Kavala F.C.

Kavala

Full name	Αθλητικός Όμιλος Καβάλα (Athletic Club Kavala)
Nickname(s)	Argonauts Light Brigade of the North
Short name	AOK
Founded	24 September 1965; 59 years ago (1965-09-24)
Ground	Anthi Karagianni Stadium
Capacity	10,550
Chairman	Valantis Bletsas
Manager	Konstantinos Anyfantakis
League	Super League Greece 2
2023–24	Gamma Ethniki (Group 1), 1st (promoted)
Home colours Away colours

Kavala Football Club^[1] (Greek: Αθλητικός Όμιλος Καβάλα, lit. 'Athletic Club Kavala') is a Greek professional football club based in the city of Kavala, Greece. They compete in the Super League Greece 2, the second tier of the Greek football league system. The club's home ground is the Anthi Karagianni Stadium.

The club was formed in 1965 from the merger of Phillipoi Kavala, Iraklis Kavala and A.E. Kavala.^[2]

They have had a few runs in the top division of the Greek League. They were promoted to Alpha Ethniki for the first time in 1969 and stayed up for six years (1970 through 1975). They returned to the top division in 1976 and played again for six seasons.

In 1982, the club were relegated to the Beta Ethniki (second tier of Greek football). After eleven years in Beta Ethniki and one year in Gamma Ethniki (third tier – 1988–89) they were promoted to Alpha Ethniki. Their "black" period began for the team in which they played only in Beta Ethniki and Gamma Ethniki.

In 2009, they signed Miltiadis Sapanis and EURO 2004 winner Fanis Katergiannakis. Kavala were promoted for the first time in 9 years to Greeces top division. In their quest to remain in the top flight they have signed Pepe Reina's back up at Liverpool, Charles Itandje and recently acquired Brazilian Denílson (January 2010 transfer window) a 2002 World Cup Winner. Additional season signings include Craig Moore, Željko Kalac, Ebi Smolarek, Diogo Rincón, Sotiris Leontiou, Serge Dié, Wilson Oruma and Frédéric Mendy. This combined with coach Aad de Mos meant that Kavala set the league alight. They subsequently achieved notable victories in the 2009–2010 season against Iraklis FC, Panionios, AEK FC and Panathinaikos FC.

Ending in sixth place, the team entered the transfer season. In July, the Spanish goalkeeper, Javier Lopez Vallejo (who played in Real Zaragoza) was added to the roster. The team's owner sought the new manager throughout Europe and settled on the Serbian coach Dragomir Okuka who lasted until November, when he was replaced by Henryk Kasperczak. In Kasperczak's debut as a coach, Kavala beat AEK, 2–1, in what was considered a very good appearance.

But in March 2011, Kasperczak, retired as the coach of this team, and he was replaced by Ioannis Matzourakis, who was the coach in the Kavala team during the 1985–1986 season. Kavala finished seventh and, later faced the threat of relegation to Football League (Greece) due to the match-fixing scandal.^[3] After an appeal, the team managed to avoid relegation by starting the new league with eight points less.^[4] On 23 August, however, the Professional Sports Committee stripped both Kavala and Olympiakos Volou from their professional licence and demoted them to the Delta Ethniki.^[5]

Kavala competed in Delta Ethniki Group 1. They only finished fourth, but were promoted two divisions to the Football League for 2012/13 after it was ruled that their demotion to Delta Ethniki in 2011 was as a result of government intervention and should not have been implemented by the football authorities.^[6]

Ιn September 2013, Germans investors took control of Kavala. The agreement ensured that the new investors will pay off significant part of its debts to old players.

Indeed, the Germans bought a majority stake of the shares of Kavala, paying a €500,000 clause in the first season and €700,000 for the second, respectively.

The emblem of the club is the ancient trireme, as architecture engineer Christos Batsis designed it. According to the instigator of the emblem of Kavala, the boat is a trireme, where the oars are the footballers, the cloth the administration and the fancy the fans of the club. These three elements together lead Kavala to the harbors that are the targets the team puts each time. All of this certainly has to do with the fact that Kavala is a coastal city and its world closely related to the wet element. The original element of the emblem of Kavala was hanging on the door of the design of the late Christos Batsis until he died.

For a while, the emblem contained the then name of the "Puma Nea Kavala Football Club" team.

