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Olympiakos

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Founded in:	1925
Country:	Greece
Competition:	Super League
Colours:	red,white
Nicknames:	thrylos

First Team Squad

Edit - 09/09/2009 by soccer_freak

Name	Age	Position	Country
Pardo Goas	27	Goalkeeper	Spain
Kovac	35	Goalkeeper	Slovakia
Nikopolidis	39	Goalkeeper	Greece
Panagopoulos	23	Goalkeeper	Greece
Mellberg	32	Defender	Sweden
Patsatzoglou	30	Defender	Greece
Zewlakow	33	Defender	Poland
Torosidis	24	Defender	Greece
Domi	31	Defender	France
Antzas	33	Defender	Greece
Bravo Sanfélix	28	Defender	Spain
Papadopoulos	18	Defender	Greece
Pantos	33	Defender	Greece
Papadopoulos	25	Defender	Greece
Galitsios	23	Defender	Greece
Leonardo	24	Defender	Brazil
Djordjevic	37	Midfielder	Serbia
Ledesma	31	Midfielder	Argentina
Galletti	29	Midfielder	Argentina
Mendrinos	24	Midfielder	Greece
Maresca	30	Midfielder	Italy
Stoltidis	35	Midfielder	Greece
de Sousa	26	Midfielder	Brazil
Sisic	28	Midfielder	Slovenia
Belluschi	26	Midfielder	Argentina
Leto	23	Midfielder	Argentina
Gonzalez	27	Midfielder	Spain
Papadopoulos	21	Midfielder	Greece
Derbyshire	23	Attacker	England
Mitroglou	22	Attacker	Greece
Santo	22	Attacker	Brazil

Manager:	Temuri KETSBAIA
Coaching staff:	Add

General Information

Edit - 09/09/2009 by soccer_freak

Chairman:	Socrates Kokkalis
Chief Executive:	socrates kokkalis
Annual Budget:	Add
Sponsors:	Puma

Stadium

Edit - 09/09/2009 by soccer_freak

Name:	Karaskaikis Stadium
Capacity:	33.334
Address:	Piraeus, Greece
History:	The Karaiskakis Stadium (Greek: ?????? ???????? ???????????, ]) is in the Neo Faliro area of Piraeus, Greece. It is the home ground of Olympiacos F.C. and is named after Georgios Karaiskakis, hero of the Greek War of Independence, who was mortally wounded in this area. It was used during the 1896 Summer Olympics as a velodrome where Frenchman Paul Masson took the three track cycling gold medals. It was renovated during the 1960s and was completely rebuilt in 2004 into a 33,334 capacity all seater stadium ready for the football competition of the 2004 Summer Olympics. The last renovation took a record time of only 14 months, finishing just in time for the Olympic Games. At this "renovation" the stadium was totally demolished and built again from the beginning, facing a different direction. View of Gate 7 in the new Karaiskaki Stadium. The photo was taken before the Olympiacos vs. Panathinaikos match's kick-off on January 15, 2006, considered one of the biggest derby matches in Greece. After the last deal ended in 1998, Olympiacos is using the stadium once again, on loan from 2003 and until 2052 and is traditionally labelled as the club's true home. In 2002, Olympiacos President Socratis Kokkalis, when announcing the project to rebuild Karaiskakis, said, "It is our wish that [the new stadium] will also be used by Ethnikos F.C., as Karaiskaki is the historic home of both [Olympiacos and Ethnikos]". In the contract signed by the Hellenic Olympic Comittee, the owner of the stadium, and Olympiacos, a clause was included stating that should Ethnikos wish to return to the stadium, they may do so without sharing any significant maintenance costs, as those are covered by Olympiacos. As of the 2009/10 season though, Ethnikos has opted not to do so. The ticket sales average higher than any team's in recent decades for the Super League Greece history (rarely have they dropped under the 25,000 mark) and are not expected to drop in the foreseeable future. Sales for national team matches had also been higher, but this was for the most part due to Greece's success in the Euro 2004. As of 2008 and after Greece's disappointing Euro 2008 performance, the attendance of national team matches dropped drastically, leading the Ministry of Sport to change the venue to Heraklion, Crete. In June 2005, Karaiskaki became a movie theatre (Cine Karaiskakis) with a cinema screen that is 20 m long and 10 m wide, operating daily between 9 and 11 p.m. (6 and 8 p.m. UTC) and later, every weekend. The movie screen featured movies including Batman Begins and others. The stadium operated as a movie theatre for the last time on Saturday August 13, 2005. 21 supporters of Olympiacos lost their lives in "Gate 7" (???? 7) of the stadium, after a game between Olympiacos and AEK Athens FC (6-0), on February 8, 1981; an incident widely known as the Karaiskaki Stadium disaster. In memory of this event, at the tribune part where now is the Gate 7, some seats are black colored instead of red, shaping the number "7", whereas there is also a monument on the eastern side of the stadium, bearing the names of all 21 supporters killed on that day in the stadium.

