Chatziioannidis started football from playing from a young age at Aetos Skydra.

The tall forward left an excellent impression and in the summer of 1978 he transferred to AEK.

In the meantime, František Fadrhonc who has in charge of the infrastructure departments of AEK prepared a group of players, including Chatziioannidis, who signed a professional contract in the summer of 1979 and join the men's team.

Although he performed very well scoring in the friendly matches of the summer of 1979, he did not manage to establish himself in the attacking line of the team, which at that time included the "stars" of Thomas Mavros and Dušan Bajević.

[3] He returned to AEK the following summer, having had a good year with the team from Ioannina, but he again failed to establish himself after, among other things, he ran into Mojaš Radonjić, who had been acquired as a replacement for Bajević.