Yannis Diakogiannis, journalist, author, radio commentator and television sports presenter, has died at the age of 91.
He was considered by many to be the top of the genre, due to his great knowledge of classical sport and football, his depth of transmission and the brilliance of his style.
He was born in Athens where he was involved in sports since his teenage years, with a particular fondness for athletics. He studied music in France, but journalism eventually won him over. He covered many top events, including World Cups (starting with the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland and ending with the 1998 World Cup in France), international and world athletics championships, the finals of European intercollegiate football competitions (such as the 1971 Champions Cup between Ajax and Panathinaikos) and others. In 2004 he was a commentator for the matches of the men's national football team at the European Football Championship when the national team won the trophy.
He also worked in a private sports reporting center as a journalism teacher. His works include the four-volume «100 Years of Football» (Miletus, 2006), «60 Years of the World Cup» (Livanis, 1990), «The Great Forms of Sport» (Cactus, 1979), etc. He was also a producer of music radio shows. His daughter (adopted) was the journalist Rika Vayani.
He was the first to be awarded the «Eleni Vlachou» prize for his general contribution in 2003, as a journalist of the «Nea». He is probably the only Greek sports journalist whose surname was included in a song lyric, specifically in «The game begins» composed and performed by Loukianos Kilaidoni in 1979.
In January 2017, Diakogiannis admitted for the first time publicly that he is a Panathinaikos fan, at an event organized by the Municipality of Byron for the presentation of the book by the former footballer Dimitris Theofanis. Diakogiannis said: «I am Panathinaikos, I am an Athenian, I am Panathinaikos. I have met Apostolos Nicolaides.»
