Apollon Smyrni F.C.

Apollon Smyrnis

Full name	Gymnastikos Syllogos Apollon Smyrnis (Gymnastic Club Apollon of Smyrna)
Nickname(s)	Elafra Taxiarhia (Light Brigade)
Founded	1891
Ground	Georgios Kamaras Stadium Athens, Greece (Capacity: 14.200)
Chairman	Stamatis Vellis
Head Coach	Stathis Stathopoulos
League	Football League 2 (South Group)
Home colours Away colours

Apollon Smyrnis, officially known as GS Apollon Smyrnis (Greek: Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Απόλλων Σμύρνης - Gymnastikos Syllogos Apollon Smyrnis), the Gymnastic Club Apollon of Smyrna, is a Greek association football club based in the city of Athens, Greece.

The club currently compete in the Football League 2, the 3rd tier of Greek football.

History

The Apollon Smyrna Greek football team 1919

The Apollon Smyrna Greek football team 1922

Apollon Smyrnis is the oldest Greek sports club, established in 1890 by a high priest called Christostomos, Vassilis Samios, 1920 Greek Olympian, and other former members of "Orfeas" who came from Smyrna, Asia Minor as immigrants due to the Asia Minor Disaster in 1922. The clubs first name (while the founders were still in Smyrna) was "Orfeas Smyrnis" and it was founded in 1890. Its colors are blue and white because Apollon's founders wanted to honor the Flag of Greece. The club's first badge was a swastika-like cross but just after World War II it was changed (due to the notorious use as a Nazi symbol) and the new badge decided to be the Greek ancient god Apollo's head in blue and white colors.

The clubs first home ground was located in a place near the building of the Greek Parliament called "Stiles Olympiou Dios" (Pillars of Olympian Zeus). Apollon stayed there for about 25 years, and after the World War II the clubs house was transferred in an Athens neighborhood called "Rizoupolis" and built a stadium there, which is called Georgios Kamaras Stadium, after a club legend called Georgios Kamaras. The club has four departments: The football department called "Apollon Smyrnis FC", a basketball club called "Apollon BC", a volleyball club and a fighting department. The best known (and probably the most successful) department is Apollon's football club. Apollon FC participated in Alpha Ethniki championship for many years, except seasons 1969/70, 1972/73, 1974/75, 1986/87. The team won the local Athens Championship 4 times: 1924, 1928, 1938, 1948 and 1958

The seasons 1994/95 and 1995/96 are the most successful club's seasons: In 1994/95 Apollon qualified for the 1995-96 UEFA Cup (preliminary round) where they played against Olimpija Ljubljana. Georgios Kamaras Stadium was not suitable for the game and Apollon played in AEK Athens home ground, Nikos Goumas Stadium. Apollon won 1-0 in Athens in front of 10,000 Apollon fans but lost 3-1 in Ljubljana (Olimpia scored 2 goals in the last 15 minutes) and Apollon was eliminated. In these matches many people noticed a young striker (he was just 21 years old) who almost ten years after this moment would become European football Champion: his name was Demis Nikolaidis The following season (1995–1996) Apollon FC, under Giannis Pathiakakis coaching and thanks to Demis Nikolaidis's integral scoring performances, participated after an excellent season in the Greek Cup final, but they lost 7-1 to AEK Athens. After these great seasons, Apollon's glory started to fade and as a result, in 1999/2000 season Apollon was relegated in Beta Ethniki, in 2005 relegated to Gamma Ethniki (South Group) and in 2007 relegated to Delta Ethniki (Group 8).

Apollon have gone since the 1930s under the nickname "The Light Brigade" (Greek: Ελαφρά Ταξιαρχία), named after the 1936 Hollywood movie release The Charge of the Light Brigade, after winning the 1938 regional Athens championship.

Titles

They have won the Athens championship a few times (1924, 1938, 1948, 1958) but have yet to win a national title.

Apollon have been crowned Football League (former Beta Ethniki) champions in 1970, 1973 and 1975.Promoted as 3rd in 1988. Champions of Delta Ethniki in 2010.

They currently play in the Football League 2 (former Gamma Ethniki), Greek Third division.

Trivia

• Apollon have gone since the 1930s under the nickname "The Light Brigade" (Greek: Ελαφρά Ταξιαρχία), named after the 1938 Hollywood movie release The Charge of the Light Brigade, after winning the 1938 regional Athens championship.
  

  

  The 1938 Light Brigade. Notice the swastika-like badge.

• Since 1910 the team's badge was a swastika-like cross. But after the Nazi invasion in Europe it was changed with Apollo's head for obvious reasons.

• The last time an Apollon FC player was an active member of the Greek national football team was on May 8, 1996 (Demis Nikolaidis, Greece - Georgia 2-1). Since then, no Apollon FC player is a national football team member.

