PAOK
Also written as PAOK Salonika.
The club
PAOK were founded on 20 April 1926 in Thessaloniki by Greek refugees from Constantinople, and the initials stand for Panthessalonikios Athlitikos Omilos Konstantinoupoliton, the Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans. They play at Toumba Stadium, an all-seater holding 28,703 and one of the loudest grounds in Greece. The shirts are black and white vertical stripes: the club's own explanation is that the black stands for the sorrow of the refugees and the white for the hope of a new beginning. Like AEK they carry the Byzantine double-headed eagle and are known as the Dikefalos, and also as the Aspromavri, the White-Blacks.
Recent seasons
PAOK won the Greek championship in 2018/19 and again in 2023/24. In 2024/25 they finished third of fourteen. In 2025/26 they finished third again, on 57 points from 26 regular-season matches, 17 wins, 6 draws and 3 defeats, 52 goals scored and 17 conceded. That was the best goals-for record in the division and the best goal difference at plus 35, but three points behind champions AEK Athens on 60 and one behind Olympiacos on 58. Third place sent them into the Europa League at the second qualifying round.
Honours and landmarks
Four Greek championships: 1975/76, 1984/85, 2018/19 and 2023/24. Eight Greek Cups: 1971/72, 1973/74, 2000/01, 2002/03, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2020/21.
Notable scorelines
Record win: 7-0 away to Locomotive Tbilisi in the UEFA Cup on 16 September 1999, described by the club as the largest away victory ever achieved by a Greek club in European competition. No club-record defeat was established from the sources read here. PAOK have beaten Barcelona (1975) and Borussia Dortmund (2015) at Toumba.
European record
PAOK have the best European record of any Greek club by the simple measure of wins against defeats. As of August 2025 they had 99 wins, 68 draws and 87 defeats, and they are the only Greek team with more European wins than losses.
They have reached three European quarter-finals: the Cup Winners' Cup in 1973/74, and the Conference League in both 2021/22 and 2023/24. The 7-0 at Locomotive Tbilisi in September 1999 remains their record European result. Their Toumba wins over Barcelona in 1975 and Borussia Dortmund in 2015 are the two that get replayed most.
The 2026/27 campaign began in the Europa League second qualifying round against Dynamo Kyiv, and PAOK made it look straightforward: 3-2 away on 23 July 2026 and 2-0 at Toumba on 30 July, 5-2 on aggregate. The third qualifying round has been harder. Anderlecht, who had knocked Hammarby out of the same competition in the previous round, won 1-0 at Toumba on 6 August 2026, scoring inside the opening twenty minutes.
Quotes
- "Είναι πάντα δύσκολα τα παιχνίδια στην Ευρώπη, απέναντι σε ομάδες που δεν γνωρίζεις" (Matches in Europe are always difficult, against teams you do not know.) - Alessio Lisci, PAOK head coach, to Newsbomb, 5 August 2026, previewing the Anderlecht first leg. https://www.newsbomb.gr/sports/podosfairo/story/1754609/lisi-na-paroume-pleonektima-apo-tis-kales-mas-stigmes
- "Πρέπει να κυριαρχήσουμε στον αγωνιστικό χώρο. Να κάνουμε όσα δουλέψαμε στις προπονήσεις" (We have to dominate the pitch. We have to do what we worked on in training.) - Alessio Lisci, PAOK head coach, to Newsbomb, 5 August 2026, on how PAOK must approach Anderlecht. https://www.newsbomb.gr/sports/podosfairo/story/1754609/lisi-na-paroume-pleonektima-apo-tis-kales-mas-stigmes
- "Ο Ζίβκοβιτς πιστεύω πως θα είναι έτοιμος να παίξει αύριο ασχέτως αν δεν προπονήθηκε χθες" (I believe Zivkovic will be ready to play tomorrow even though he did not train yesterday.) - Alessio Lisci, PAOK head coach, to Newsbomb, 5 August 2026. https://www.newsbomb.gr/sports/podosfairo/story/1754609/lisi-na-paroume-pleonektima-apo-tis-kales-mas-stigmes
- "Αν επιτευχθεί το... ντιλ, θα είναι μία καλή διαπραγμάτευση, θα προσθέσει ποιότητα στην ομάδα" (If the deal goes through it will be a good piece of business; he will add quality to the team.) - Alessio Lisci, PAOK head coach, to Newsbomb, 5 August 2026, on the then-pending signing of Dimitris Giannoulis. https://www.newsbomb.gr/sports/podosfairo/story/1754609/lisi-na-paroume-pleonektima-apo-tis-kales-mas-stigmes
- "Απλά χαίρομαι που είμαι εδώ. Ελπίζω στο τέλος της σεζόν να έχω μάθει περισσότερα ελληνικά" (I am simply happy to be here. I hope that by the end of the season I will have learned more Greek.) - Alessio Lisci, PAOK head coach, to Newsbomb, 5 August 2026. https://www.newsbomb.gr/sports/podosfairo/story/1754609/lisi-na-paroume-pleonektima-apo-tis-kales-mas-stigmes
Lisci also gave a post-match press conference after the Anderlecht defeat on 6 August, in which Greek and English-language reports say he blamed a lack of early concentration and drew a parallel with the early goal conceded against Dynamo. The PAOK club page carrying that press conference could not be read here, so no verbatim post-match quote is given.
Right now (2026/27)
Alessio Lisci, the Italian coach previously at Mirandes and Levante, took over on 1 July 2026 and this is his first season at Toumba. The squad work has been focused on defence and width: Pantelis Chatzidiakos arrived from FC Copenhagen for a reported 1.5m euros on 17 July 2026, Tom Louchet from Nice for a reported 2m euros on 3 August, and the left-back Dimitris Giannoulis from Augsburg for a reported 4.3m euros on 6 August, the day of the Anderlecht match. Fyodor Chalov, Shola Shoretire, Jonathan Gomez and Lefteris Lyratzis have all returned from loan. Jorge Sanchez left for Atlas for a reported 3m euros on 16 July and Luka Gugeshashvili went on loan to Goztepe on 29 July.
Like AEK, PAOK are playing European football before the Greek league has started. The Super League Greece season opens on 22 August 2026 and PAOK's first fixture is away to Levadiakos on 23 August, so their competitive football so far this season has been the four European matches.
The European tie: PAOK are in the **Europa League third qualifying round** against **Anderlecht**. **The first leg was played at Toumba on 6 August 2026 and PAOK lost 1-0**, conceding around the seventeenth minute. The second leg is in Brussels on 13 August 2026, so PAOK must win by two, or by one and then survive extra time, to go through to the play-off round. Defeat drops them into the Conference League play-off round rather than out of Europe.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAOK_FC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_PAOK_FC_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Super_League_Greece https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/match/2049127--paok-vs-anderlecht/ https://www.newsbomb.gr/sports/podosfairo/story/1754609/lisi-na-paroume-pleonektima-apo-tis-kales-mas-stigmes https://www.paokfc.gr/en/news/20260806-sinentefksi-typou-video https://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/anderlecht/europa-league/preview/anderlecht-vs-paok-prediction-team-news-lineups_602780.html https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/news/02a6-20e5db0029dd-8241a8d00925-1000--europa-league-qualifying-fixtures-results-dates-how-it-works/
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.