[1] The next season the Athens side retained the title and Nioplias was a member of the team which reached the UEFA Champions League semi-finals in 1995.
[1] He played for the newly promoted side until summer 2004 when he ended his career, having racked up 509 Greek top-flight appearances.
[5] He led the team to the 2005 U19 European Championship which took place in Northern Ireland, but failed to progress past the group stage, despite a victory against the hosts.
[6] Two years later, he led Greece to the final of the U19 European Championship after remaining unbeaten in their group, which featured Spain, Portugal and the host nation Austria.
[11][12] Nioplias was appointed as the Panathinaikos head coach, alongside Krzysztof Warzycha[13] on 8 December 2009, immediately after the former manager, Henk ten Cate, was released.
[15] He left Panathinaikos on 15 November 2010 by mutual consent due to a disappointing run of results domestically and abroad.