Apollon Limassol

Apollon Limassol
Full name	Απόλλων Λεμεσού; Apollon Limassol
Nickname(s)	Theos(GOD), Thrylos(LEGEND), Kianolefkoi(BLUE AND WHITE), Fygas(FUGITIVE)
Founded	1954
Ground	Tsirion Stadium,; Limassol, Cyprus; (Capacity: 13,000)
Chairman	Frixos Savvides
Manager	Thomas von Heesen
League	Cypriot First Division
2009-10	5th

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Apollon Limassol (Greek: Απόλλων Λεμεσού) is a Greek Cypriot sports club, based in Limassol. It has football, basketball and volleyball teams.

[edit] History

[edit] Football Team

Apollon Club was founded in Limassol on April 14, 1954. The Club was accepted into the second division on October 16, 1955 after its membership application had been approved by the Cyprus Football Association (C.F.A).

In its first year Apollon suffered 8 defeats in 8 matches in the second division. Just before the next season (1956-57) a crisis erupted in AEL, a first division team based in Limassol, and as a result, most of the players left AEL and joined Apollon. After this, Apollon won the regional group in the second division and subsequently the play-offs to then be promoted to the first division. This took place in 1957 and ever since Apollon has been competing in the first division. Things were not easy however for the newly promoted club. Apollon couldn't reach a satisfactory position in the rankings and was struggling in the middle of the table for many years. But in the mid-60's things changed.

In 1965 Apollon reached the Cup Final. A year later, Apollon was in the Final again, won the Cup, and triumphantly took the trophy back to Limassol. Apollon managed to maintain its Cup title in 1967. After celebrating these titles, Apollon had to wait another 15 years to start making history once again. In 1982 Apollon reached the Cup Final once again, and that marked the beginning of a new era. In the last 15 years Apollon won the league title three times (1991, 1994, 2006), and was the runner-up four times (1984, 1989, 1993, 1996). Since then Apollon won the Cup another 5 times (1966, 1967, 1986, 1992, 2001), and was the Cup finalist four times (1987, 1993, 1995, 1998). Last season, 2005-06 Apollon won the league title undefeated and earned a club record of 64 points. Apollon had 19 wins and 7 draws in 26 matches and this went down in Cypriot Football history due to fact that it was the fourth team in the Cyprus Championship that won the title unbeaten. *

Apollon was the only undefeated team in Europe, running an unbeaten streak since March 12, 2005 (30 games).

[edit] Women Football Team

In 2007-2008 Apollon Ladies F.C was joined in Cypriot Women Championship and reached the 8th place. The next year 2008-2009, Apollon Ladies F.C. named Proteas Apollon Ladies F.C. and won the double (Women Championship and Women Cup). For first time Proteas Apollon Ladies F.C. is in the qualifying round of UEFA Women's Champions League 2009–10 and they expected to reach the group stages.

[edit] Basketball Team

The Basketball of Apollon was founded in 1967 and is from the founding members of Cyprus Basketball Federation. From then the team participates regularly in the championship of 1st Division. The unique titles in the history of department, are a Cup in 2002 and a Super Cup in 2004. While, exist a lot of second places. Apollon Limassol basketball team also reached the semi-final of South European Cup first time in history in 2004.

[edit] Volleyball Team

Founded member of Cyprus Volleyball Federation, the women's team participated in three Championship finals (1999, 2001, 2003) and in five Cup finals (1992, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2003) but lost all of them by AEL Limassol. In 2003, the team lost both Championship and Cup finals by AEL again, however since AEL won the double, they participated in the Super Cup and on September 23, 2003 they won their first trophy, the Super Cup in their own Stadium by beating AEL Limassol 3-0.

[edit] Supporters

Apollon is among the most popular football teams in Cyprus. The fans are very demanding and loyal to the Club and Apollon F.C. is included in the first three top-ticket-selling teams of the league.More than 14.000 Apollon fans traveled from Limassol for the 2001 Cup Final that took place in Nicosia (more than 12.000 tickets were sold). This number also beat the previous top record for a team traveling for an away game to Nicosia. Celebrations for winning the League championship for the 1993/94 season following the victory against AC Omonia More than 15.000 fans overflowed the Stadium to see Apollon clinch the title in the final game of the season. Celebrations following the victory against AC Omonoia at the 1992 FA Cup Final in Tsirion Stadium. More than 20.000 fans attended the game. After 13 years (2005/06 season) Apollon was the unbeaten champion and the fans were singing, drinking, dancing the whole week and Limassol became blue and white. Apollon Fans are also known for their great choreographies and fantastic team entrances with flares and other unusual ideas. Also the fans are known for the highly passionate love for their team. Apollon has his main supporter group of fans, PAN.SY.FI APOLLON - Panhellenic Group Of fans, (Greek: ΠΑΝ.ΣΥ.ΦΙ Απόλλων Πανελλήνιος Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Απόλλωνα) otherwise known as GATE 1. This group is located in Limassol (The main group of fans) and the second one in Ypsonas (The West Districts). Also there are many other group of GATE 1 fans in other cities inside and outside Cyprus, such as in Nicosia (Apollon Nicosia FANS), Athens (Gate 1 Athens Fan Club), Thessaloniki (PAN.SY.FI APOLLON in North Greece) and in London (Apollon UK FANS).

[edit] Stadium

Football

The team's current stadium is the 13,000 seater, Tsirion Stadium, also known as the Olympia Stadium (G.S.O). Tsirion Stadium is a multi-use stadium in Limassol, Cyprus. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of Apollon Limassol, AEL Limassol and Aris Limassol. The stadium was built in 1975 with the help of the generous contributor and great philanthropist, Mr. Petros Tsiros, thus the name of the stadium. Apollon Limassol currently uses the West Stand of the stadium but most of the times is overcrowded therefore also use the East Stand of the stadium.

Basketball-Volleyball

Apollon has its own Indoor Hall, the PrimeTel Apollon Stadium, with capacity of 2,600 and as it was said it hosted the Southern European Regional Challenge Cup Final Four. It is home of Apollon's basketball and volleyball team.

[edit] Trophies

[edit] Football

Cypriot Championship: 3

1991, 1994, 2006

Cypriot Cup: 5

1966, 1967, 1986, 1992, 2001

LTV Super Cup: 1

2006

[edit] Women Football

Cypriot Championship: 1

2009

Cypriot Cup: 1

2009

[edit] Basketball

Cypriot Basketball Cup: 1

2002

Cypriot Supercup: 2

2004,2005

[edit] Volleyball (women)

Cypriot Super Cup: 1

2003

[edit] Football current squad

No.	Position	Player
2	DF	António Lopes
3	DF	Jovaldir Ferreira
4	MF	Waheed Oseni
5	DF	Giannis Sfakianakis
10	FW	Gastón Sangoy
12	FW	Aldo Adorno
16	DF	Giorgos Merkis
17	GK	Aleš Chvalovský
18	MF	Moshe Mishaelof
21	DF	Christos Theophilou (captain)
22	MF	Mustapha Bangura

No.	Position	Player
24	FW	Rafael Yiangoudakis
25	FW	Stamatis Pantos
30	FW	Andreas Avraam
37	DF	Thiago Sales (on loan)
40	GK	Nico Pellatz
44	MF	Giorgos Sielis
60	MF	Daniel Quinteros
80	FW	Miroslav Matušovič
83	MF	Ioannis Masmanidis
	MF	Klodian Duro
	FW	Miljan Mrdaković