for a smaller team like Larissa and compared it to his time with Bolton. The following season however was not as successful as Stelios struggled with injuries and even courted controversy with some comments he made to the Greek press that were seen as being disloyal to his team. He parted company amicably with Larissa on 12 December 2009, six months before his contract would have officially ended. International career Stelios made his international debut on 12 March 1997 in a friendly game against Cyprus. His first international goal came almost two years later on 5 February 1999 in a friendly game against Belgium. He fell out of favour slightly in 2000 and 2001 featuring in only three games in two years however cemented his place in the team from 2002 onwards, featuring in every single game of the EURO 2004 qualifiers. One of his most important and memorable goals with the Greece national football team was during those qualifiers; Stelios scoring the only goal in a 1–0 away victory against Spain in Zaragoza, in a game which ensured automatic qualification for Greece. He was also one of the key players in the victorious team at the 2004 European Football Championship playing in four out of six games including the final. Following this success, Giannakopoulos would remain a key part of the national team, becoming Greece's top scorer in their failed 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign. He was also amongst the squad that unsuccessfully defended their title at the Euro 2008 competition. His last game for the national team came during that competition, in the 2–1 defeat against Spain on 18 June 2008. Stelios had scored a total of 12 goals for the national team; an interesting statistic being that Greece had won all but one of the games in which Stelios had scored in. Managerial career and life after football On 25 May 2010, Stelios was voted as president of the Greek Professional Footballers Association, taking over from his former teammate Antonios Nikopolidis. He started his managerial career on 13 August 2012 after taking charge of his old team Paniliakos F.C. in Football League 2 (Greece).