Olympiacos was founded in 1925 in Piraeus, Greece to promote the ideals of the ancient Olympic Games through athletic competition. The club aimed to cultivate its athletes' abilities and promote sportsmanship among youth. From 1996-2010, under owner Socratis Kokkalis and coaches like Dušan Bajević, Olympiacos dominated Greek football, winning 5 consecutive league titles and making the Champions League knockout phase twice. Major signings included Rivaldo, Yaya Touré, and Antonis Nikopolidis. With 42 league titles, 27 cups, and 73 national titles total, Olympiacos is the most successful club in Greek football history.

2. The name was inspired from the Ancient Olympic Games and along with the
club's emblem, the laurel-crowned adolescent Olympic winner, encompass and
symbolize the morality, the honour, the vying, the splendor, the sportsmanship
and the fair play value of the Olympic ideal of Ancient Greece.

4. Olympiacos was founded on 10 March 1925, in the port of Piraeus, and the
club’s aim, as stated in the statutes, is the systematic cultivation and
development of its athletes’ possibilities for participation in athletic
competitions, the spreading of the Olympic athletic ideal and the promotion of
sportsmanship and fanship among the youth according to egalitarian principles,
by stressing a healthy, ethical and social basis as its foundation. Members of
"Piraikos Podosfairikos Omilos FC" (Sport and Football Club of Piraeus) and
"Piraeus Fans Club FC" decided, during a historical assembly, to dissolve the two
clubs in order to establish a new unified one, which would bring this new vision
and dynamic to the community. Notis Kamperos, a senior officer of the Hellenic
Navy, proposed the name Olympiacos and the profile of a laurel-crowned
Olympic winner as the emblem of the new club. Michalis Manouskos, a
prominent Piraeus industrialist, expanded the name to its complete and current
status, Olympiacos Syndesmos Filathlon Pireos.

6. THE TITLES OF THE TEAM
Founded on 10 March 1925, Olympiacos is the most successful club in Greek football
history, having won 42 Greek League titles, 27 Greek Cups, 17 Doubles and 4 Greek Super
Cups, for a total of 73 national titles, all records. Olympiacos' dominating success can be
further evidenced by the fact that all the other Greek clubs have won a combined total of
37 League titles.
Olympiacos also holds the record for the most consecutive Greek League titles, as they are
the only team to have won seven consecutive League titles (1997–2003), having broken
their own previous record of six consecutive from the club's trophy-laden era of the 50s
(1954–1959), when Olympiacos gained unequivocally the nickname of Thrylos (The
Legend).

9. The Golden Era (1996–2010)
In 1996, Socratis Kokkalis appointed Dušan Bajević as the team's new head coach. By that
time, Olympiacos had already a very strong roster, with players like Kyriakos Karataidis,
Vassilis Karapialis, Grigoris Georgatos, Alexis Alexandris, Giorgos Amanatidis, Nikos Dabizas
and Ilija Ivić. Upon Bajević's arrival, Kokkalis decides to strengthen the team significantly,
in order to create a very strong roster that will dominate Greek football for years to come.
He buys the highly talented hot prospects Predrag Đorđević and Stelios Giannakopoulos
from Paniliakos F.C., outbidding both AEK and Panathinaikos, he signs Refik Šabanadžović,
Andreas Niniadis, Giorgos Anatolakis and Alekos Kaklamanos and brings Olympiacos
Academy product Dimitris Eleftheropoulos back from his loan spell at Proodeftiki. With all
these players up front, Olympiacos strode to the 1996–97 title by 12 clear points over AEK
and 20 points over the third Panathinaikos in Bajevic's first season in charge and
celebrated the first Greek Championship after nine sterile seasons, putting an end to the
"stone years" and officially beginning Olympiacos' era of domination. In the next 1997–98
season, Dimitris Mavrogenidis, Siniša Gogić, Ilias Poursanidis and the Ghanaian striker
Peter Ofori-Quaye were transferred to the club and Olympiacos won the 1997–98
Championship. Bajevic's team, along with AEK and Panathinaikos, were too close in the
table, but finally Olympiacos made an important away win against Panathinaikos (0–2)
and celebrated the second consecutive Championship, with three points difference from
Panathinaikos. Olympiacos participated for the first time in the UEFA Champions League
group stage and took the 3rd place in a tough group, leaving Porto in the 4th place, while
Real Madrid, the eventual European Champions, topped the group and qualified for the
quarter-finals.

11. 5 consecutive Championships, 2
presences in UEFA Champions
League knockout phase (2004–2010)
In 2004, Olympiacos rehired Dušan Bajević and signed the 1999 World Footballer of the
Year and 2002 World Champion Brazilian superstar Rivaldo and the 2004 European
Champion Antonis Nikopolidis. The end of the season found Olympiacos winning the
domestic Double and having a decent Champions League display, gathering 10 points in a
tough group with Liverpool, Monaco and Deportivo de La Coruña and losing the
qualification to the knockout phase in the last four minutes of the last game against the
eventual European Champions Liverpool in Anfield. Bajević left the club and the
Norwegian coach Trond Sollied was hired in his place. They club signed Cypriot striker
Michalis Konstantinou from arch-rivals Panathinaikos, 2004 European Champion defender
Michalis Kapsis from Bordeaux and the versatile box-to-box Ivorian midfielder Yaya Touré.
During the season 2005–06, Olympiacos won all the four derbies against their major
rivals, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens, something only achieved once more, during the
season 1972–73. The combined goal total in these four matches was 11–3 in favour of
Olympiacos. They also beat AEK Athens 3–0 in the Greek Cup Final to clinch their second
straight Double and managed to win an all-time record of 16 consecutive matches in the
championship, breaking their own past record.

13. JOHN G
D Senior
JANUARY 2016