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AO Kavala

Full name	Αθλητικός Όμιλος Καβάλα (Athletic Club Kavala)
Nickname(s)	Argonauts Light Brigade of the North
Short name	AOK
Founded	1965; 54 years ago (1965)
Ground	Anthi Karagianni Stadium
Capacity	10,500
Chairman	Giorgos Loupelis
Manager	Pavlos Dermitzakis
League	Beta Ethniki
2018–19	Gamma Ethniki (Group 1), 2nd
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours
Current season

Kavala Football Club^[1] (Greek: Αθλητικός Όμιλος Καβάλα), the Athletic Club Kavala, is a professional association football club based in the city of Kavala, Macedonia, Greece.

History

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 6 years (1970 – 1975). They returned to 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. There "black" period began for the team in which they played only in Beta Ethniki and Gamma Ethniki.

2009–2010 Season

Wilson Oruma

Charles Itandje

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

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

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

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

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.

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  Old crest.
  

  
  

  
  


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  Puma's crest.
  

  
  

  
  


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  Current crest.
  

  
  

  
  

Stadium

Anthi Karagianni Stadium

The Anthi Karagianni Municipal Stadium (Greek: Δημοτικό Στάδιο Ανθή Καραγιάννη), 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.

Players

Current squad

As of 6 January 2019

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

No. Position Player GK Georgios Dimizas GK Spyros Vrontaras DF Dimitris Toskas DF Savvas Toumanidis DF Alexandros Zeris DF Odusseas Lyberakis DF Theocharis Psaltis DF Tryfon Kasmeridis (on loan from Doxa Drama) MF Dimitrios Thomaidis MF Grigoris Papadopoulos MF Vasilios Gavriilidis

No. Position Player MF Vaggelis Kerthi MF Stelios Blios MF Sven Jajcinovic MF Alexandros Tsoutsis FW Georgios Gemistos FW Nikolaos Valavanopoulos FW Christos Dourtmes FW Konstantinos Markopoulos FW Georgios Litskas FW Iordanis Adamakis

Personnel

Pavlos Dermitzakis was appointed manager in 2018

Technical staff
President	Giorgos Loupelis
Curator of Football	Argyris Spanidis

Coaching Staff

^[7]

Coaches

Ioannis Topalidis, manager (2013)

Aad de Mos, manager (2009–2010)

• 
  Giannis Papakostas
  


• 
  Vasilis Daniil
  


• 
  Michalis Bellis


• 
  Grzegorz Lato
  


• 
  Kostas Iosifidis
  


• 
  Nikos Goulis


• 
  Stratos Voutsakelis


• 
  Aad de Mos
  


• 
  Elvis Scoria
  


• 
  Kostas Vasilakakis
  


• 
  Ioannis Topalidis
  


• 
  Diethelm Ferner
  


• 
  Apostolos Charalampidis


• 
  Michalis Iordanidis


• 
  Babis Xrysostomidis


• 
  Giannis Ispirlidis


• 
  Kostas Anyfantakis

Record Players

Name Apps Georgios Mallios 154 Georgios Koltsis 118 Georgios Peglis 112 Konstantinos Vakirtzis 107 Anestis Athanasiadis 107 Leszek Pisz 99 Kyrillos Kallimanis 90 Ivan Mitev 84 Anastasios Tsapanidis 82 Panagiotis Logaras 75

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

Source:^{[citation needed]}

Honours

Domestic

Leagues

• Football League (Second Division)

Winners (4): 1966–67, 1968–69, 1975–76, 1995–96

• Gamma Ethniki (Third Division)

Winners (1): 2007–08

Cups

• Kavala FCA Cup

Winners (1): 2017–18

Achievements

• 
  Greek Cup
  
  • 
    Semi-finals (3): 1964–65, 1994–95, 2009–10

League Participation

• 
  Superleague Greece: 1969–1975, 1976–1982, 1994–1995, 1996–2000, 2009–2011


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  Football League: 1965–1969, 1975–1976, 1982–1989, 1990–1994, 1995–1996, 2000–2001, 2002–2003, 2008–2009, 2012–2014


• 
  Gamma Ethniki: 1989–1990, 2001–2002, 2003–2008, 2014–present


• 
  Delta Ethniki: 2011–2012

League history

• 1965 – 69: Division 2
  


• 1969 – 75: Division 1
  


• 1975 – 76: Division 2
  


• 1976 – 82: Division 1
  


• 1982 – 89: Division 2
  


• 1989 – 90: Division 3
  


• 1990 – 94: Division 2
  


• 1994 – 95: Division 1
  


• 1995 – 96: Division 2
  


• 1996 – 00: Division 1
  


• 2000 – 01: Division 2
  


• 2001 – 02: Division 3
  


• 2002 – 03: Division 2
  


• 2003 – 08: Football League 2
  


• 2008 – 09: Football League
  


• 2009 – 11: Superleague
  


• 2011 – 12: Delta Ethniki
  


• 2012 – 14: Football League
  


• 2014 – 15: Gamma Ethniki
  


• 2015 – 16: Gamma Ethniki
  


• 2016 – 17: Gamma Ethniki
  


• 2017 – 18: Gamma Ethniki
  


• 2018 - 19: Gamma Ethniki
  


• 2019 - 20: Beta Ethniki
  

Sources:^[8][9]

References

External links

• Official Website


• Fanclub website


• Internet fanclub website