Pafos FC

Pafos
Full namePafos Football Club
Founded10 June 2014 (2014-06-10)
GroundStelios Kyriakides Stadium
Capacity9,300[1]
ChairmanRoman Dubov
Head coachJuan Carlos Carcedo
LeagueFirst Division
2024–25First Division, 1st of 14 (champions)
Websitepafosfc.com.cy

Pafos Football Club (Greek: Πάφος F.C.) is a professional football club based in Paphos, Cyprus. Founded on 10 June 2014 following the merger of AEP Paphos and AEK Kouklia, the club represents the wider Paphos region in the Cypriot First Division. Pafos play home matches at the Stelios Kyriakides Stadium, which has a capacity of 9,394, though their European home matches are played at the Alphamega Stadium (capacity 10,830) due to the former falling short of UEFA standards.

The club won their first major honour, the Cypriot Cup, in 2024 and secured a first league championship in 2024–25. Pafos made their European debut in the UEFA Europa Conference League in 2024–25, reaching the round of 16, and entered the UEFA Champions League qualifiers for the first time in 2025–26 as domestic champions.[2] After surviving two 2025–26 UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds, Pafos also won their subsequent play-off against Red Star Belgrade and advanced to the league phase.[3]

History

Early years (2014–2017)

Pafos FC was formed to consolidate senior football in the Paphos district. AEP Paphos and AEK Kouklia voted to combine operations in June 2014; the new club played its first season in the Cypriot Second Division.[4][5] Pafos won promotion in 2014–15 as Second Division runners-up, were relegated in 2015–16, and returned to the top flight at the first attempt in 2016–17.[6][7][8]

Investment and consolidation (2017–2023)

In 2017 the club came under the control of Total Sports Investments, linked with British-based businessman Roman Dubov, and began a programme of professionalisation across the first team and academy. The training centre in Paphos underwent significant renovation in 2020.[9][10] Spanish coach Juan Carlos Carcedo was appointed head coach in June 2023.[11]

First honours and European debut (2023–present)

Pafos won the 2023–24 Cypriot Cup—the club's first major trophy—by defeating Omonia 3–0 in the final on 18 May 2024 at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia.[12] The victory qualified the club for European competition for the first time.

In 2024–25 Pafos entered the UEFA Europa Conference League in the second qualifying round, overturning a first-leg defeat to Žalgiris with a 3–0 home win to advance 4–2 on aggregate.[13][14] They eliminated CSKA 1948 (after extra time) and CFR Cluj (on penalties) to reach the league phase, where they recorded home wins over Astana and other positive results against seeded opposition.[15][16]

In February 2025, Pafos faced Omonia in what was billed as the first all-Cypriot tie in UEFA competition; after a 1–1 first leg in Nicosia, Pafos won the return in Limassol to advance 3–2 on aggregate to the round of 16, where they were eliminated by Djurgårdens IF.[17][18][19]

Pafos secured the 2024–25 league title—their first—by beating Aris Limassol 4–0 on 5 May 2025 and were officially crowned champions later that month.[20][21]

As Cypriot champions, Pafos entered the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League in the second qualifying round and defeated Maccabi Tel Aviv 2–1 on aggregate (1–1 home, 1–0 away at a neutral venue in Serbia).[22][23] In the third qualifying round they beat Dynamo Kyiv 3–0 on aggregate (1–0 away in Lublin, 2–0 home at Alphamega Stadium) to reach the play-off round for the first time.[24][25][26] In the play-offs, Pafos eliminated Serbian side Red Star Belgrade with a 3–2 aggregate victory, securing their first-ever place in the UEFA Champions League league stage.[27][28]

