Panthrakikos F.C.

Panthrakikos

Full name	Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Σύλλογος Πανθρακικός
Nickname(s)	Crocodiles (Kροκόδειλοι)
Founded	1963
Ground	Municipal Komotini Stadium
Capacity	6,198
Owner	Tasos Karaolanis
Chairman	Dimitris Tzelepis
Manager	Giannis Chatzinikolaou
League	Football League
2015–16	Superleague Greece, 15th (Relegation)
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Panthrakikos Football Club is a football club based in Komotini, Thrace in North Eastern Greece founded in 1963. The club competed in Super League Greece during the season 2008–2009 for the first time.

History

Early years (1963–2001)

The foundation year (1963)

Panthrakikos in 1974

Panthrakikos vs Ergotelis, 2009–10

Panthrakikos F.C., 2009–10

Panthrakikos F.C. was formed in the town of Komotini in 1963. Athlitiki Enosis Komotini (Athletic Union of Komotini) which was founded in 1936, and Orpheus Komotini which was founded in 1948 were merged and created Panthrakikos in 1963 and 1964 respectively.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} The club participated in regional leagues until 1969, when they joined the Beta Ethniki. They stayed in this division until being relegated in 1978, but were promoted back to Beta Ethniki after a single season. They remained here until 1983. Panthrakikos finished 1982–83 12th in Beta Ethniki, but were relegated to Gamma Ethniki due to restructuring of the leagues. In 1983–84 they finished 18th position and were further relegated to Delta Ethniki. The club was promoted again to the Gamma Ethniki, and participated there in 1985–86 and 1986–87. Relegation to Delta Ethniki followed the end of the 1986–87 season. After relegation in 1995-1996, Panthrakikos merged with Orpheus Xylagani and competed as Panthrakikos Xylagani^[7] on the founding status of Xylagani during the years 1996–1998. Competed again as Panthrakikos F.C. in lowest level of local leagues during the years 1998-2001, without any administration and without any investment. In that period, very few fans were take charge of administration.

New era (2001–present)

In 2001-2003 Panagiotis Margaritis take charge of administration as chairman and Sakis Skoulis as manager. They were promoted two seasons in a row, reaching the Delta Ethniki in 2003.
In 2004 prompting significant investment into the club from local entrepreneurs Thodoris Savakis, Tasos Karaolanis & Yiannis Kitzidis.^[8] Kostas Vasilakakis, a former player of Panthrakikos, was hired as manager in the summer of 2004. In season 2004–05 Panthrakikos were champions of Delta Ethniki and were again promoted, to the Gamma Ethniki. A third-place finish in 2005–06 saw them promoted once more, to the Beta Ethniki.
Three managers were hired in the first half of the season 2006-2007. Zisis Tsekos, Dimitrios Kalaitzidis and Yiannis Gounaris, were fired to be replaced by manager Kostas Vasilakakis and lead the club to an 11th-place finish. Panthrakikos started the 2007–08 season with a breach of league rules^[9] in their opening game, against Chaidari, and were penalised by a four-point reduction. Despite this penalty, Panthrakikos beat Ilisiakos 1–0 in the final game of the season to overtake PAS Giannena, finish third and gain promotion to Super League Greece for the first time.
Emilio Ferrera, was hired as manager in the summer of 2008, lead Panthrakikos to an 11th^[10] place finish in their first Super League season.

Facilities

Stadium

Gate 2 Ultras

Gate 1-7 & 6

The "Municipal Athletic Center" (ΔΑΚ – Δημοτικό Αθλητικό Κέντρο) was built in 1923 by Hellenic Army near the railway station of Komotini. Panthrakikos has played there since 1963.

In 2009 the stadium was renamed to OPAP-Municipal Komotini Stadium (ΟΠΑΠ-Δημοτικό Γήπεδο Κομοτηνής) after the Greek betting organization OPAP which is the stadium sponsor.