• Georgios Kamaras Stadium was in bad shape during the 90's, but it was renovated in 2001 by Olympiakos FC. Olympiakos used this stadium as home ground until Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium was constructed in 2004.

• Shareholder and team president was from the late 70's until 2005 the businessman Kostas Alamanos. He helped Apollon to participate in the UEFA Cup and in the Greek Cup final and for many years, he was the beloved of Apollon fans. But after these successful seasons, Alamanos became Persona non grata for Apollon fans mainly because he sold many of the team's best footballers (Demis Nikolaidis, Blendar Kola and Theofilos Karasavidis) and released most of the remaining team as free agents. The team was unable to recover from these losses, and in 2000 were relegated. That's why Apollon fans are calling Alamanos "The Unmentionable".
• Still today Apollon is the 8th team with 37/53 appearances in Superleague Greece.

Current squad

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

No. Position Player 1 GK Antreas Ntousis 2 DF Michalis Strompoulos 3 DF Michalis Kyrgias 4 MF Ioannis Arxontoulis 5 MF Dimitris Karademitros 6 MF Panagiotis Mpoumpas 7 FW Ioannis Lazanas 8 MF Ioannis Marinou 9 FW Konstantinos Roussis 10 MF Alexis Souflas 11 MF Dimitrios Konstantinou 12 GK Athanasios Katsoulis 13 MF Michail Koronis 14 DF Giannis Thomas 15 DF Athanasios Tsoukalos 16 MF Stavros Almpanis 17 FW Dimitrios Patsiavouras

No. Position Player 19 DF Konstantinos Vasileiou 20 FW Dimitrios Verbis 24 DF Avgerinos Katranas 25 MF Panagiotis Vlachos 27 FW Fotis Souleles 29 MF Dimitrios Mpoukas 31 DF Argyris Samios 33 DF Stamatis Syrigos 73 GK Thanasis Kois 77 FW Ηlias Tsiliggiris 90 DF Trifonas Kroustalelis

Notable former players

Main article: Apollon famous players

Greece Kostas Antoniou Christos Ardizoglou Kostas Chalkias Filipos Darlas Giorgos Kamaras Giorgos Karagounis Theofilos Karasavidis Thanasis Kolitsidakis Vasilis Kyriakou Antonis Minou Tasos Mitropoulos Demis Nikolaidis Giannis Anagnostou Eleftherios Poupakis Giannis Dontas Giorgos Athanasiadis Mihalis Vlahos Theofilos Karasavidis Aris Karasavidis Kostas Batsinilas Dimos Kavouras Kostas Mavridis Pantelis Konstantinidis Takis Ikonomopoulos

Albania Bledar Kola Arjan Bellaj Argentina Nestor Errea Bulgaria Ivan Rusev Cameroon Nicolas Dikoume Czechoslovakia Frantisek Stambacher Germany Walter Kelsch Holland René van de Kerkhof Iran Alireza Mansourian Poland Józef Wandzik Zygmunt Kukla

Serbia Zoran Ćirić Miloje Petković Sweden Bjorn Enqvist Goran Trpevski USA Frank Klopas

League statistics

Positioning in Greek league

1960s	Position	1970s	Position	1980s	Position	1990s	Position	2000s	Position	2010s	Position
1959–60	4th	1969–70	1st 2div.	1979–80	17th	1989–90	15th	1999-00	17th rel	2009–10	1st 4div.
1960–61	5th	1970–71	7th	1980–81	12th	1990–91	11th	2000–01	6th 2div.	2010–11	6th 3div.
1961–62	3rd	1971–72	17th rel	1981–82	15th	1991–92	5th	2001–02	12th 2div.
1962–63	8th	1972–73	1st 2div.	1982–83	12th	1992–93	12th	2002–03	8th 2div.
1963–64	5th	1973–74	17th rel	1983–84	10th	1993–94	13th	2003–04	10th 2div.
1964–65	6th	1974–75	1st 2div.	1984–85	11th	1994–95	4th	2004–05	14th rel
1965–66	10th	1975–76	14th	1985–86	12th	1995–96	11th	2005–06	14th 3div.
1966–67	12th	1976–77	15th	1986–87	15th rel	1996–97	9th	2006–07	14th rel
1967–68	12th	1977–78	12th	1987–88	3rd 2div.	1997–98	12th	2007–08	8th 4div.
1968–69	14th rel	1978–79	10th	1988–89	13th	1998–99	14th	2008–09	2nd 4div.

European matches

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away
1995–96	UEFA Cup	1st Round	Olimpija Ljubljana	1–0	1-3

External links

• Official Club Page
• Apollon Smyrnis Fansite