 In 1980, Papaioannou left Greece to continue his career at N.Y. Pancyprian-Freedoms, as a player-coach.He led the club to win both the Cosmopolitan Soccer League and the National Challenge Cup and attracted the attention of NASL scouts when he was almost 40 years old.When his playing career was finally over, Papaioannou tried his hand at coaching (Kerkyra FC, etc.)