Angelo Lekkas
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Angelo Lekkas (born June 29, 1976) is a former Australian rules footballer for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League who became a soccer player for South Melbourne FC in the Victorian Premier League.
Lekkas, of Greek heritage, played soccer until he was a teenager, when he switched to playing Aussie Rules and played with the Northern Knights under 18s.
[edit] AFL career
Evangelos was drafted by the AFL club Hawthorn at the end of 1993 in a trade for Tony Hall (when Hall left the Hawks for Adelaide). After 3 seasons in the reserves, Lekkas finally made his senior debut in 1996.
Lekkas forged a solid career with the Hawks, playing across half forward and half back.
In 2002, he represented Australia in the International Rules series.
Some time after a practice match in February 2005, Lekkas suffered an apparent minor stroke and was told he might never play again. After fully recovering, he made his return to AFL football in Round 15, 2005 against Adelaide.
On October 26, 2005, Lekkas announced his early retirement from AFL football, his last game being played at the MCG against Sydney on August 27, 2005.
Lekkas finished his AFL career with 180 games and 120 goals to his credit and a career total of 14 Brownlow votes.
After Lekkas retired, he took up a lawsuit against the Hawthorn Football Club, claiming that the club caused his early retirement by pressuring him to continue playing after the stroke [1]. The case was later settled out of court. Lekkas was widely condemned by some supporters for playing the case out via the media with his manager Jacques Khouri, given Hawthorn's apparent support of Lekkas and a lack of consensus that the injury was even football related.
Lekkas belatedly claimed a 50% salary bonus for having his career ended prematurely by injury, despite Hawthorn's offer of a new contract and his subsequent decision to retire as opposed to being delisted.
Angelo currently works part-time as a multicultural officer for the AFL and has a community liaison role at Hawthorn as part of the settlement with the club.
[edit] Soccer career
Lekkas was long a supporter of South Melbourne even donating to help save the club from folding. After retiring from Australian rules football, Lekkas began training with South Melbourne in late 2005.
During South Melbourne's 2005 season Lekkas was elevated into the senior list [2].
