Niki Volos F.C.

Niki Volos Football Club () is a Greek professional football club based in the city of Volos, in the region of Magnesia, Greece. The club currently competes in the Super League 2, the second tier of Greek football.

History

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

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 Beta Ethniki, where she had 5 appearances in the big league. In 1966 she was relegated to the Beta Ethniki and since then has been trying to regain her rise to the big category, which eventually succeeded 48 years later, in 2014–15. In 1976 she won the Amateur Cup.

In recent years she has been competing in the Beta Ethniki Championship, but in the 2006–07 season finished last and was relegated to the Gamma Ethniki. In the 2012–13 season she was back in the Beta Ethniki, and in the following year ( 2013–14) after the play-offs, 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 and the following year started again from the amateur Gamma Ethniki. From the period 2021–22 it was promoted again to the second division, where she currently competes. Niki has a long-standing rivalry with Olympiakos Volos, the crosstown derby.

Crest and colours

Niki Volos crest displays the goddess Nike as depicted in the statue Winged Victory of Samothrace. The image of the goddess was the original emblem of the Smyrna-based athletic club Panionios, one of the most popular Greek athletic clubs of Ionia, before it was uprooted and re-established in Athens after the Greco-Turkish War. The founding members of Niki Volou FC, many of them refugees from Smyrna (now İzmir) and the surrounding region, decided to restore the emblem as part of their new club.

Titles and honours

Domestic

* Second Division
**Winners (2): 1960–61, 2013–14
***Runners-up (1): 1979–80
* Third Division
**Winners (1): 1995–96
***Runners-up (4): 1987–88, 2011–12, 2017–18, 2018–19
*Fourth Division
**Winners (2): 1992–93, 2001–02
* Greek FCA Winners' Championship
**Winners (1): 1975–76
* Greek Football Amateur Cup
** Winner (1): 1975–76

Regional

* 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
* Thessaly FCA Super Cup
**Winners (1): 2016
*Volos Championship
**Winners (14): 1933, 1934, 1938, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961
*Volos Cup
**Winners (1): 1933
*Thessaly Cup
**Winners (2): 1939, 1947

Achievements

Leagues

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

Cups

*Greek Cup
**''Semi-finals (2)'': 1946–47, 1964–65
**''Quarter-Finalists'' (7): 1955–56, 1956–57, 1958–59, 1959–60, 1962–63, 2005–06, 2023–24

Seasons in the 21st century

Key: 1R = First Round, 2R = Second Round, 3R = Third Round, 4R = Fourth Round, 5R = Fifth Round, GS = Group Stage, R16 = Round of 16, 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.

Friendships

* Dunav Ruse
* Astana

Players

Current squad

Personnel

Ownership and current board

Coaching staff

Notable supporters

*Angelos Argyris, footballer, former Niki Volos player
*Dimitris Balafas, footballer and coach, former Niki Volos captain
* Lavrentis Machairitsas, singer
* Dimitrios Kokkinakis, footballer, former Niki Volos player, lifelong fan
*Giannis Paflias, footballer and coach, former Niki Volos captain Όνειρό μου να καθίσω στον πάγκο της Νίκης - Mikriliga.com · Είναι η ομάδα της καρδιάς μου
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References

External links

*

{{Super League Greece teamlist

Niki Volos F.C.
Football clubs in Thessaly
Association football clubs established in 1924
1924 establishments in Greece
Niki Volos (sports club)
Super League Greece 2 clubs
Diaspora association football clubs