[4] Of Greek Cypriot and Italian descent, Koutoufides has been an Australian celebrity, making numerous television appearances both during and after his football career.

[6] The son of Anna (a migrant from Northern Italy) and Jim Koutoufides (a Greek-Cypriot refugee from Egypt) he was born and raised in Lalor, Victoria a suburb in Melbourne near the border of Thomastown.

[1] Koutoufides was an outstanding track and field athlete, competing from grade six and winning gold in high jump at the 1984 Australian All Schools Championships.

After his brother made his reserves debut for Carlton on Round 22 1990 Koutoufides followed him as a career move and was officially recruited by the club.

He was better than any other player in the league at picking the ball up off the ground with one hand, and then looping that arm over opponents to set up clearing handpasses.

In 1999, he was selected in the final Victorian State of Origin team, his only ever Big V. Koutoufides rose to greatness in 2000[citation needed], his best season.

He was clear favourite in the Brownlow Medal, but suffered a knee injury (torn posterior cruciate ligament) in Round 20 against Essendon in front of 91,000 fans; he held the equal-lead in the Brownlow count at the time of his injury, but unable to poll votes in the final three games, he ultimately finished fourth.

[10] He would also fail to win Carlton's best and fairest, that prize shared between Brett Ratten and Scott Camporeale, but he won the prestigious AFLPA MVP Award (now known as the Leigh Matthews Trophy), and would gain All-Australian selection for the second time; his knee injury would prevent him from taking part in the International Rules series.

Koutoufides' PCL injury was healed before the start of 2001, and he had another stellar season[citation needed], finally winning his first club best and fairest.

[14] Through the mid-1990s, Koutoufides was hot property, becoming a pin-up boy for the club, appearing in the Men For All Seasons calendar on numerous occasions and being an AFL face of Nike and Adidas in the mid-1990s.

The "Kouta's Boots" scandal nearly resulted in Koutoufides missing games unless he could fulfil his own endorsement contract, but the issue was resolved before any such action was taken.

[15] There was criticism that, in later years, Koutoufides did not deserve his $1 million contract, as he missed a vast number of matches due to injuries to his knee, hamstring and hand.

Koutoufides owned the Souvlaki Hut restaurant in Templestowe Lower with former Carlton teammate Ang Christou and became the advertising face for the franchise until its closure in early 2011.