The northern grandstand was built in 1950 (rebuilt 1963–1965) with a capacity of about 2,500 while the southern grandstand was built in 1970 with a capacity of about 1,500. The northern grandstand and southern grandstand were rebuilt in 2008 with a capacity of 1,608 (1,377 seats for gate 1 plus 231 seats for gate 7) and 1,090 (gate 5) respectively. In the southern grandstand at the back of, there is a big booth for the Radio and TV journalists (gate 4). Also there is special area for disabled (gate 3). The western grandstand was built in 2008 with a capacity of 2,002 (gate 6 – guests). Finally, the eastern grandstand was built in 2009 with a capacity of 1,498 (gate 2). The total capacity of OPAP-Municipal Komotini Stadium is 6,198 seats plus six booths, with ten persons capacity each of those. Building of southern grandstand is planned instead of existing construction, with a capacity of about 4,500 (total ~9,600).

Panthrakikos Athletic Center

Panthrakikos Athletic Center

The main building of Panthrakikos Athletic Center

The training center is called "Panthrakikos Athletic Center". It covers a field of 42,000 sq.m. located 4 km east of Komotini at Kikidio village.

First squad: The main building covers 360 sq.m.. Includes the administration office, the press room, first aid station, physiotherapy chamber and locker room. Three full-sized terrains (two with natural turf, one with synthetic turf) are used for the first squad trainings. A half-sized terrain is also used for the goalkeepers training.

Youth Team/Football Academies: Another building 200 sq.m., which includes locker room, showers and dining room for the Youth team and the football academies. Two half-sized terrains and one full-sized are used by the Youth Teams.

Team Statistics (1963–present)

According to combined sources ^{[11] [12] [13]}

The early years, 1963–2001
Season	Level	Rank	W-D-L	Goals	Season	Level	Rank	W-D-L	Goals
1963–64					1982–83	2	12	15–06–17	38–44
1964–65	3	1	6–1–1	14–7	1983–84	3	18	11–13–16	41–46
1965–66	3	5		25–26	1984–85	4	1		96–31
1966–67	3	5		40–22	1985–86	3	15	14–07–17	48–62
1967–68	3				1986–87	3	18	11–06–21	46–72
1968–69	3	1			1987–88	4	11		50–42
1969–70	2	14	07–12–15	26–47	1988–89	5	1
1970–71	2	9	10–12–12	35–34	1989–90	4	4		58–30
1971–72	2	7	17–07–14	45–44	1990–91	4	3	29–07–06	86–26
1972–73	2	9	14–10–14	34–31	1991–92	4	5		50–41
1973–74	2	8	16–12–12	43–39	1992–93	4	2		59–27
1974–75	2	5	16–11–11	43–35	1993–94	4	9		61–38
1975–76	2	10	15–05–18	44–47	1994–95	5	1
1976–77	2	12	14–08–16	39–56	1995–96	4	12		45–47
1977–78	2	17	12–08–18	44–46	1996–97	4^1	8		46–28
1978–79	3	1			1997–98	4^1	10		66–43
1979–80	2	11	11–11–16	34–39	1998–99	5^2	-
1980–81	2	7	17–06–15	42–48	1999–00	6
1981–82	2	8	15–09–14	38–48	2000–01	6

-¹Panthrakikos merged with Orfeas Xylagani and competed as Panthrakikos Xylagani in 1996-1998
-²Panthrakikos withdrew from the league during the period due to financial problems

New Era, 2001–present
Season	Level	Rank	W-D-L	Goals
2001–02	6	1
2002–03	5	1	28–01–01
2003–04	4	5	17–07–06	39–22
2004–05	4	1	24–05–01	70–10
2005–06	3	3	19–09–02	44–21
2006–07	2	11	12–06–16	40–44
2007–08	2	3	17–10–07	44–31
2008–09	1	11	09–06–15	23–37
2009–10	1	16	03–03–24	21–62
2010–11	2	7	13–08–13	36–38
2011–12	2	1	22–07–05	49–16
2012–13	1	10	10–06–14	30–33
2013–14	1	10	11-08-15	39-52
2014–15	1	12	11-10-13	35-44
2015–16	1	15	03-08-19	18-58
2016–17	2

Honours

Domestic Titles and honours

• Football League: (1)
  • 2011–12
• Gamma Ethniki: (1)
  • 1978–79

Players

Current squad

As of 19 April 2016, according to combined sources ^[14]