The Anthi Karagianni Stadium, formerly the Kavala National Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Kavala, Greece. It is the homebase of Kavala. The stadium was built in 1970, and currently has a seating capacity of 10,500. It is named after the paralympic athlete, Anthi Karagianni, who won three silver medals in the 2004 Paralympic Games.

League

• Second Division
  • Winners (4): 1966–67, 1968–69, 1975–76, 1995–96
  • Runners-up (1): 1993–94
• Third Division
  • Winners (3): 2007–08, 2018–19, 2023–24
  • Runners-up (3): 1989–90, 2020–21, 2022–23

Cup

• Kavala FCA Cup
  • Winners (1): 2017–18

• Greek Cup
  • Semi-finals: 1964–65, 1994–95, 2009–10

• Balkans cup
  • Group stage: 1972^[7]

• First Division (19): 1969–1975, 1976–1982, 1994–1995, 1996–2000, 2009–2011
• Second Division (24): 1965–1969, 1975–1976, 1982–1989, 1990–1994, 1995–1996, 2000–2001, 2002–2003, 2008–2009, 2012–2014, 2021–2022, 2024–present
• Third Division (15): 1989–1990, 2001–2002, 2003–2008, 2014–2021, 2022–2024
• Fourth Division (1): 2011–2012

Sources:^[8][9]

Best position in bold.

Key: 1R = First Round, 2R = Second Round, 3R = Third Round, 4R = Fourth Round, 5R = Fifth Round, GS = Group Stage, QF = Quarter-finals, SF = Semi-finals.

As of 10 September 2024

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  SRB Mihajlo Mišković 3 DF  GRE Filippos Dimitriadis 4 MF  ALB Neti Meçe 5 DF  GRE Georgios Smiltos 6 MF  GRE Georgios Spanoudakis 7 DF  GRE Giannis Dalianopoulos 8 MF  GRE Vasilios Gavriilidis 9 FW  GRE Kosmas Gekas 10 MF  ALB Renild Kasemi 11 FW  GRE Dimitrios Popović 14 GK  GRE Lefteris Astras 17 DF  BIH Omar Pašagić 19 DF  ALB Oresti Kacurri

No. Pos. Nation Player 21 MF  GRE Christos Lelekas 22 MF  FRA Boubakar Camara 23 MF  GRE Pavlos Dermitzakis 24 FW  SRB Bogdan Mandić 27 MF  GRE Vangelis Kerthi 29 FW  NGA Samson Ebuka Obioha 33 FW  GRE Vasilios Papadopoulos 39 FW  CPV Joni de Oliveira 44 DF  GRE Konstantinos Tsamouris 55 DF  GRE Panagiotis Anastasopoulos 72 MF  GRE Konstantinos Itsios 74 GK  GRE Giannis Ioannidis 99 FW  GRE Antonis Dermitzakis

Technical staff
Owner	Alex Haditaghi
President	Stavros Kouros
Curator of Football	Argyris Spanidis
Technical director

The following managers won at least one national trophy when in charge of Kavala F.C.:

Name	Period	Trophies
Jane Janevski	1975–1977	Football League
Georgios Paraschos	1995–1996	Football League
Stratos Voutsakelis	2007–2008	Gamma Ethniki
Konstantinos Anyfantakis	2017–2018	Kavala FCA Cup
Pavlos Dermitzakis	2018–2019	Gamma Ethniki

Name	Period	Days
Béla Pálfi	1969–1975	2065
Georgios Paraschos	1995–1997, 1999–2000	941
Vasilios Daniil	1979–1981	911
Pavlos Dermitzakis	2018–2020	730
Jane Janevski	1975–1977	730

• 
  Pavlos Dermitzakis 2018–2020
• 
  Henryk Kasperczak 2010–2011
• 
  Reiner Maurer 2008
• 
  Aad de Mos 2010

Name Apps Georgios Mallios 171 Georgios Koltsis 124 Konstantinos Vakirtzis 117 Georgios Peglis 114 Anestis Athanasiadis 109 Leszek Pisz 101 Kyrillos Kallimanis 91 Ivan Mitev 85 Anastasios Tsapanidis 82 Panagiotis Logaras 79

Name Goals Leszek Pisz 26 Benjamin Onwuachi 24 Nikos Soultanidis 23 Anestis Athanasiadis 22 Giorgos Papandreou 21 Georgios Nasiopoulos 19 Georgios Mallios 10 Bartosz Tarachulski 8 Serge Dié 7 Dimitrios Orfanos 7

Source:^{[citation needed]}

• Official website