Apollon Pontou Kalamaria

Formation and early years

1926–1960

Apollon Kalamarias was founded on 24 January 1926, in Kalamaria, by Pontian refugees. The original idea was to establish a club to disseminate the rich musical tradition of the Pontians, where members would gather to play mandolin and guitar. Thus, the head of Apollo, the god of music in ancient Greek mythology, was chosen as the emblem of the group. Later followed the founding of theater and sports departments. The colors chosen to represent the club were symbolic for the Pontian history: red for the blood of the people who lost their lives during the expulsion of the Pontians and black for the mourning. Emmanuel Majopoulos, the painter in the profession, was appointed first president. In 1927, the club entered the power of the Macedonian football clubs and participated for the first time in the Third Division Championship of Thessaloniki.

In 1958, Apollon Kalamarias won the National Championship of Macedonia. The debut of the club in the First National Division took place on 25 October 1959, against Proodeftiki at Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium. The club completed one hundred fights in this category on 2 December 1962, at the Toumba Stadium, defeating Olympiacos. A few days later, on 8 December, Nikitas Malioglou's team was "crowned" the first player in the history of the First National to complete the 100 entries.

1961–1980

Another footballer who linked his name to two remarkable achievements was Panagiotis Kyprianidis. He was the first football player to compete with the colors of Greece as he fought at Apollon Kalamarias (22 May 1963), and in the same summer he was the first footballer in the country to overcome the one million drachmas barrier for transcription, wearing Olympiacos shirt. For his part, another footballer, Kyriakos Mitariotis, completed 39 goals with Apollon Kalamarias' shirt in the First National Division, being the only player in the history of the club to have a similar achievement to date.

During the period 1964–1973, the club fell from the 1st National, to return on 23 September 1973, now on his own stadium. In 1976, Dimitris (Takis) Toboulidis joined the team. Latter, fought with the colors of the club until 1994, fighting in the center of defense. He is the player with the most participations in the history of Apollon Kalamarias in the First National Division, 233 in total.

1981–2000

On 4 September 1983, the first match of Apollon Kalamarias took place in the 1st National Division as Football Association (PAE) against PAOK at the Harilaou Stadium. In the 60' Ilias Chatzieleftheriou scored the first "professional" goal of Apollon Kalamarias in the big category. Ten years later, the club's victory over Apollon Athens on 4 April 1993, was important for the club's history as it achieved the 100th victory in the First National Division.

2001–2017

The team had been in and out of the Greek first division until international businessman and former owner of Kalamata, Stavros Papadopoulos, bought the team in 2001. Papadopoulos invested money into the team and brought in many young players from Brazil, and the team gained promotion to the Greek first division within two years. Papadopoulos has relinquished the running of the team since 2004. ^[]

During the 2007–08 season, Apollon Kalamarias competed in the 1st National Division and eventually deferred. However, this passage of the team by the Super League was to indirectly judge the champion of that year, through the evolution of the quirky "Wallner Case" (from the name of the Austrian footballer, Roman Wallner), who arrived to the International Sports Court of Lausanne (CAS), but eventually two days before the trial he withdrew the appeal.

In the next few months, the club was in a difficult financial position, with its debts amounting to 3.5 million, according to Apollon's major shareholder, Eftimis Solomonides. In December, four footballers filed an appeal, asking for the due ones, and at the same time terminating their contracts. The decision makers sought an amount of 300,000 euros for the direct payment of players' appeals, overdue installments, IKA and tax arrangements and the participation of the team in the 2nd National Championship. The submission of a participation statement outside the deadline of the Championship announcement led the historic club to the 4th National Division.

During the 2009–10 season, Apollon Kalamarias participated in the Championship of the 4th National Division taking the 6th place in the final classification of the 2nd group. In the following season, 2010–11, they took part in the 2nd Group Championship of the same category. Achieving the first place of the final rankings secured the rise in Football League 2. In the period 2012–13, Apollon Kalamarias took part in the Football League 2 Championship, where they managed to go to the Football League. In the period 2014–15, the club was downgraded but with a big win over PAOK, 1–0 in the Greek Cup.

During the years 2015–16 and 2016–17, Apollon competes in the Gamma Ethniki, while the football section has been taken over by the brothers Kalatzidis. In the period 2016–17, Apollon won the championship of the first group of the Gamma Ethniki and was promoted to the 2nd National Division.