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

No. Position Player 2 DF Thanasis Papageorgiou 3 DF Stavros Petavrakis 4 DF Christos Melissis 5 MF Stelios Iliadis 7 FW Christos Tzanis 8 MF Rogério 9 MF Javito 10 MF Nicolas Diguiny 11 FW Dimitris Hasomeris 14 MF Vasilis Gavriilidis 18 GK Trifonas Gioudas 19 DF Konstantinos Zdravos 20 MF Walter Fernández 21 DF Giannis Christou

No. Position Player 22 MF Albert Roussos (on loan from Juventus) 24 DF Mavroudis Bougaidis 25 MF Theoharis Psaltis 28 MF Georgios Fotakis 30 GK Giorgos Athanasiadis 34 MF Deniz Baykara 39 FW Giorgios Nikoltsis 77 GK Giorgos Tzelepis 84 MF Antonis Ladakis 88 MF Antonis Tsiaras 89 FW Savvas Moudouroglou 92 DF Ioánnis Potourídis 99 FW Igor

Manager & Coaching Staff

	Zoran Stoinović	Manager
		Assistant Manager
	Sakis Pantelidis	Coach
	Theodoros Kantas	Goalkeeper Coach

Players Statistics

Appearances and Goals from 2006 – present

Only with Panthrakikos F.C. As of 18 April 2016 according to combined sources^[15][16][17]

Nat	Name	Career	Level 1		Level 2		Nat Cup		Total
			app	goals	app	goals	app	goals	app	goals
	Deniz Baykara	2011–16	111	5	31	6	14	1	156	12
	Antonis Ladakis	2012–16	85	2			4	0	89	2
	Igor	2013–16	77	24			3	1	80	25
	Thanasis Papageorgiou	2013–16	74	2			8	0	82	2
	Christos Tzanis	2012–16	73	14			8	3	81	17
	Giannis Christou	2011–16	70	1	27	1	12	0	110	2
	Dimitris Hasomeris	2013–16	68	3			7	2	75	5
	Pape M'Bow	2013–15	59	2			5	0	64	2
	Ioannis Potouridis	2014–16	57	0			5	0	62	0
	Giorgos Athanasiadis	2013–16	57	0			3	0	60	0
	Nicolas Diguiny	2014–16	55	8			2	0	57	8
	Achilleas Sarakatsanos	2011–14	48	0	27	1	8	1	83	2
	José María Cases	2013–15	47	10			3	0	50	10
	Yiannis Kanotidis	2007–11	40	1	43	0	4	0	87	1
	Ludovic Clément	2008–10	38	2					38	2
	Abdul Diallo	2006–10	37	5	47	12	4	0	88	17
	Manuel Lopes	2007–11	37	1	39	1	1	0	77	2
	Munafo Horta	2009–13	32	1	25	1	9	0	66	2
	Spyros Vrontaras	2004–10 & 2012–13	28	0	40	0	2	0	70	0
	Adrián Lucero	2012–13	28	4			6	2	34	6
	Sito Riera	2008–09	28	5			1	0	29	5
	Marama Vahirua	2012–13	26	3			4	2	30	5
	Bertrand Robert	2009–11	25	4	28	8			53	12
	Dimitris Papadopoulos	2012–13	25	11			5	1	30	12
	Fotis Konstantinidis	2005–09	22	1	54	4	8	0	84	5
	Dimitris Koutsopoulos	2010–14	22	0	55	0	7	0	84	0
	Christos Mingas	2011–13	22	0	26	7	9	0	57	7
	Robinho	2005–09	18	0	57	0	7	0	82	0
	Nikos Bacharidis	2001–10	16	1	23	0	7	1	46	2
	Gábor Erős	2006–08			57	9	2	0	59	9
	Dimitris Souanis	2005–08			53	12	4	2	57	14
	Nikos Soultanidis	2010–12			53	14	3	3	56	17
	Ronny van Es	2007–08			21	10	1	0	22	10

Appearances and Goals in Early years

According to combined sources

Nat	Name	Career	Level 1		Level 2		Nat Cup		Total
			app	goals	app	goals	app	goals	app	goals
	Apostolos Hatziioannidis	1969–77
	Filippos Aivazis	1967-84			405	89	36	22	441	111
	Zacharias Tilios	1964–76
	Archontis Katsaridis
	Kostas Vasilakakis	1973–95	256	10	140	25			396	35
	Zisis Tsekos	1981–00	230	20

Former players

• Former players with Wikipedia article see Category:Panthrakikos F.C. players.

