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Panionios GSS (Greek: Πανιώνιος Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Σμύρνης – Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis), the Pan-Ionian Gymnastic Association of Smyrna, is a Greek association football club based in the Athenian suburb of Nea Smyrni, Greece.

The club currently competes in the Super League Greece.

Early history

The club was founded in 1890 in Smyrna (Σμύρνη) currently İzmir, under the name of "Orpheus Music and Sports Club" by part of the large Greek population living in the city at the time. In 1893 some Orpheus members keen on sports formed a separate organization, the "Gymnasion Club", and started holding yearly sports competitions. In 1898, Orpheus and Gymnasion merged again to form Panionios GSS. Members of the Panionios sports club represented Greece in all international track & field games until these developed in the modern Olympic Games.

After the Greek military defeat in 1922 the club was forced to transfer firstly in Athens and later to the Athenian suburb of New Smyrna where lots of the population of Smyrna immigrated. The club has a tradition of cultivating all major sports and was the first Greek club to establish a track and field division for women, in 1925. Another major example of the club's contribution to Greek sports rests in the fact that it was Panionios that introduced Basketball and Volleyball in Greek sports society.

With the gradual transformation of men's football and basketball into professional sports, Panionios FC and Panionios BC became privately owned clubs operating under the auspices of the traditional "amateur sports" Panionios GSS. To date, Panionios remains the only sports club in Greece that was awarded the Golden Cross from the Athens Academy as a recognition of the club's rich and continuous enrichment of Greek sports.[2]
Recent history
Panionios FC playing a home game in Nea Smyrni Stadium

Panionios has spent nearly its entire history in the Greek First Division (now called 'Superleague'), having missed out from competing in Greek football's top division only twice in its more than 100-year history. Within this, Panionios rose quite often to high levels, with top achievement in terms of the league being the 2nd position that the club reached in 1971, losing the title to AEK.

Panionios has produced all three major Greek strikers of the 1980s, namely Nikos Anastopoulos (later of Olympiakos), Thomas Mavros (later of AEK), and Dimitris Saravakos (later of Panathinaikos). Other notable players coming out of the club in the 1990s include Nikos Tsiantakis (later of Olympiacos) and Takis Fyssas, later of Panathinaikos, Benfica and member of Greek national team. Within the 2000s another four Greek national team players came out from the club, namely Alexandros Tziolis, Evangelos Mantzios, Nikos Spiropoulos and Grigoris Makos.

The club had faced financial difficulties which triggered the transfer of the ownership to the municipality of Nea Smyrni in 1992. Those difficulties remained all through the 1990s forcing the team's league performance to drop. Yet, it remained in a high level and managed to win the Greek Football Cup competition in 1998 and participate successfully in the UEFA Cup Winners Cup the year after, reaching the quarterfinals. In December 2001 large part of the club's shares moved away from the Municipality back to private hands, where working around bankruptcy legislation the club was renamed to Neos ("New") Panionios FC, to avoid the threat of relegation from the first division.
Change of ownership

In 2004, shipowner Constantinos Tsakiris was elected president of the "amateur sports" Panionios GSS. Panionios won the women's Basketball Championship in 2006, the club's first in a team sport, and the women's volleyball team advanced to the first division. In 2006, Tsakiris acquired 85% of Neos Panionios FC stock and started restructuring the team from scratch. He changed the name of the club back to the original "Panionios GSS" FC and hired German coach Ewald Lienen who, during his first year created a team that made it to the top 5 of the Greek Super League and on to the UEFA Cup. Tsakiris has also unveiled an ambitious plan to have the aging football ground and athletics track demolished, and build a modern multi-sport arena in its place. Apart from a 12.000 capacity football stadium, the proposed complex would include facilities for basketball, volleyball, aquatic sports, track & field, boxing, gymnastics, wrestling and more.[3]

On the summer transfer window of 2008, the club signed Uruguay national team members Álvaro Recoba and Fabián Estoyanoff, but shortly after Lienen resigned by mutual consent on November 11, 2008, reason being disagreement with the Panionio's board.[4] On November 12, 2008 Greek coach Takis Lemonis was hired [5] and resigned on December 3, 2008 after the refuse of Panionio's board to accept Lemoni's request to dismiss three members of Panionio's coaching and management staff.[6][7] Assistant coach Joti Stamatopoulos lead the club until the end of the season. He was replaced by Belgian manager Emilio Ferrera.

