Panathinaikos

Early years

According to the official history of the club, Panathinaikos was founded by the 17 years old track and field athlete Giorgos Kalafatis on 3 February 1908, when he decided to break away from Panellinios Gymnastikos Syllogos following the club's decision to discontinue its football team. The young athlete was followed by the athletes Alexandros Kalafatis (the founder's brother), and Mr. Doukakis, Bouboulis, Chrisis, Granitsas, Mantzakos, Papageorgiou, Gaetas, Demertzis, Stavropoulos, Paschos, Misakian, Reppas, Sapounias and Garoufalias.

The name of the new club was "Podosferikos Omilos Athinon" (Football Club of Athens). It was founded with the aim of spreading and making more known this new sport (football) to the Athenian and Greek public in general. Also, the intention of the founders was to create a team for all of Athens and to be connected with the rest of the European football movement, which was already active. According to Loukas Panourgias, "they wanted their Club not to be like all the others, but a team for Athens, for the entire capital." Establishing a football-only club at that time was a challenge to the prevailing norms of Greek society. "The founding of a football club at a time when this sport was universally regarded as a street game and was openly persecuted by everyone, both authorities and non-authorities alike, was a clear act of rebellion against the prevailing perceptions of sports at the time (Athlitismos, 1927)."

The first president elected was Alexandros Kalafatis, brother of Giorgos. The ground of the team was in Patission Street. Oxford University athlete John Cyril Campbell was brought in as coach, the first time that a foreigner was appointed as the coach of a Greek team. Konstantinos Tsiklitiras, the great Greek athlete of the early 20th century, played as goalkeeper for the new team.

During the turbulent 1910s, marked by the Balkan Wars and World War I, football activity declined. Goalkeeper Konstantinos Tsiklitiras volunteered for the army, fought at the Battle of Bizani, contracted meningitis, and died in Athens at 24. Founder Giorgos Kalafatis served in all three wars, eventually reaching the rank of rear admiral and later on served as a military doctor in the Asia Minor campaign. In 1910, after a dispute among a number of board members, Kalafatis with most of the players — also followed by Campbell —decided to pull out of POA and secured a new ground in Amerikis Square (and the next year the team won the 1911 SEGAS Championship). Subsequently, the name of the club changed to Panellinios Podosferikos Omilos ("Panhellenic Football Club") and green and white were established as its colours. By 1914, Campbell had returned to England but the club was already at the top of Greek football with players such as Michalis Papazoglou, Michalis Rokkos and Loukas Panourgias and went on to win the football tournament of 1915.

In 1918, the team adopted the trifolium (shamrock) as its emblem, symbol of harmony, unity, nature, fertility and good luck, as proposed by Michalis Papazoglou. In 1921 and 1922, the Athens-Piraeus FCA organised the first two post-WWI championships, in both of which PPO was declared champion. By that stage, the club had outgrown both the grounds in Patission Street and Amerikis Square, due mainly to its expansion in other sports, and began to look at vacant land in the area of Perivola on Alexandras Avenue as its potential new ground. After long discussions with the Municipality of Athens, an agreement was finally reached and in 1922 Leoforos ("Avenue" in Greek) was granted to the club.

The move to a permanent home ground also heralded another — final — name change to Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos (PAO), "All-Athenian Athletic Club", on 15 March 1924, from now on a multi-sport club. However, the decision was already taken by 1922.

In 1926, the Hellenic Football Federation (HFF) was founded and the first Panhellenic Championship under its authority took place in 1927. The club dominated Athenian football, winning the Athens championships of 1925, 1926, 1927 and 1929 organized by the Athens Football Clubs Association.

Panathinaikos won undefeated the Championship of 1929–30 under the guidance of József Künsztler and Angelos Messaris as the team's star player. Other notable players of this Belle Époque period of the team were Antonis Migiakis, Diomidis Symeonidis, Mimis Pierrakos and Stefanos Pierrakos, among others. They thrashed rivals Olympiacos 8–2, a result that still remains the biggest win either team has achieved against its rival, with Messaris scoring three goals. The team also defeated Aris 1–4 away in Thessaloniki. Messaris, who scored again three goals, became a hero and chant for the fans.