Former players without Wikipedia article, based on their long term presence in Panthrakikos, players worthy of mention are Filippos Aivazis who holds the record for most appearances and most goals in the Beta Ethniki, Apostolakis (1956-64 Orfeas Komotini, 1964-69 AO Kavala), Zacharias Tilios, Stavros Svintridis, Christos Doulgerakis, Archontis Katsaridis, Manolis Rakitzoglou, Vasilis Fotidis and Kostas Kalaitzidis.

Chairmen & Managers

season	chairman	manager	level	rank
2001–02	Panagiotis Margaritis	Sakis Skoulis	006	001
2002–03			005	001
2003–04		Antonis Michalakopoulos	004	005
2004–05	Yiannis Kitzidis	Kostas Vasilakakis	004	001
2005–06			003	003
2006–07		Zisis Tsekos Dimitris Kalaitzidis Yiannis Gounaris Kostas Vasilakakis	002	011
2007–08		Kostas Vasilakakis	002	003
2008–09		Emilio Ferrera (June 5, 2008 – June 30, 2009)	001	011
2009–10	Yiannis Kitzidis Dimitris Tzelepis	Ilie Dumitrescu (July 1, 2009–Sept 20, 2009) Albert Cartier (Sept 20, 2009–Jan 12, 2010) Pavlos Dermitzakis (Jan 12, 2010–July 22, 2010)	001	016
2010–11	Dimitris Tzelepis	Kostas Vasilakakis (July 25, 2010–Nov 10) Emilio Ferrera (Nov 7, 2010–March 25, 2011) Savas Pantelidis (March 30, 2011–Oct 29, 2012)	002	007
2011–12		Savas Pantelidis	002	001
2012–13		Savas Pantelidis Pavlos Dermitzakis (Oct 31, 2012 – April 30, 2013)	001	010
2013–14		Apostolos Mantzios (May 9, 2013 – Nov 5, 2014)	001	010
2014–15		Apostolos Mantzios José Manuel Roca (Nov 10, 2014 – Sep 16, 2015)	001	012
2015–16		José Manuel Roca Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos (Sep 19, 2015 – ) Giannis Hatzinikolaou (Jan 26, 2016 – ) Zoran Stoinović (Mar 16, 2016 – )	001	015

Club crest and colours

Panthrakikos crest is a sparkling flamming torch in a circle. The torch is surrounded by the club's name and the year of establishment. Traditional club's shirts are green. The club crest sits on the left side of the chest. Traditional club's shorts are black with black socks. Alternative strips for the season 2009–2010 are orange shirts, black shorts and socks.

Traditional colours

2007-08

2009-10

2010–11

2011–12

2012–13

2013–14

2014-15

Alternative colours

2007–08

2008–09

2008–09B

2013–14

2014–15

References

1. "Panthrakikos History".
2. "Panthrakikos History".
3. "2nd Level Table, 1962–63".
4. "2nd Level Table, year 1963–64".
5. "Mergers and Name Changes".
6. "Panthrakikos F.C. foundation, 1964".
7. "Mergers and Name Changes".
8. "2006.11.03, Savakis resignation".
9. 2006–07 Beta Ethniki
10. Super League Greece 2008-09
11. "Panthrakikos History-official site".
12. "2nd Level Final Tables".
13. "3rd Level Final Tables".
14. "Panthrakikos squad 2014-15".
15. "Panthraxstats (pdf)".
16. "insports.gr".
17. "epo, kypello".

External links

• Official site (Greek)
• Panthracrocs; news, photos, statistics (Greek)
• Panthraxclub; forum (Greek)