Larisa

Larisa is a football (soccer) club from Greece.

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AEL 1964 (Greek (language): Αθλητική Ένωση Λάρισας 1964 - Athlitiki Enosi Larissas 1964), the Athletic Union of Larissa 1964, is a Greece football (soccer) club based in the city of Larissa, capital of Greece's Thessaly region. Larisa is also known, unofficially, as Larissa. It is the only FC outside the Greek capital Athens and co-capital Salonika, that has ever been Greek Champions (1988). They also have won a couple of Greek Cups (1985, 2007) and played another couple of Cup finals (1982, 1984), which places AEL amongst the top 5 of Greek Football.
Famous fans: Philippos Pliatsikas (singer), Tasos Vamvakidis (actor), Stelios Kantonias (businessman), Kostas Kapatais (producer, winner of 2004 Olympic Golden Rings), Vassilis Tsiaras (lawyer), George Roussakis (journalist), Kostas Agorastos (politician), Dimitris Karatzas (businessman), Nikolaos Karydis (judge).

The team currently competes in the Super League Greece.

History

Larisa was founded as Athlitiki Enosi Larissas in 1964, the result of a merger of four local clubs - Iraklis Larissas, Aris Larissas, Toxotis Larissas and Larissaikos. It quickly rose to the first division. However, after winning the 1988 championship, Larisa fell into decline and by 2000 it had been relegated to the third division, going through bankruptcy. In 2003, Larisa was forced to change its name to AEL 1964 as a result of the bankruptcy.

However, the 2004-2005 season proved to be very fruitful for the club, winning the second division (achieving double promotion) and advancing to the quarterfinals of the Greek football Cup. AEL has had a couple of good seasons in the First Division ever since. They have been particularly successful in the Greek Cup, and as highlight they lift the trophy for second time after 23 years.

Titles

AEL 1964 is the only countryside based team (i.e., outside of the Athens and Thessaloniki metropolitan areas) to win the Greek Alpha Ethniki (now Super League Greece) Championship, when they did so in 1988. Larisa also won the Greek football Cup twice: in 1985 by beating PAOK FC in the final (4-1) and in 2007 by beating Panathinaikos FC 2-1. Before that, AEL 1964 made the finals of the Greek Cup twice, losing in both 1982 and 1984 to Panathinaikos.

Greek Cup 2006-07 winners

AEL lifted the Greek Cup 2006-07 for their second time in their history after beating favourites Panathinaikos by a one goal margin. Two goals gave underdog AEL the Cup by stunning their opposition who were in the midst of a disappointing season both nationally and in Europe. The first goal came early in the match as at the third minute AEL won a free kick which was taken by Georgios Fotakis and headed in by striker Jozef Kozlej. Just before the end of the first half Panathinaikos won a penalty and Dimitris Papadopoulos stepped up to make the score even on the 44th minute. As the match was approaching its end Henry Antchouet scored with a strong shoot after an excellent long pass from Georgios Fotakis to give AEL the lead. AEL then kept the lead, sealing a glorious day for the unlikely winners. The 10,000 AEL fans deliriously celebrated the goal as the opposing fans felt the disappointment of having to end the season trophyless despite high expectations.

Stadium

AEL currently plays at the Alkazar stadium, AEL's home since 1964. However plans have been approved to build a new ground at the suburbs of the city(the region is called neapoli). The new stadium's capacity will be 16,000 seats.

As of 28 July 2009

Youth team

Coaching and medical staff

- Manager: Marinos Ouzounidis
- Assistant Manager: Georgios Karagiannis
- Fitness Coach: Christos Mourikis
- Goalkeeping Coach: Christos Michail
- Chief Scout: Nikolaos Kotsovos
- Youth Team Manager:
- Youth Team Coach: Konstantinos Katsaras
- Youth Team Fitness Coach: Christos Kapelianis

Managerial history

- Giorgos Donis 2004-2008
- Marinos Ouzounidis 2008-present

Notable former players

Greece
- Giorgos Agorogiannis
- Alexandros Alexandris
- Stathis Chaitas
- Giannis Galitsios
- Theofanis Gekas
- Michalis Ziogas
- Vassilis Karapialis
- Kostas Kolomitrousis
- Stefanos Kotsolis
- Dimitrios Koukoulitsios
- Thomas Kyparissis
- Kostas Maloumidis
- Christos Michail
- Georgios Mitsibonas
- Dimitrios Mousiaris
- Theologis Papadopoulos
- Takis Parafestas
- Nikos Patsiavouras
- Georgios Plitsis
- Dimitris Salpigidis
- Sakis Tsiolis
- Giannis Valaoras
- Theodoros Voutiritsas

Albania
- Lefter Millo

Argentina
- Marcelo Sarmiento

Belgium
- Mbo Mpenza

Brazil
- Alexandre Silva Cleyton
- Paolo Da Silva

Cameroon
- David Embe

Côte d'Ivoire
- Ibrahima Bakayoko

Cyprus
- Nektarios Alexandrou
- Efstathios Aloneftis

France
- Christian Bassila
- Laurent Robert

Gabon
- Henry Antchouet

Germany
- Marco Foerster

Peru
- Nolberto Solano

Poland
- Krzysztof Adamczyk
- Krzysztof Baran
- Jan Karaś
- Kazimierz Kmiecik
- Janusz Kupcewicz
- Maciej Żurawski

Portugal
- Hélder Cristóvão

Romania
- Dennis Şerban
- Ştefan Stoica

Serbia
- Saša Ilić (footballer born 1977)

Slovakia
- Jozef Kožlej