| Date of Birth: | (1937-2022) |
| Place of Birth: | Kartharitsi, Greece |
| Gender: | Male |
| Wife: | Joan Weber, the former Guoquin Zhang |
| Profession: | News Assistant, Staff Reporter |
| Nationality: | Greece |
Yannis, who was born in Kartharitsi, Greece, sold newspapers in Paris for the International Herald Tribune, which was then co-owned by the Times. Around 1967, he arrived in the United States with his wife and young son aboard Queen Elizabeth and began working for the Times as a news assistant on the metro desk. At the time, he was a rare editorial staffer whose native language was not English.
While working as a sports news assistant, he flew to the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, delivering coverage in exchange for a credential and probable payment of expenses. According to his son, his account of the hosts’ 2-1 victory against the Netherlands in the final was published on the first page and he was reimbursed for his travel expenses.
In 1977, Yannis was promoted to a staff reporter at the Times, where he stayed until his retirement in 2004.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, college soccer was the most prominent regular competition in the United States. He covered three World Cups in all, traveling to the 1986 event in Mexico and writing at the 1994 tournament in the United States. He covered the demise of the North American Soccer League in 1984 and the establishment of Major League Soccer in 1996.
Yannis reported on the New Jersey Devils NHL team and golf competitions in addition to soccer.
Yannis was awarded the 2009 Colin Jose Media Award by the National Soccer Hall of Fame. This award is granted annually to a journalist whose career has made substantial long-term contributions to soccer in the United States.
In exchange for discounted green fees, he had worked as a starter at Blue Hill Golf Course in Pearl River, New York, since his retirement. in accordance with his son
His first wife, Joan Weber, passed away in 1998. He is survived by his son and his second wife, the former Guoquin Zhang, whom he wed in 1999.
Alex Yannis passed away on December 14, 2022, near his home in Tappan, New York, at the Joe Raso Residential Hospice in New City, New York.