Under the Tsakiris presidency, the club built its own training facility just outside Athens in the region of Koropi. The training ground is operating since 2008 but was fully completed in 2009.
Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
No. Position Player
1 Greece GK Giannis Siderakis
2 Georgia (country) DF David Kvirkvelia
4 Sweden DF Markus Jonsson
5 Greece MF Anastasios Avlonitis
6 Nigeria MF Suleiman Omo
7 Greece FW Dimitrios Drosos
8 Spain FW Sito Riera
9 Finland FW Njazi Kuqi
10 Uruguay MF Fabián Estoyanoff
14 Croatia MF Davor Kukec
15 Ghana MF Bennard Yao Kumordzi
16 Greece MF Dimitris Kolovos
17 Greece MF Vasilis Bouzas
20 Greece MF Fanouris Goundoulakis (captain)

No. Position Player
21 Greece GK Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos
22 Greece MF Andreas Samaris
23 Greece MF Dimitris Siovas
24 Greece MF Dimitrios Anastasopoulos
26 Bosnia and Herzegovina DF Edin Cocalić
27 Greece MF Amiri Kurdi
31 Greece DF Dimitris Petkakis
32 Serbia MF Dejan Milovanović (on loan from Lens)
39 Nigeria FW Emmanuel Okoye
40 Malta FW Andre Schembri
77 Austria GK Jürgen Macho
84 Greece MF Efstathios Rokas
87 Greece GK Leonidas Panagopoulos

For recent transfers, see List of Greek football transfers summer 2011.

Famous former players

Greece

Greece Nikos Anastopoulos
Greece Stelios Aposporis
Greece Stathis Chaitas
Greece Labros Choutos
Greece Jiorgos Dedes
Greece Christos Emvoliadis
Greece Takis Fyssas
Greece Thanasis Intzoglou
Greece Andreas Lagonikakis
Greece Grigoris Makos
Greece Antonis Manikas
Greece Evangelos Mantzios
Greece Spiros Maragos
Greece Stathis Mavridis
Greece Dimitris Mavrikis
Greece Thomas Mavros
Greece Kostas Mitroglou
Greece Dimitris Nalitzis
Greece Kostas Nestoridis
Greece Theologis Papadopoulos
Greece Takis Papoulidis
Greece Yiannis Pathiakakis
Greece Nikos Pentzaropoulos
Greece Antonis Sapountzis
Greece Dimitris Saravakos
Greece Thanasis Saravakos
Greece Nikos Spyropoulos
Greece Nikos Tsiantakis
Greece Themis Tzanetis
Greece Alexandros Tziolis
Greece Leonidas Vokolos

Albania

Albania Arjan Bellaj
Albania Sulejman Demollari
Albania Hamdi Salihi
Albania Foto Strakosha

Algeria

Algeria Rafik Djebbour
Algeria Mohamed Chalali

Argentina

Argentina Dario Fernandez

Australia

Australia Travis Dodd

Belgium

Belgium Stéphane Demol

Brazil

Brazil Luciano
Brazil Marcelinho Paulista
Brazil Marcelo Pletsch

Bulgaria

Bulgaria Teodor Barzov
Bulgaria Krasimir Chomakov
Bulgaria Milen Georgiev

Canada

Canada Tamadani Nsaliwa

Cape Verde

Cape Verde Noni Lima

Cote d'Ivoire

Côte d'Ivoire Gilles Domoraud

Cyprus

Cyprus Simos Krassas
Cyprus Kyriacos Pavlou

Czech Republic

Czech Republic Jaroslav Drobný
Czech Republic Václav Svěrkoš
Czech Republic Martin Vaniak
Czech Republic Petr Vlček

Egypt

Egypt Ahmed Magdy

England

England Marco Gabbiadini [1]
England Gary Owen
England Mark Robins
England Paul Tisdale

France

France Nicolas Lourdes [2]
France Alain Raguel

Georgia

Georgia (country) Levan Tskitishvili

Germany

Germany Michael Delura

Hungary

Hungary Norbert Tóth

Liberia

Liberia Joe Nagbe
Liberia Isaac Pupo
Liberia Zizi Roberts

Malawi

Malawi Tam Nsaliwa

Mali

Mali Fousseni Diawara

Norway

Norway Roy Wassberg

Poland

Poland Adam Majewski

Romania

Romania Marcel Coraş
Romania Marian Ivan

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Kitts and Nevis Keith Gumbs

Serbia

Serbia Zoran Jovičić
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Milinko Pantić
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Vladimir Vermezovic

Serbia & Montenegro

Serbia and Montenegro Miodrag Mendan

Spain

Spain Thomas Christiansen

Slovakia

Slovakia Mario Breska
Slovakia Miroslav König
Slovakia Lubomir Meszaros
Slovakia Thomas Oravec
Slovakia Attila Pinte

