Apollon Limassol FC
Also written as Apollon.
The club
This dossier covers Apollon Limassol FC of Cyprus, not Apollon Smyrnis of Greece, a different club that carries the same short name "Apollon". The identification is established from the 2025/26 Cypriot First Division championship-round table, which has Apollon Limassol finishing third with 67 points, and from the 2026/27 UEFA Europa Conference League qualifying draw, which shows Apollon Limassol entering the second qualifying round of the Main Path on the strength of that finish. Apollon Smyrnis, by contrast, was playing in the Athens FCA First Division in 2025/26 after promotion from the Gamma Ethniki, the Greek third tier, and its last UEFA appearance was in the 1995/96 UEFA Cup against Olimpija Ljubljana, so it is not a candidate for a 2026/27 UEFA qualifying fixture.
Apollon Limassol were founded on 14 April 1954 in Limassol, established by a group of young members led by Christakis Pavlides. The club's name refers to the Greek god Apollo. The team is nicknamed "Kyanolefki", the blue and white, for its home colours.
The club played for decades at the Tsirion Stadium in Limassol, shared with local rivals AEL Limassol and Aris Limassol, before moving to the Alphamega Stadium, with a capacity of around 10,700 to 10,830. The president is Nicos Kirzis. The current head coach was not established with confidence from the sources read here: club-site staff listings and the Wikipedia infobox gave conflicting names, Sofronis Avgousti and Hernán Losada, without a clear appointment date for either in 2026.
Recent seasons
Apollon won the Cypriot First Division in 2021/22, ending a sixteen-year title drought, sealing the championship with a 3-2 win over APOEL on 8 May 2022 under coach Alexander Zorniger. They had finished runners-up in 2020/21, missing out on the title after a 2-2 draw with Olympiakos Nicosia in the penultimate round while Omonia went on to win it. Further back, 2017/18 was a club-record points season under Sofronis Avgousti, second place with 82 points and 90 goals scored, Emilio Zelaya the top scorer with 17. In 2025/26 Apollon finished third of fourteen clubs in the championship round with 67 points, a finish that carried Conference League second qualifying round entry for 2026/27. Full points, goal and form detail for the intervening 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons was not established from the sources read here.
Honours and landmarks
Apollon Limassol have won the Cypriot First Division four times: 1990/91, 1993/94, 2005/06 and 2021/22. The 2005/06 title came unbeaten, nineteen wins and seven draws for 64 points, only the fourth undefeated championship in Cypriot football, and included a thirty-match unbeaten run from 12 March 2005. They have won the Cypriot Cup nine times, in 1965/66, 1966/67, 1985/86, 1991/92, 2000/01, 2009/10, 2012/13, 2015/16 and 2016/17, and the Cypriot Super Cup four times, in 2006, 2016, 2017 and 2022. They also won the Cypriot Second Division in 1956/57 to earn promotion. Apollon have reached the UEFA Europa League group stage on multiple occasions, in 2013/14, 2014/15, 2017/18 and 2018/19, the deepest European runs in the club's history.
Notable scorelines
Apollon's heaviest European defeats came early in their history: 0-9 on aggregate to Győri ETO of Hungary in the 1967/68 Cup Winners' Cup (0-4 at home, 0-5 away), and 1-9 on aggregate to Barcelona in the 1982/83 Cup Winners' Cup (1-1 at home, 0-8 away). They also lost 0-5 on aggregate to Ajax in the 2001/02 UEFA Cup first round. Their best European aggregate wins are 8-3 over Teuta of Albania in the 1994/95 UEFA Cup preliminary round (4-2 at home, 4-1 away) and 5-4 over FK Ekranas of Lithuania in the 1998/99 Cup Winners' Cup qualifying round (3-3 at home, 2-1 away). In the 2013/14 Europa League qualifying rounds they beat OGC Nice of France 2-0, an upset result that helped take them into that season's group stage alongside Lazio, Trabzonspor and Legia Warsaw. Domestic record scorelines were not established from the sources read here.
European record
Apollon Limassol have entered continental competition 28 times across the club's history, with an overall record of 42 wins, 23 draws and 56 losses, 167 goals for and 215 against. Their first European campaign was the 1966/67 Cup Winners' Cup, lost 1-6 on aggregate to Standard Liège. Further first-round exits followed against Győri ETO in 1967/68, Barcelona in 1982/83, Bohemians of Czechoslovakia in 1984/85 and Malmö FF in 1986/87. In the 1991/92 European Cup they beat Universitatea Craiova 3-2 on aggregate before losing 1-5 to Red Star Belgrade. In the 1993/94 UEFA Cup they beat Vác of Hungary 4-2 on aggregate before losing 3-4 to Inter Milan. The 1994/95 UEFA Cup brought the 8-3 aggregate win over Teuta before elimination by Sion of Switzerland, 4-5 on aggregate including a 3-2 extra-time defeat away. In 1997/98 they beat MYPA of Finland 4-1 on aggregate before losing to RE Mouscron. In 1998/99 they went out in the Cup Winners' Cup second round to Panionios of Greece, 2-4 on aggregate, having beaten FK Ekranas and then Baumit Jablonec of the Czech Republic on penalties after a 3-3 aggregate draw. In 2001/02 they beat Tirana of Albania 5-4 on aggregate before losing 0-5 to Ajax. A 2006/07 Champions League qualifying exit came against Cork City of Ireland, 1-2 on aggregate. Apollon reached the Europa League group stage in 2013/14 alongside Lazio, Trabzonspor and Legia Warsaw, advanced to the 2014/15 group stage after beating Lokomotiv Moscow in the play-off, 5-2 on aggregate (1-1 at home, 4-1 away), and again reached the group stage in 2017/18, drawn with Olympique Lyonnais, Atalanta and Everton, and in 2018/19 after eliminating Basel in the play-off, drawn with Lazio, Eintracht Frankfurt and Marseille and finishing third in the group. The club has also played three Europa Conference League campaigns, with a combined record of five wins, two draws and five losses. Full match-by-match detail for the club's most recent Europa League and Conference League campaigns since 2019, and their exact 2026/27 second qualifying round opponent, dates and scores, were not established from the sources read here.
Head-to-head notes
The club's most significant domestic rivalries are with Omonia and APOEL, both frequent opponents in title races and cup finals; Omonia beat Apollon 5-1 in the 1965 Cypriot Cup final, an early instance of that rivalry. Apollon also share a local, Limassol-derby rivalry with AEL Limassol and Aris Limassol, all three clubs having used the Tsirion Stadium until Apollon's move to the Alphamega Stadium. No head-to-head record against a specific European opponent recurs clearly enough across the sources read here to state a pattern with confidence.
Quotes
No directly quoted material was confirmed from the sources read here.
Right now (2026/27)
Apollon Limassol enter the 2026/27 season having finished third in the 2025/26 Cypriot First Division championship round, a finish that put them into the second qualifying round of the Main Path of the 2026/27 UEFA Europa Conference League qualifying. The current head coach was not established with confidence from the sources read here. The 2026/27 Cypriot First Division season itself was scheduled to open on 29 August 2026, so domestic results were not yet available from the sources read here. The specific opponent, dates, scores, scorers, referees and attendances for Apollon's 2026/27 European qualifying matches were not established from the sources read here despite repeated attempts to retrieve the relevant qualifying-round match report.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollon_Limassol_FC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Cypriot_First_Division https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Cypriot_First_Division https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Europa_Conference_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Europa_Conference_League_qualifying_phase_and_play-off_round https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollon_Smyrni_F.C.
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.