Domestic Honours

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National Titles:	37
National Cups:	28

International Honours

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International Titles:

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History

Edit - 09/09/2009 by soccer_freak

Olympiacos F.C. (Greek: ΠΑΕ Ολυμπιακός), also known simply as Olympiacos, Olympiacos Piraeus or with its full name Olympiacos C.F.P. (Greek: Oλυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, transliterated "Olympiacos Syndesmos Filathlon Pireos"), Olympiacos Club of Fans of Piraeus, is a Greek association football club, part of Olympiacos CFP, based in Piraeus, Athens.

Olympiacos is considered one of the big three football clubs in Greece and it is one of four teams that have never been relegated from the first division. Olympiacos is the most successful club in Greek football history, having won thirty-seven League titles, twenty-four Greek Cups and four Greek Super Cups, more titles than any other Greek team (over 50% of Greek domestic titles won by Olympiacos); in European competitions, they have reached the quarter-finals twice, in UEFA Champions League 1998–99 and European Cup Winners' Cup 1992–93. Olympiacos is also one of the founding members of the European Club Association.

The club's stadium is the newly rebuilt Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus. Olympiacos is the most popular Greek club with around two and a half million fans in Greece and was placed ninth on the list with the most paid up members in the world in 2006, having 83,000 registered members as of April 2006. They have a long-standing rivalry with Panathinaikos F.C. and AEK Athens F.C..
Contents
[hide]

* 1 History
o 1.1 Early years and domestic success
o 1.2 Sporadic success and stone years
o 1.3 Absolute domination
* 2 Crest and colours
* 3 Stadium
* 4 Support
* 5 Rivalries
* 6 European campaigns
o 6.1 UEFA Club Rankings
* 7 Honours
* 8 Domestic competitions
o 8.1 National championship
o 8.2 National cups
* 9 European competitions
* 10 Other national and international tournaments
* 11 Football squad
o 11.1 Current roster
* 12 Club officials
o 12.1 Technical & medical staff
o 12.2 Board of Directors
* 13 Records
o 13.1 UEFA competition record
o 13.2 International records
o 13.3 National league records
* 14 Managerial history
* 15 Notable former players
* 16 References
* 17 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Early years and domestic success

Olympiacos was founded on March 10, 1925, in the port of Piraeus, when the members of "Piraikos Podosfairikos Omilos FC" (Sport and Football Club of Piraeus) and the "Piraeus Fans Club FC" decided, during a historical assembly, to dissolve the two clubs in order to establish a new unified one, with an emblem depicting the profile of an Olympic winner. Notis Kamberos announced the name Olympiacos and Michalis Manouskos completed it to its full name, Olympiacos Syndesmos Filathlon Pireos. The Andrianopoulos brothers, however, were those who significantly raised the reputation of the club and added glory to it. Members of a prosperous family, they made the name of Olympiacos known over Greece. Jimmy, Dinos, Giorgos and Vassilis were the first to play. Leonidas made his appearance later on and played for a short time. The club's offensive line, made up of the five brothers, soon became legendary. Olympiacos immediately caught the attention of locals, back then their fanbase consisted mainly of the working class, with the team filling the Neo Phaliron Velodrome, later to be the Karaiskakis Stadium, and becoming Piraeus' champions for the seasons 1925, 1926, 1927.[1]

In 1926, the Hellenic Football Federation was founded and organized the Panhellenic Championship in the 1927-1928 season, the first national championship, where the regional champions from EPSA league (Athens), EPSP league (Piraeus) and EPSM league (Thessaloniki) compete for the national title through play-offs, with Aris becoming the first champion. Up to 1958-59 the Panhellenic Championship was organized this way however the second season (1928-29) Olympiacos came to a dispute with the Hellenic Football Federation and did not participate in the championship with Panathinaikos and AEK Athens deciding to follow Olympiacos and doing the same. During that season they played friendly games with each other and together formed a group called P.O.K.. The fourth Panhellenic Championship took place in 1930-31 and found Olympiacos winning the Greek national league title for the first time in the history of the club. It was going to be a very successful era.

