Niki Volou Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Νίκη Βόλου) is a Greek professional football club based in the city of

Volos Volos ( el, Βόλος ) is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about north of Athens and south of Thessaloniki. It is the sixth most populous city of Greece, and the capital of the Magnesia regional unit ...

, in the region of Magnesia, Greece. The club currently competes in the Super League 2, the second tier of Greek football.

History

Niki Volou was founded on 19 August 1924 as Gymnastic Club of Volos' Refugees or Refugee Gymnastic Association, by Greek refugees who came from

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...

. Niki participated for the first time in the championship of the first category before the establishment of the First National, as in 1953–54 she was the winner of the Northern Group and this gave her the ticket for the final phase of the National Division Championship 1953–54, Six teams (Athens (2) – Piraeus – Thessaloniki – North – South) took the 5th place with 16 points, ahead of Panahaiki, who finished the championship with 13. Niki won for the first time in the 1961 Greek FCA Winners' Championship, where she had 5 appearances in the big league. In 1966 it was devalued to the Beta Ethniki and since then it has been trying to regain its rise to the big category, which eventually succeeded 48 years later, in 2014–15. In 1976 he won the Amateur Cup. In recent years he has been fighting in the Beta Ethniki Championship and in the 2006–07 season he finished last and deferred to the Third National. In the 2012–13 season he was back in the Beta Ethniki Championship, and in the following year (2013–14) after the play-offs he won the first place that led to the Super League after 48 years of absence. Unfortunately, on 10 December 2014, the club of Thessaly left the championship due to the inability of the administration to cover the financial obligations that had been created, leaving all the players that belonged to its staff to be released as free. From 2015 he competes in the Gamma Ethniki.

Crest and colours

Niki Volos crest displays the goddess Nike as depicted in the statue

Winged Victory of Samothrace The ''Winged Victory of Samothrace'', or the ''Nike of Samothrace'', is a votive monument originally found on the island of Samothrace, north of the Aegean Sea. It is a masterpiece of Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic era, dating from the ...

. The image of the goddess was the original emblem of the

Smyrna Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to promi ...

-based athletic club

Panionios Panionios G.S.S. Football Club ( Greek: ΠΑΕ Πανιώνιος Γ.Σ.Σ.), the ''Pan-Ionian Gymnastics Club of Smyrna'' (Πανιώνιος Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Σμύρνης, ''Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis'' ...

, one of the most popular

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

athletic clubs of

Ionia Ionia () was an ancient region on the western coast of Anatolia, to the south of present-day Izmir. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements. Never a unified state, it was named after the Ionian ...

, before it was uprooted and re-established in

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 ...

after the Greco-Turkish War. The founding members of Niki Volou FC, many of them refugees from

(now Izmir) and the surrounding region, decided to restore the emblem as part of their new club.

Players

Current squad

Honours

Leagues

* Greek FCA Winners' Championship **Winners (1): 1960–61 * Second Division **Winners (1): 2013–14 ***Runners-up (1): 1979–80 * Third Division **Winners (2): 1976, 1995–96 ***Runners-up (4): 1987–88, 2011–12, 2017–18, 2018–19 *Fourth Division **Winners (2): 1992–93, 2001–02 *

Greek Football Amateur Cup Greek Amateur Cup (Greek: Κύπελλο Ερασιτεχνικών Ομάδων Ελλάδος) is one of the most known competitions for amateur teams in Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in ...

** Winner (1): 1975–76 * Thessaly FCA Championship **Winners (15): 1932–33, 1937–38, 1945–46, 1947–48, 1948–59, 1949–50, 1950–51, 1952–53, 1953–54, 1955–56, 1956–57, 1957–58, 1959–60, 1960–61, 1975–76 * Thessaly FCA Cup **Winners (5): 1975–76, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2015–16, 2017–18

Achievements

Leagues

* Panhellenic Championship **''Fifth place (1):'' 1954

Cups

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 ...

**''Semi-finals (2)'': 1946-47, 1964-65 **''Quarter-Finalists'' (6): 1955–56, 1956–57, 1958–59, 1959–60, 1962–63, 2005–06

Seasons in the 21st century

Key: 1R = First Round, 2R = Second Round, 3R = Third Round, 4R = Fourth Round, 5R = Fifth Round, GS = Group Stage, QF = Quarter-finals, SF = Semi-finals.

Supporters

The club's most famous supporters group is the one consisting of members from "Blue Club", fan club established in 1985, the so-called Indians. The fan club is also recognized as "Blue Club Panagiotis Ntokouzis", named after one of the founding members of the fan club who died in a motorcycle accident. Another club, particularly famous among the majority of Greek ultras, is the "Blue Angels club 1994" established in 1994. Leader of supporters is Nickolay “Nikolaykata” Kunchovski.

Notable supporters

Lavrentis Machairitsas Lavrentis Machairitsas ( el, Λαυρέντης Μαχαιρίτσας; 5 November 1956 – 9 September 2019) was a Greek rock musician from Volos, Thessaly, Greece. Biography Early years Machairitsas was born in Volos and began taking pia ...

, rock musician

Friendships

Dunav Ruse FC Dunav ( bg, Дунав, officially named ''"Дунав от Русе"'') is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Ruse, which currently competes in the Second League, the second tier of the Bulgarian football league system. Part ...

Astana Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmola Region, tho ...

Sponsorships

*Great Shirt Sponsor: Car.gr *Official Sport Clothing Manufacturer:

Macron Macron may refer to: People * Emmanuel Macron (born 1977), president of France since 2017 ** Brigitte Macron (born 1953), French teacher, wife of Emmanuel Macron * Jean-Michel Macron (born 1950), French professor of neurology, father of Emmanu ...

*Golden Sponsor: TBA

References

External links

Official website
{{Super League Greece teamlist Football clubs in Thessaly Magnesia Sport in Volos Association football clubs established in 1924 1924 establishments in Greece Multi-sport clubs in Greece Super League Greece 2 clubs