Manolis Kottis

In the summer of 1984, with the arrival of Håkan Sandberg, he was left out of his coach's plans and in December of the same year he transferred to Egaleo, where he remained until the summer of 1985 season. This was followed by a trip to the other side of the United States, where he competed for two months in the US championship for New York City club Greek American AA and was paid 10 thousand dollars. Returning to Greece, he continued to play in Atromitos, Lamia and other teams of smaller categories to complete his football career in 1990 at Argonaftis Argos.

The then deadly attacking duo of Mavros-Bajević with the "short-tall" model immediately brought Kottis to the prime position of the competitor of Mavros for a place in the eleven. The position of "tall" passed from Dušan Bajević to Mojaš Radonjić, but the position of "short" was very difficult to claim due to the football class and leading personality of Thomas Mavros. The difficulties of adapting to the Greek capital, led Kottis back to Rodos as a loan for a year to then return again to the double-headed eagle. His acquaintance with the later wife from Nea Filadelfeia relieved to him from the difficulties of the life in Athens and the awareness in the administration of AEK that a partnership like the Mavros–Bajević was almost impossible to re-exist, gave Kottis the opportunities he was looking for to participate in the yellow-black jersey. He made his debut on 7 September 1980 in a 5–1 home win against Kavala. He won the Greek Cup in 1983 playing in the final in the 2–0 win against PAOK. He also scored in the 65th minute of the home win against Újpest on 14 September 1983, for the First round of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.

During the eight years he played with Rodos, he made sure to constantly prove his executive scoring ability, culminating in being named the top scorer of the second division in 1977 season with 28 goals, while also making a decisive contribution in the promotion of Rodos to the first division. He was the first player of Rodos to complete a hat-trick in the first division, as he did scoring all the goals for his club in the 3–1 win over PAS Giannina. The transfer rumors that had long started becoming more and more intense for Kottis, when in his first season with Rodos in the league as he emerged as the 2nd top scorer with 24 goals, tied with Dušan Bajević behind the 31 goals of Thomas Mavros. The main competitors for the player from Rhodes were AEK Athens and Olympiacos. The determination of Loukas Barlos emerged victorious once again when in the summer of 1980 the President of AEK visited Rhodes along with Nikos Stratos and the vice-president Petros Lalos offering 2 million drachmas to Kottis to transfer to AEK. Kottis, hesitating to leave Rhodes and doubting his acclimatization in Athens counter-proposed the amount of 2.5 million, hoping for a retreat from the President of AEK, who agreed. The signatures came in and Kottis moved to the capital wearing the yellow-black shirt.

Manolis Kottis (Greek: Μανώλης Κώττης; born 25 January 1955) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as forward.