By 1940, Olympiacos had already won six championships in eleven seasons and by 1960 they had won fifteen championships in twenty-three seasons, as well as nine Greek Cups, making it for six doubles. The legendary Olympiacos team of the 1950s, with key performers such as Andreas Mouratis, Ilias Rossidis, Thanassis Bebis, Elias Yfantis, Kostas Polychroniou, Giorgos Darivas and Savas Theodoridis, won the title six consecutive times, from 1954 to 1959, combining it with the cup in 1957, 1958 and 1959 to celebrate the only third double in a row to have ever been won in Greek football history. Hence, Olympiacos is also known as Thrylos, meaning 'legend', after this classic side of the 1950s which won a hatful of titles. It is worth mentioning that Olympiacos for several seasons was not allowed to make use of the Karaiskakis Stadium and, with permission from Panathinaikos, found a temporary home in Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium, the ground of the eternal enemy.

[edit] Sporadic success and stone years

The first championship as a Top National League, called Alpha Ethniki, was held for the first time in the 1959-60 season however the 60s and the early 70s were not as fruitful for Olympiacos, having won only two championships and six cups. Another glorious chapter began in 1972, after Nikos Goulandris became president. He appointed Lakis Petropoulos as coach and signed star players Giorgos Delikaris, Yves Triantafyllos, Julio Losada, Milton Viera and Dimitris Persidis. Under Goulandris presidency, Olympiacos won the title three times in a row from 1973 to 1975, combining it with the cup in 1973 and 1975. The highlight for that side was the 1973-74 season, when Olympiacos won the league with record points (59) and goals (102). Following Goulandris resignation from the presidency in 1975, the team went through a relative dry period in the second half of the 1970s. However in the early 80s,when the championship became professional, Olympiacos emerged again as the dominant power in the Greek football winning the title four times in a row (1980, 1981, 1982, 1983). Key players during this period included forward Nikos Anastopoulos, midfielder Tasos Mitropoulos and goalkeeper Nikos Sarganis. Alketas Panagoulias, who had also been manager of the Greek national football team and the United States national soccer team, coached the team between 1981 and 1983 and again in the 1986-87 season, earning the championship title in 1982, 1983 and 1987.

Olympiacos experienced its darkest days from the late-1980s until the mid-90s. In the mid-80s Olympiacos came into the hands of Greek businessman George Koskotas. Soon Koskotas was accused of and convicted for embezzlement, leaving Olympiacos deep in debt. On the pitch, the team without a serious management went nine seasons without a league title, 1988 to 1996. This period was known as Olympiacos' stone years. It is worth mentioning that 1987-88 was the worst season ever for Olympiacos, as the club finished 8th in the league, playing to avoid the relegation in most of the season.

[edit] Absolute domination

Hence Olympiacos' era of domination began, with success attracting players of international magnitude like Zlatko Zahovič, Giovanni, and World Champions Rivaldo and Christian Karembeu. Olympiacos won seven consecutive championships, beating their own past record of six, with their best season being 1998-99, when they celebrated the Double and their qualification to the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League, their best ever European campaign. Following coaches had big shoes to fill and Kokkalis was not prepared to give them time to do it; Olympiacos employed eleven coaches in just four years. The most known are Ioannis Matzourakis, Takis Lemonis, Trond Sollied, Oleg Protasov, Siniša Gogić and Nikos Alefantos.

Despite the constant management changes, Olympiacos kept on winning championships, except for the season 2003–04, when they finished second, after switching three coaches in a year, losing the championship for the first time after seven years of absolute dominance. In 2004, Olympiacos appointed again Dušan Bajević and transferred 1999 World Footballer of the Year and reigning World Champion Brazilian Rivaldo. The end of the season found Olympiacos with both domestic trophies but without their manager Bajević, as he resigned. Therefore Olympiacos appointed Trond Sollied. They also made a great hit on the market by signing arch-rival Panathinaikos' striker Michalis Konstantinou. During the season 2005–06, Olympiacos achieved to win all the four derbies against their major rivals, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens, something only achieved once more, during the season 1972–73. The combined goal total in these four matches was 11-3 in favour of Olympiacos. They also beat their second biggest rival AEK Athens 3-0 in the Greek Cup Final to clinch their second straight double and managed to win 16 consecutive matches in the championship, thus breaking their own record.

