Athens Kallithea Football Club (, ''ΠΑΕ Άθενς Καλλιθέα'') is a Greek professional football club based in

Kallithea Kallithea (Greek: Καλλιθέα, meaning "beautiful view") is a district of Athens and a municipality in south Athens regional unit. It is the eighth largest municipality in Greece (96,118 inhabitants, 2021 census) and the fourth biggest i ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...

, which competes in the

Super League 2 Stones Bitter Super League II was the official name for the year 1997's Super League championship season, the 103rd season of top-level professional rugby league football in Britain, and the second to be played in summer. Teams Twelve teams were ...

, the second tier of the

Greek football league system The Greek football league system includes four levels in which teams can possibly make it to the Super League 1, Greece's highest division of football. Cup eligibility Greek Football Professional Cup: Levels 1 to 2 Greek Football Amateur Cup: ...

. The club has finished as high as ninth in the Greek top flight (2004–05) and has reached as far as the quarterfinal stage of the

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup ( el, Κύπελλο Ελλάδος Ποδοσφαίρου), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Kypello Elladas is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second most i ...

on five occasions (1969–70, 1978–79, 1986–87, 2001–02, 2009–10).

History

Founding and Early History

The club was founded on 18 August 1966 from the merger of five local clubs: Esperos, Iraklis, AE Kallitheas, Kallithaikos, and Pyrsos. In 1970, Kallithea's

Grigoris Lambrakis Stadium Grigoris Lambrakis Stadium is a multi-use stadium in Kallithea, Athens, Greece. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of Athens Kallithea F.C. The stadium was built in 1970 and currently has a seating capacity o ...

, named after the Greek liberal politician and peace activist

Grigoris Lambrakis Grigoris Lambrakis ( el, Γρηγόρης Λαμπράκης; 3 April 1912 – 27 May 1963) was a Greek politician, physician, track and field athlete, and member of the faculty of the School of Medicine at the University of Athens. A member of ...

, was opened to the public.

Early 2000s in First Division

In 2002, Kallithea achieved promotion to Greece's top division for the first time. The club's first win in the competition was a 3–2 upset of PAOK at

Toumba Stadium Toumba Stadium ( el, Στάδιο Τούμπας) is a football stadium in Thessaloniki, Greece. It is property of AC PAOK. The official name of the stadium is simply PAOK Stadium ( el, Στάδιο ΠΑΟΚ), but through the years it has become ...

, thanks to two goals from

Theofanis Gekas Theofanis "Fanis" Gekas ( el, Θεοφάνης "Φάνης" Γκέκας; born 23 May 1980) is a Greek professional football official, coach and a former player, who played as a striker. He is the manager of Turkish fourth-tier TFF Third League ...

, on 14 September 2002. After finishing ninth in 2004–05, Kallithea was relegated from the top division in 2005-06.

Recent History

In the

2021-22 Increment or incremental may refer to: *Incrementalism, a theory (also used in politics as a synonym for gradualism) *Increment and decrement operators, the operators ++ and -- in computer programming *Incremental computing *Incremental backup, wh ...

season, Kallithea finished second in

, seven points back of league winners

Levadiakos Levadiakos Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Λεβαδειακός) is a Greek professional football club that plays in the Super League Greece. Based in Livadeia, Greece, the club was promoted to the Alpha Ethniki, forerunner of the Super League, afte ...

for promotion to Super League 1, which was the club's most successful season since it last appeared in the top division in 2005–06. In September 2022, the club rebranded as Athens Kallithea FC. The presentation of the club's rebranding and 22/23 home and away shirts was met with widespread acclaim in Greece and abroad, with Milan-based Rivista Undici calling it "the most beautiful restyling of the year" and London-based Versus calling it "one of the cleanest football rebrands ever."

Stadium

Athens Kallithea FC play at

in the Athenian district of Kallithea, located 2 km south of the

Acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, ...

and 1 km west of

Andrea Syngrou Avenue Andrea Syngrou Avenue ( gr, Λεωφόρος Ανδρέα Συγγρού) is a major road in Athens, linking the city centre with Poseidonos Avenue near the Bay of Faliro. It was planned and built by, and later named for, Andreas Syngros. It ...

, the main road linking the Athens city center to

Poseidonos Avenue Poseidonos Avenue ( el, Λεωφόρος Ποσειδώνος), also known as Paraliaki (), is the main coastal road of Athens, Greece. It runs from new Faliro in Piraeus to Glyfada and beyond, traversing all the coastal suburbs of Athens; thus it ...

and the

Athens Riviera Athens Riviera is the coastal area in the southern suburbs of Athens, Greece from Piraeus to Sounio. It is located about from downtown Athens stretching from the southern suburbs of Athens to the southernmost point of Attica, Cape Sounio. Hist ...

. Built in 1970, and named after the Greek liberal politician and peace activist

, it is a multi-use public stadium with a seating capacity of 6,300. The stadium is commonly referred to by its nickname “El Paso,” a reference to

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the " Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "'' D ...

’s 1965

Spaghetti Western The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most ...

film ''

For a Few Dollars More ''For a Few Dollars More'' ( it, Per qualche dollaro in più) is a 1965 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone. It stars Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef as bounty hunters and Gian Maria Volonté as the primary villain. German ac ...

'' (which had the Greek title ''Duel in El Paso''), as the stadium was built on the site of a

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

and features a tall rock along the north side of the pitch.

Crest and Colors

Historical

The first crest of Kallithea consisted of four circles representing the four groups of the merger of 1966, then becoming five circles with the addition of Pyrsos in 1967, which caused an issue with the

Hellenic Olympic Committee The Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) ( el, Ελληνική Ολυμπιακή Επιτροπή) is the governing Olympic body of Greece. It is the second oldest National Olympic Committee in the world (after the French Olympic Committee), it ...

. As a result, the club introduced a new crest with five stars in a diagonal line. The club's colors were blue and white, which were the colors of the two main groups of the merger, Esperos Kallitheas and Iraklis Kallitheas.

Current

In September 2022, the club rebranded as Athens Kallithea FC and presented a new visual identity. The club's founding year 1966 and traditional five stars representing the founding merger of the club have been maintained as part of the identity, while the new Athens Kallithea FC crest is a stylized AK monogram with five points that reference the five stars. The club's traditional blue and white have been maintained but with an updated blue, and gold has been introduced as a complementary color. The design work was executed by German studio Bureau Borsche, which also handled the rebranding of

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter i ...

and

Venezia FC Venezia Football Club, commonly referred to as Venezia, is a professional football club based in Venice, Italy, that currently plays in Serie B. Originally founded as Venezia Foot Ball Club in 1907, the club have spent a large part of their hi ...

Players

Men's squad

Out on loan

Honours

Third Division: 3 * 1976, 1993, 2010 Fourth Division: 1 * 2020

References

External links

Official Website

{{Football in Greece Association football clubs established in 1966 Football clubs in Attica 1966 establishments in Greece Kallithea Super League Greece 2 clubs