Skoda Xanthi F.C.

Skoda Xanthi

Full name	Skoda Xanthi Athlitikos Omilos
Nickname(s)	Vasilissa Tis Thrakis (Queen of Thrace)
Founded	1967, as A.C. Xanthi
Ground	Skoda Xanthi Arena Xanthi, Greece
Capacity	7,422
Owner	Christos Panopoulos
Chairman	Aris Pialoglou
Manager	Răzvan Lucescu
League	Superleague Greece
2015–16	Superleague Greece, 13th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Skoda Xanthi F.C. (Greek: Π.Α.Ε. Skoda Ξάνθη Αθλητικός Όμιλος, F.C. Skoda Xanthi Athletic Club) is a Greek football club, based in the city of Xanthi. The club currently competes in the Super League Greece.

History

The club was formed in 1967 from the merger of two local clubs, Aspida (was founded in 1922) and Orfeas (was founded in 1903). The name of the team was Xanthi Athletic Club, officially up to 1992. In 1991, Viamar S.A., the official importer of Skoda vehicles in Greece, bought the club from its previous owner and renamed it to Skoda Xanthi Athletic Club.

The club is well set up in terms of their financial support and youth setup. FC Skoda Xanthi participated in the UEFA Cup or Europa League in 2001–02, 2005–06, 2006–07 and 2013-14 seasons. In the 2004–05 season, Skoda Xanthi finished fourth in the A Ethinki (first division, today Super League), the club's best performance in many years.

Xanthi first appearance in the first division was in 1989.

Stadium

Skoda Xanthi Arena

Xanthi left their old stadium, the Skoda Xanthi Stadium (capacity 9,500), located in near the centre of the city, for the Skoda Xanthi Arena in 2004. Their new stadium sited 8 km outside the city, near Pigadia village, has a capacity of 7,422, however only has 3 stands. When the final stand is finally built, the new capacity will be around 9,000 seats.

Their appearance in the UEFA Cup saw them drawn in the qualifying rounds against English club Middlesbrough, who went on to reach the UEFA Cup final against Sevilla. Xanthi drew bravely 0–0 in the second leg, with Emerson making a return to the Riverside Stadium.

Honours

Greek Football Cup

• Runners-up (1): 2014–15

League history

1967–85: Division 2 1985–86: Division 3 1986–89: Division 2 1989–present: Division 1 / Super League

Sources:^[1][2]

European matches

Season	Competition	Round	Opponent	Home	Away	Aggregate
2002–03	UEFA Cup	First round	Lazio	0–0	0–4	0–4
2005–06	UEFA Cup	First round	Middlesbrough	0–0	0–2	0–2
2006–07	UEFA Cup	First round	Dinamo Bucureşti	3–4	1–4	4–8
2013–14	UEFA Europa League	Second qualifying round	Linfield	0–1	2–1 (aet)	2–2
		Third qualifying round	Standard Liège	1–2	1–2	2–4

Current squad

As of 14 January 2016 ^[3]

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

No. Position Player 1 GK Athanasios Garavelis 4 DF Manolis Bertos (on loan from Olympiacos) 5 DF Dimos Baxevanidis 6 DF Okan Chatziterzoglou 7 MF Panagiotis Triadis 8 DF Wallace 9 FW Karim Soltani 11 MF Adrián Lucero 16 MF Theodoros Vasilakakis 17 MF Manolis Papasterianos 19 FW Vasil Shkurti 21 MF Konstantinos Fliskas 23 MF Dani Nieto

No. Position Player 24 MF Petros Orphanides 26 DF Pavol Farkaš 28 DF Dimitris Goutas (on loan from Olympiacos) 30 FW Pantelis Kapetanos 31 DF Christos Lisgaras 33 DF Giannis Zaradoukas 35 GK Luigi Cennamo 37 FW Christopher 55 DF Christos Karipidis 66 MF Khassa Camara 77 FW Vasilios Fasidis 87 MF Nikolay Dimitrov 91 GK Michalis Zaropoulos

Out on loan

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

No. Position Player 99 FW Antonis Ranos (to Aris Limassol)

Retired Numbers

13 – Olubayo Adefemi, defender (2011) - posthumous honor to the player that died in 2011 in a car accident.

Notable former players

This list of former players includes those who received international caps while playing for the team, made significant contributions to the team in terms of appearances or goals while playing for the team, or who made significant contributions to the sport either before they played for the team, or after they left. It is clearly not yet complete and all inclusive, and additions and refinements will continue to be made over time.