Slovenia

Slovenia Goran Sankovič
Slovenia Ermin Šiljak

South Africa

South Africa Dillon Sheppard

Turkey

Turkey Erol Bulut

Uruguay

Uruguay Juan Martín Parodi
Uruguay Álvaro Recoba

Wales

Wales Gareth Roberts

National titles
Greek Cup

Trophy(transp).png (2) 1979, 1998 [8]

Runners-up: 1952, 1961, 1967, 1989.
Athens Championship

(1) 1951
Balkan Cup

(1) Winners: 1971

Runners-up: 1986
Former coaches

England Joe Mallett (1970–74)
Sweden Bo Johansson (1988–89)
Greece Andreas Michalopoulos (1994–95)
Romania Emerich Jenei (1995–96)
Greece Nikos Alefantos (1996–97)
Republic of Ireland Ronnie Whelan (1998–99)
Poland Jacek Gmoch (1999)
Finland Martti Kuusela (2000–01)
Romania Dumitru Dumitriu (2001–02)
Slovakia Karol Pecze (2004)
Greece Giorgos Vazakas (2004–05)
Greece Dimitrios Barbalias (2005)

Greece Nikos Pantelis (2005)
Czech Republic Josef Csaplár (2005)
Slovakia Jozef Bubenko (2005–06)
Greece Vangelis Vlachos (2006)
Germany Ewald Lienen (2006–08)
Greece Takis Lemonis (2008)
Greece Joti Stamatopoulos (2008–09)
Belgium Emilio Ferrera (2009–10)
Greece Georgios Paraschos (2010)
Sweden Mikael Stahre (June 2010 – October 2010)
Greece Apostolos Mantzios (October 2010 – December 2010)
Greece Takis Lemonis (December 2010 – November 2011)

European matches
Season Competition Round Club Home Away
1964-65 Intertoto Cup Group C1 SwedenMalmö FF 1-1 1-5
Socialist Federal Republic of YugoslaviaNK Dinamo Zagreb 2-2*
FranceToulouse FC 0-3*
1969–70 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 1st Round East Germany F.C. Hansa Rostock 2-0 0-3
1971-72 UEFA Cup 1st Round Spain Atlético Madrid 1-0 1-2
2nd Round Hungary Ferencvárosi TC 0-2 (α.α.) 0-6
1979-80 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1st Round Netherlands FC Twente 4-0 1-3
2nd Round Sweden IFK Göteborg 1-0 0-2
1987-88 UEFA Cup 1st Round France Toulouse FC 0-1 1-5
1998-99 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1st Round Finland FC Haka 2-0 3-1
2nd Round Cyprus Apollon Limassol 3-2 1-0
Quarter-finals Italy S.S. Lazio 0-4 0-3
2003-04 UEFA Cup 1st Round Denmark FC Nordsjælland 2-1 1-0
2nd Round Spain FC Barcelona 0-3 0-2
2004-05 UEFA Cup 1st Round Italy Udinese Calcio 3-1 0-1
Group stage England Newcastle United F.C. 0-1 4th
Portugal Sporting Clube de Portugal 1-4
Georgia (country) FC Dinamo Tbilisi 5-2
FranceFC Sochaux-Montbéliard 0-1
2007-08 UEFA Cup 1st Round FranceFC Sochaux-Montbéliard 0-1 2-0
Group stage Sweden Helsingborgs IF 1-1 4th
Turkey Galatasaray S.K. 0-3
Austria FK Austria Wien 1-0
France FC Girondins de Bordeaux 2-3
2007-08 UEFA Intertoto Cup 2nd round SerbiaOFK Beograd 3-1 0-1
3rd round ItalyS.S.C. Napoli 0-1 0-1

In the summer of 1964 Panionios took part in the Cup Rapanos in place of the Olympic, who retired after having been given two games with Toulouse (2-4) and Dinamo Z. (0-4). The results were calculated in the standings without replay Panionios these groups. Panionios has three games: two at home Kaftantzoglio Stadium, which had a lights away with Malmo. The away game against Toulouse, who refused to attend the Olympic, won 3-0 in favor of the French team.

European record
Season Achievement Notes
UEFA Cup Winners Cup
1979–80 Second Round eliminated by IFK Göteborg
1998–99 Quarter-finals eliminated by S.S. Lazio
UEFA Cup
1971–72 Second Round eliminated by Ferencváros
1987–88 First Round eliminated by Toulouse FC
2003–04 Second Round eliminated by FC Barcelona
2007–08 Group Stage 4th Position in Group H
UEFA Intertoto Cup
2008 Third Round eliminated by S.S.C. Napoli

Panionios G.S.S.

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