Domestic

Season League Cypriot Cup Top goalscorer Manager
Div. Pos. Pl. W D L GS GA P Name League
2014–15 2nd 2nd 26 19 5 2 55 19 62 First Round Radmilo Ivančević
Sofoklis Sofokleous
2015–16 1st 12th 36 8 12 16 41 58 36 Quarterfinal Nassir Maachi 11 Sofoklis Sofokleous
José Manuel Roca
Apostolos Makrides
2016–17 2nd 2nd 26 17 6 3 51 24 57 First Round Dimitris Ioannou
2017–18 1st 10th 36 11 9 16 36 51 42 Semifinal Daniel Sikorski
Kévin Bérigaud 		7 Luka Elsner
Steven Pressley
2018–19 1st 8th 32 12 8 12 39 50 38 Quarterfinal Adam Nemec 16 Steven Pressley
Željko Kopić
2019–20 1st 7th 23 8 6 9 26 28 30 Second Round Onni Valakari 5 Željko Kopić
Cameron Toshack
2020–21 1st 7th 40 18 9 13 58 38 63 Second Round Onni Valakari
Kévin Bérigaud 		13 Cameron Toshack
Dmytro Mykhaylenko
Stephen Constantine
2021–22 1st 6th 32 11 13 8 39 30 46 Second Round Onni Valakari 10 Darko Milanič
Míchel Salgado (Acting Head Coach)
2022–23 1st 4th 32 17 12 7 60 30 63 Semifinal Jairo 18 Henning Berg
Míchel Salgado (Acting Head Coach)
2023–24 1st 5th 36 18 8 10 60 33 62 Champions Jairo 16 Juan Carlos Carcedo
2024–25 1st 1st 36 26 4 6 67 21 82 Runners Up Jairo 13 Juan Carlos Carcedo

European

Main article: FC Pafos in European football

Honours

Type Competition Titles Seasons
Domestic Cypriot First Division 1 2024–25
Cypriot Cup 1 2023–24

UEFA club coefficient ranking

UEFA Team Ranking (2025/26)

UEFA Club ranking

Rank Country Team Points
91 CFR Cluj 17.500
92 Pafos 17.125
93 Nice 17.000
94 Bologna 16.932

Last update: 3 September 2025
Source: [1]


Club's identity

The logo of Pafos FC is a variation of AEP Paphos's logo and a refresh of Pafos FC's first logo, including the name of the team and town and the classic figure of the Cypriot hero Evagoras Pallikarides. The logo also includes the team's colours, blue, white, and gold.[29][30] The emblem was renewed during the period 2018–19, making the depiction of the hero Evagoras Pallikarides more prominent.

Kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors

From 2019 to 2023, Pafos FC's kits were manufactured by Jako. Starting with the 2023–24 season,[31] Pafos FC transitioned to Puma, both for the Main Team and for Academy, as their official kit supplier, though the club retained its core sponsors — Korantina Homes,[32] LF Group,[33] and Cablenet.[34]

Players

As of 2 October 2025[35]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK  NED Jay Gorter
2 DF  CYP Kostas Pileas
4 DF  BRA David Luiz
5 DF  ESP David Goldar
7 FW  BRA Bruno Felipe
8 MF  POR Domingos Quina
9 FW  CGO Mons Bassouamina
10 FW  BEL Landry Dimata
11 FW  BRA Jajá
12 MF  SWE Ken Sema
17 FW  CRO Mislav Oršić
19 DF  FRA Axel Guessand
20 MF  SWE Wilmer Odefalk (on loan from Brommapojkarna)
No. Pos. Nation Player
21 DF  SRB Ognjen Mimović (on loan from Fenerbahçe)
23 DF  NED Derrick Luckassen
25 DF  MOZ Bruno Langa (on loan from Almería)
26 MF  BIH Ivan Šunjić
30 MF  ROU Vlad Dragomir (captain)
33 FW  BRA Anderson Silva
35 DF  BRA Pedrão (on loan from Cruzeiro)
50 MF  POR Alexandre Brito (on loan from Sporting CP)
77 DF  CPV João Correia
88 MF  POR Pêpê
93 GK  CYP Neofytos Michail
99 GK  GRE Athanasios Papadoudis

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
— MF  GUI Mamadou Kané (at Ethnikos Achna until 30 June 2026)
— MF  CYP Christos Efzona (at Olympiakos Nicosia until 30 June 2026)

Current staff

Senior Management
Vice President George Ioannou
CEO Charis Theocharous
COO Rustam Khafizov
Sporting Director Cristiano Giaretta
Head Scout Rodolfo Filipe Aniceto Vaz
Senior Scout Pedro Henrique
CFA Representative Filippos Georgiou
Technical staff
Head Coach Juan Carlos Carcedo
Assistant Coach Sergio Domínguez Cobo
Assistant Coach Sebastián Corona
Goalkeeping Coach Silvije Čavlina
Head Analyst Andreas Kattamis

