Former Greece international Marios Oikonomou dies at 33 after motorbike collision

Marios Oikonomou, a former Greece international defender who built his career across Italian and Greek football, died on June 1 at the age of 33, nine days after a motorbike collision left him with critical head injuries in Ioannina, northwestern Greece.

Oikonomou was involved in a collision with a vehicle driven by a 63-year-old motorist on Saturday, May 23, near the entrance to Hatzikosta Hospital on a central road in Ioannina with a well-documented safety record. Emergency services and traffic police were deployed swiftly to the scene. He was transferred to Ioannina University Hospital, where surgeons performed a decompressive craniectomy — a procedure that involves temporarily removing part of the skull to relieve pressure on the brain. Despite the intervention, he was unable to recover in intensive care. Greek authorities confirmed that an investigation into the collision remains ongoing.

His club PAS Giannina, where Oikonomou had been involved following his retirement from playing, led the tributes. “Today the PAS Giannina family is mourning,” the club said in a statement. “Marios Economou, a child who earned the love and respect of all of us, left us prematurely. We spent moments of joy, effort and struggle together. Always with a smile, always with kindness. His memory will remain alive in all of us. Mario, we will remember you with love. May your memory be eternal.”

Oikonomou earned six caps for the Greek national team between 2016 and 2018 and spent the bulk of his professional career in Italy, representing Serie A clubs Cagliari and Bologna as well as Sampdoria, SPAL and Bari across the top two divisions. He also had spells with AEK Athens in Greece and Copenhagen in Denmark before returning to his homeland with Panetolikos, where he retired in 2024.

AEK Athens, one of his former clubs, had posted a message of support in the days following the accident. “The AEK Athens family stands by Marios and his family, with the hope that he can emerge victorious from the most difficult battle of his life,” the club wrote. Bologna, where Oikonomou had played in Serie A, similarly offered encouragement: “Come on Marios, we are all with you.”