Contents

Kavala F.C.

Football club

Kavala

Full name	Αθλητικός Όμιλος Καβάλα (Athletic Club Kavala)
Nickname(s)	Argonauts Light Brigade of the North
Short name	AOK
Founded	1965; 59 years ago (1965)
Ground	Anthi Karagianni Stadium
Capacity	10,550
Investor	Giannis Diamantidis
Chairman	Giannis Diamantidis
Manager	Nikos Karampetakis
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.

History[edit]

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 11 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.

2009–2010 season[edit]

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.

2010–2011 season[edit]

Ending in 6th 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 Kavala FC team in the seasons 1985–1986. Kavala finished 7th 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 8 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]

2011–2012 season[edit]

Kavala competed in Delta Ethniki Group 1. They only finished 4th, 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]

2013–2014 season[edit]

Ιn September 2013 Germans investors take the management of Kavala F.C. The agreement provides that the new investors will "catch" and a significant part of its debts to old players.

Indeed, the Germans will be able to buy a majority stake of the shares of FC paying €500,000 clause of the first season and €700,000 for the second, respectively.

Crest[edit]

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.

Stadium[edit]

The Anthi Karagianni Stadium, formerly the Kavala National Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Kavala, Greece. It is the homebase of Kavala FC. 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.

Honours[edit]

Domestic[edit]

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

Regional[edit]

• Balkans cup
  • Winners (1): 1972^[7]

Achievements[edit]

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

League participation[edit]

• 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]

Recent seasons[edit]

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.

Notable wins[edit]

Players[edit]

Current squad[edit]

As of 16 April 2022

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  GRE Panagiotis Stathakis 2 DF  GRE Giannis Kazantzidis (captain) 4 DF  SRB Dragan Nedeljković 7 MF  GRE Michalis Marinakis 11 FW  SRB Lazar Stakić 13 MF  GRE Andreas Giannakos 16 DF  GRE Vangelis Thalassinos 17 FW  NGA Sunday Alimi

No. Pos. Nation Player 18 MF  GRE Dimitrios Thomaidis 19 MF  GRE Christos Retsos 20 GK  GRE Konstantinos Papapostolou 22 DF  GRE Apostolos Stikas 26 DF  ISR Orel Cohen 28 DF  GRE Christoforos Karagiannis 31 DF  SRB Stefan Jaraković 47 MF  GRE Pavlos Grosdanis

Managers[edit]

Notable Managers[edit]

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

Most Serving Managers[edit]

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

Gallery[edit]

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

Record players[edit]

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]}

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website