Records

Most appearances

As of match played 14 December 2025
Name Years League Cypriot Cup Super Cup Europe Total
1 Vlad Dragomir 2021–Present 130 (16) 14 (2) 2 (0) 30 (3) 176 (21)
2 Jairo 2021–2025 127 (55) 16 (4) 1 (0) 18 (1) 162 (60)
3 Onni Valakari 2020–Present 136 (40) 15 (6) - (-) 7 (0) 158 (46)
4 Josef Kvída 2020–2025 124 (4) 11 (0) 0 (0) 1 (0) 136 (4)
5 Muamer Tanković 2022–2025 96 (28) 14 (2) 1 (0) 23 (4) 134 (34)
6 Bruno Felipe 2023–Present 89 (8) 9 (0) 2 (0) 29 (1) 129 (9)
7 Pêpê 2023–2024, 2024–Present 75 (4) 10 (2) 2 (0) 26 (1) 113 (7)
8 Ivica Ivušić 2023–2025 79 (0) 14 (0) 1 (0) 17 (0) 111 (0)
9 David Goldar 2023–Present 68 (9) 8 (1) 2 (0) 29 (2) 107 (12)
10 Moustapha Name 2022–2025 69 (6) 11 (1) 1 (0) 12 (1) 93 (8)

Top goalscorers

As of match played 14 December 2025
Name Years League Cypriot Cup Super Cup Europe Total Ratio
1 Jairo 2021–2025 55 (127) 4 (16) 0 (1) 1 (18) 60 (162) 0.37
2 Onni Valakari 2020–Present 40 (136) 6 (15) - (-) 0 (7) 46 (158) 0.29
3 Muamer Tanković 2022–2025 28 (96) 2 (14) 0 (1) 4 (23) 34 (134) 0.25
4 Kévin Bérigaud 2018–2022 22 (68) 2 (3+) - (-) 0 (-) 24 (71+) 0.34
5 Anderson Silva 2024–Present 16 (47) 3 (5) 0 (2) 4 (27) 23 (81) 0.28
6 Adam Nemec 2018–2020 17 (42) 5 (6) - (-) 0 (-) 22 (48) 0.46
7 Vlad Dragomir 2021–Present 16 (130) 2 (14) 0 (2) 3 (30) 21 (175) 0.12
8 João Correia 2024–Present 10 (40) 0 (3) 0 (2) 5 (24) 15 (69) 0.22
9 Nassir Maachi 2015–2016 11 (31) 2 (1) - (-) 0 (-) 13 (32) 0.41
9 Jajá 2024–Present 6 (53) 1 (7) 0 (2) 6 (27) 13 (89) 0.15

Managers

As of match played 14 December 2025
Manager name From To Duration P W D L Win %
Radmilo Ivančević 1 July 2014 14 October 2014 105 days
Sofoklis Sofokleous 1 November 2014 9 November 2015 1 year, 8 days
José Manuel Roca 17 November 2015 14 December 2015 27 days
Apostolos Makridis 16 December 2015 31 May 2016 167 days
Dimitris Ioannou 14 June 2016 31 May 2017 351 days
Luka Elsner 30 June 2017 21 January 2018 205 days 23 6 6 11 26.09
Steven Pressley 31 January 2018 9 October 2018 251 days 22 8 5 9 36.36
Željko Kopić 19 October 2018 6 November 2019 1 year, 18 days 41 16 11 14 39.02
Jeremy Steele (Caretaker) 6 November 2019 13 December 2019 37 days 5 3 1 1 60
Cameron Toshack 13 December 2019[36] 20 October 2020[37] 312 days 21 8 5 8 38.1
Dmytro Mykhaylenko 20 October 2020[38] 31 January 2021[39] 103 days 16 4 5 7 25
Stephen Constantine 4 February 2021[40] 30 June 2021[41] 146 days 18 12 2 4 66.67
Darko Milanič 30 June 2021[42] 10 May 2022[43] 314 days 33 11 14 8 33.33
Míchel Salgado (Caretaker) 14 May 2022[44] 22 May 2022 8 days 2 1 0 1 50
Henning Berg 11 June 2022[45] 3 April 2023[46] 296 days 33 17 11 5 51.52
Míchel Salgado (Caretaker) 3 April 2023 24 June 2023 82 days 9 3 3 3 33.33
Juan Carlos Carcedo 24 June 2023[11] 2 years, 180 days 128 74 25 29 57.81

References

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