Francisco Zuela Roman Wallner Marcelo Veridiano Christian Bekamenga Julian de Guzman Tomasz Radzinski Gamadiel García Eros Pérez Ivan Turina (†) Costas Elia Alexandros Garpozis Franck Rabarivony Levan Maghradze

Antonis Antoniadis Paraskevas Antzas Nikos Kostenoglou Athanasios Kostoulas Thomas Kyparissis Marinos Ouzounidis Christos Patsatzoglou Savvas Poursaitidis Vasilis Torosidis Spyros Vallas Stylianos Venetidis Zisis Vryzas Akis Zikos

Abdoul Salam Sow Ali Reza Mansourian Odai Al-Saify Kelvin Sebwe Abderrahim Ouakili George Boateng Olubayo Adefemi (†) Victor Agali Roberto Kettlun Piero Alva Rafał Grzelak Arkadiusz Malarz Emmanuel Olisadebe

Michał Stasiak Marek Zieńczuk Ismail Ba Juraj Buček Vladimír Janočko Zdeno Štrba Peter Štyvar Nabil Taïder Deniz Baykara Pablo García Christopher Katongo

See also Category:Skoda Xanthi F.C. players.

Personnel

• Major shareholder: Christos Panopoulos
• President: Aristeides Pialoglou
• 1st Vice-President Vasileios Kontovazainitis
• 2nd Vice-President Giannis Papadimitriou

Technical staff

• Head coach: Răzvan Lucescu
• Assistant coach: Diego Longo
• Assistant coach: Nikos Dentidis
• Team Manager: Giorgos Kaznaferis
• Goalkeeper coach: Alekos Maladenis
• Technical Director: Giannis Papadimitriou
• Scouter: Kostas Konstantinidis

Former personnel

Co-trainer

• Yiannis Ispirlidis (2000–04)
• Marinos Ouzounidis (2004–08)

Director of Sport

• Hannes Bongartz (2006–07)

Coach history

Henk Houwaart (1 July 1990 – 30 June 1991) Howard Kendall (1994) Kurt Jara (1 Jan 1996 – 28 Feb 1997) Ioannis Matzourakis (1 July 1996 – 31 Dec 1999) Nikos Karageorgiou (1 July 2001 – 30 June 2004) Ioannis Matzourakis (1 July 2004 – 25 Sept 2006) Takis Lemonis (4 Oct 2006 – 20 Dec 2006) Savvas Kofidis (22 Nov 2006 – 3 May 2007) Jörn Andersen (3 May 2007 – 10 June 2007) Nikos Kehagias (2007) Emilio Ferrera (1 July 2007 – 22 Oct 2007) Nikos Kehagias (2007–08) Ioannis Matzourakis (24 April 2008 – 30 June 2008) Georgios Paraschos (1 July 2008 – 30 June 2009) Wolfgang Wolf (1 July 2009 – 16 Sept 2009)

Kostas Konstantinidis (interim) (2009) Ioannis Matzourakis (21 Sept 2009 – 22 Feb 2010) Nikos Kehagias (23 Feb 2010 – 20 Sept 2010) Giorgos Paraschos (20 Sept 2010 – 8 Nov 2010) Nikolaos Papadopoulos (14 Nov 2010 – 30 June 2011) Marinos Ouzounidis (1 July 2011 – 22 Sept 2012) Nikos Kostenoglou (30 Sept 2012 – 2 Dec 2012) Marinos Ouzounidis (3 Dec 2012 – 21 April 2013) Nikolaos Karageorgiou (27 April 2013 – 17 Sept 2013) Reiner Maurer (24 Sept 2013 – 5 Feb 2014) Nikos Kehagias (5 Feb 2014 – 25 June 2014) Sakis Tsiolis (27 June 2014 – 15 Sept 2014) Răzvan Lucescu (25 Sept 2014–)

References

1. Abbink, Dinant and Mastrogiannopoulos, Alexander (2003-08-07). "Greece – Final Tables 1959–1999". RSSSF.
2. Abbink, Dinant and Mastrogiannopoulos, Alexander (2005-05-18). "Greece – List of Second Level Final Tables". RSSSF.
3. "Skoda Xanthi squad" (in Greek). Superleague Greece. Retrieved 23 March 2012.

External links

Official Sites

• Official website (Greek)
• Skoda Xanthi TV channel from Goal4Replay.net (English) (Greek)

Other

• (Greek) Skoda Xanthi E-fan club
• (Greek) Blog about Skoda Xanthi's foreign players
• (Greek) Skoda Xanthi: Auto company