After the previous record-breaking season, in the 2006 summer transfers, Socrates Kokkalis put full faith in Trond Sollied and signed seven, though not expensive, players according to his recommendations, in hoping that the club will achieve the double for the third straight time for only the second time in Greek footballing history. However, Sollied did not live up to the club's expectations on the UEFA Champions League 2006–07 and was replaced by Takis Lemonis at the end of 2006. The new manager of the team, though a previous manager of Olympiacos, he transferred to the team young star Vasilis Torosidis, who proved to be a faithful defender. Though Lemonis won the third consecutive championship for Olympiacos, he didn't manage to win the Greek Cup, after a surprising elimination from PAS Giannina. Nevertheless, there was no doubt that Lemonis would remain as a coach.

In the summer of 2007, Olympiacos made very expensive transfers like Darko Kovačević and Luciano Galletti and was part of the most expensive transfer in Greek football history, by selling striker-midfielder Nery Castillo to the Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk for the record sum of 20 million Euro (27.5 million US Dollars). Because of a clause in Castillo's contract, Olympiacos received 15 million Euro, whereas the other 5 million Euro were given directly to the player. Furthermore, a controversy started between the team and player Rivaldo, as Olympiacos wouldn't like to renew the player's contract, despite that he was proved to be very useful. Former player Ilija Ivic was selected to be the team's football manager. The team didn't start good in the Greek championship, but it achieved a stunning performance in the Champions League, managing to qualify to the next round after nine years of unsuccessful European campaigns. However, the team's awful performances in the league and the defeat from Chelsea for the Champions League in Stamford Bridge Stadium angered the president who decided to sack Takis Lemonis, and appoint the team's assistant manager, Jose Segura, just for the remaining matches of the season. The team finally managed to win another double, but Segura returned to his previous position.

In summer of 2008, Olympiacos made some prominent transfers with Diogo Luis Santo, Avraam Papadopoulos and Dudu Cearense signing in, along with the appointment of Ernesto Valverde from RCD Espanyol as manager, with a contract worth about 6,000,000 € for a three-year agreement.[2] The 2008-09 season, Olympiacos started their official matches with disappointing performances, against Anorthosis Famagusta for the Champions League third qualifying round, and was eliminated from the tournament, which resulted to a seat in the UEFA Cup first round, where Olympiacos beat Nordsjælland to qualify to the group stage. The team also started good in the Super League Greece 2008–09, winning every match at home, but facing difficulties away. After an impressive UEFA Cup run at home, the team managed to get through to the round of 32, facing French side Saint-Étienne.

Olympiacos is by far the most successful club in Greek football history. Indeed they have more championships (37) to their name than arch-rivals Panathinaikos (19) and AEK Athens (11) put together, while the Reds have alone more titles (37) than all the other crowned teams together (36). Olympiacos also holds the Cup and Super Cup winning-record with 24 and 4 wins respectively, while the Balkans Cup that was won in 1963 was an important achievement in that era.

[edit] Crest and colours
Olympiacos' shirt for season 2008-09
Shirt Colours 2008-09

When, in 1925, the merger of the two clubs of Piraeus, Athlitikos Podosfairikos Syllogos Pireos and Omilos Filathlon Pireos, gave birth to the new football club, the latter was unanimously baptized Olympiacos Club of Fans of Piraeus, a name inspired from the Ancient Olympic Games, the morality, the vying and the splendor that they represented in ancient Greece. Consequently, the club adopted the laureate teen as their emblem, which symbolizes the Olympic Games winner. Red and white were chosen as the colours of the crest; red for the passion and white for the virtue.

The crest of Olympiacos underwent minor changes through the ages, while the typical kit of the team is that of a shirt with red and white vertical stripes, and red or white shorts and socks. The second most common kit is the all-red one and next the all-white one. Olympiacos has used several other colours during its history as an away or third kit, with the most notable of them being the monotint black or silver one. The most common kits of Olympiacos during their history are these below (the year of each one is indicant):