Niki Volos F.C.

Niki Volos

File:Niki Volou FC.png
Full name	Niki Volos Football Club
Founded	19 August 1924 (1924-08-19)
Ground	Panthessaliko Stadium
Capacity	22,700
Owner	Alexis Papaconstantinou
Chairman	Nikos Papaconstantinou
Manager	Staikos Vergetis
League	Football League Greece
2019–20	Football League Greece, 5th
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Niki Volos Football Club (Greek: ΠΑΕ Νίκη Βόλου) is a Greek professional football club based in the city of Volos, in the region of Magnesia, Greece. The club currently competes in Gamma Ethniki, the 3rd league of Greek football. It is the most historic team in Volos, according to the fans of the club, since it holds 26 titles in its potential, hence the only 6 entries in the First National Division.

History

Niki Volos was founded on 19 August 1924 as Gymnastic Club of Volos' Refugees or Refugee Gymnastic Association, by Greek refugees who came from Asia Minor.

Niki participated for the first time in the championship of the first category before the establishment of the First National, as in 1953–54 she was the winner of the Northern Group and this gave her the ticket for the final phase of the National Division Championship 1953–54, Six teams (Athens (2) – Piraeus – Thessaloniki – North – South) took the 5th place with 16 points, ahead of Panahaiki, who finished the championship with 13.

Niki won for the first time in the 1961 Men's National Soccer Championship, where she had 5 appearances in the big league. In 1966 it was devalued to the Beta Ethniki and since then it has been trying to regain its rise to the big category, which eventually succeeded 48 years later, in 2014–15. In 1976 he won the Amateur Cup.

In recent years he has been fighting in the Beta Ethniki Championship and in the 2006–07 season he finished last and deferred to the Third National. In the 2012–13 season he was back in the Beta Ethniki Championship, and in the following year (2013–14) after the play-offs he won the first place that led to the Super League after 48 years of absence. Unfortunately, on 10 December 2014, the club of Thessaly left the championship due to the inability of the administration to cover the financial obligations that had been created, leaving all the players that belonged to its staff to be released as free. From 2015 he competes in the Gamma Ethniki.

Crest and colours

Old crest until 2015

Niki Volos crest displays the goddess Nike as depicted in the statue Winged Victory of Samothrace. The image of the goddess was the original emblem of the Smyrna-based athletic club Panionios, one of the most popular Greek athletic clubs of Ionia, before it was uprooted and re-established in Athens after the Greco-Turkish War. The founding members of Niki Volou FC, many of them refugees from Smyrna (now Izmir) and the surrounding region, decided to restore the emblem as part of their new club.

Players

Current squad

As of 6 August 2020

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	Konstantinos Papadopoulos
3	FW	GRE	Savvas Kyriakidis
5	DF	GRE	Manolis Aliatidis
6	DF	GRE	Konstantinos Kyriakidis
7	FW	GRE	Konstantinos Kardaris
10	MF	GRE	Giorgos Iordanidis
11	FW	GRE	Vangelis Litsios
15	DF	GRE	Thomas Tsimpoukas
17	MF	GRE	Alexandros Bitsakos
19	FW	ARG	Antonio Rojano
20	MF	ESP	Álex Cruz

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
21	MF	GRE	Apostolos Tsiolis
25	MF	GRE	Sotiris Balafas
26	MF	GRE	Stergios Oikonomikos
30	GK	GRE	Manolis Apostolidis (captain)
31	MF	ESP	Jordan Domínguez
32	FW	ARG	Martín Batallini
99	GK	GRE	Konstantinos Karakostas
—	DF	GRE	Angelos Argyris
—	MF	ALB	Neti Meçe
—	DF	GRE	Ilias Polimos
—	MF	GRE	Achilleas Salamouras

Honours

Leagues

• Football League
  • Winners (2): 1961, 2014
• Gamma Ethniki
  • Winners (2): 1976, 1996
• Delta Ethniki
  • Winners (2): 1993, 2002
• Greek Football Amateur Cup
  • Winner (1): 1976
• Thessaly FCA Championship
  • Winners (15): 1933, 1938, 1946, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1976
• Thessaly FCA Cup
  • Winners (5): 1976, 2001, 2002, 2016, 2018

Achievements

Leagues

• Super League
  • Fifth place (1): 1954

Cups

• Greek Cup
  • Semi-finals (2): 1946-47, 1964-65
  • Quarter-Finalists (6): 1955–56, 1956–57, 1958–59, 1959–60, 1962–63, 2005–06

League Participation

• Super League Greece (6): 1961–1966, 2014–2015
• Football League (31): 1959–1961, 1966–1975, 1976–1984, 1988–1990, 1996–1999, 2003–2007, 2012–2014, 2019–present
• Gamma Ethniki (21): 1975–1976, 1984–1988, 1990–1992, 1993–1996, 1999–2000, 2002–2003, 2007–2012, 2015–2019
• Delta Ethniki (3): 1992–1993, 2000–2002

Supporters

The club's most famous supporters group is the one consisting of members from "Blue Club", fan club established in 1985, the so-called Indians. The fan club is also recognized as "Blue Club Panagiotis Ntokouzis", named after one of the founding members of the fan club who died in a motorcycle accident. Another club, particularly famous among the majority of Greek ultras, is the "Blue Angels club 1994" established in 1994.

Notable supporters

• Lavrentis Machairitsas, rock musician

Friendships

• Dunav Ruse
• Astana

Managers

• Veljko Dovedan (23 February 2009 – 30 June 2009)
• Veljko Dovedan (8 February 2011 – 30 June 2011)
• Stelios Manolas (6 November 2012 – 17 February 2013)
• Luciano (18 December 2013 – 17 January 2014)
• Alekos Vosniadis (17 January 2014 – 1 July 2014)
• Wiljan Vloet (1 July 2014 – 14 September 2014)
• Sven Vandenbroeck (14 September 2014 – 20 October 2014)
• Panagiotis Tzanavaras (20 October 2014 – 31 December 2014)
• Fangio Buyse (1 July 2017 – 28 September 2018)
• Giorgos Koutsis (28 September 2018 – November 2018)

External links

• Official website (in Greek)