Founded in 1914, the club was a founding member of theMacedonian Football Clubs Association, as well as theHellenic Football Federation. The colours of the club are golden/yellow, a dominant colour in the culture ofMacedonia and reminiscent of the Byzantine heritage of Thessaloniki, and black. It is named afterAres, the ancientOlympian "God of War," associated also with courage and masculinity, whose image is portrayed on the club's logo as depicted in theLudovisi Ares sculpture. It is considered as one of the biggest teams in Greece and is part of themulti-sports clubAris Thessaloniki.
Aris was also one of the strongest and most popular teams in Greece during theinterwar period. They have won theGreek championship three times (1928,1932,1946), theGreek Cup once (1970), and they had an undefeated home record in European competitions for 28 matches from 1968 to 2020, when they lost toKolos Kovalivka.[4]
Nikiphoros, Kostas andKleanthis Vikelidis (1930)The champion team of 1928Aris, the champion of 1928The champion team of 1932
The club was established as a football club ("Podosferikos Syllogos Aris Thessalonikis") by a group of 22 young friends in a coffee bar in Votsi area on 25 March 1914 and given the name Aris fromAres, the ancient god of war. Its nickname was inspired by the twoBalkan Wars of 1912–1913, when Greece fought against theOttoman Empire before engaging in a war with Bulgaria. In Greek mythology, Aris was a deity who was in conflict withHeracles, the mythological character after which Aris's rival football team,Iraklis, was named. Aris holds a fierce rivalry with PAOK. At first, the club was based on a near theArch and Tomb of Galerius, but after the accession of two minor football clubs in 1919 and 1921 the club's base was moved near to Flemming Street of eastern Thessaloniki. The first stadium was built on the site where Mars Field Park currently lies on Stratou Avenue. Quickly the club became very popular and soon new teams apart from football were established.
During this early stage of football in Greece no professional league was established. Instead, three minor leagues [inMacedonia (E.P.S.M.),Athens (E.P.S.A.) andPiraeus (E.P.S.P.)] were created, with the champions of each league competing in a postseason mini tournament to claim the title of the national champion. The first official game was held in 1923 againstMegas Alexandros Thessaloniki (Alexander the Great), another Thessalonician team. That year marked the first title, when Aris was named regional champion of Macedonia, something that was repeated next year.
In 1926 the club was renamed "Athletic Club Aris Thessaloniki" to include also other sports than football.
Aris' first major success was between 1927 and 1928 when they won the first Greek Championship,[5] beating finalists Atromitos and Ethnikos Piraeus exploiting the abstention from the championship teams of RECs. In the first race on 24 May, the team of Thessaloniki prevailed 3–1 Atromitos, while three days after losing to Ethnikos Piraeus 3–2. In iterative matches played in June in Thessaloniki, Aris won both of his opponents by 3–1 and thus crowned the first champion of Greece. Coach of the team was the German Thomas Kessler, and prominent players of Aris were, among others, Kostas Vikelidis, Savvas Vogiatzis that emerged and top scorer with six goals, Nikos Aggelakis, scorer of the finals with four goals and Dionysis Caltech.
The following year, it was held the final stage of national championships although Aris won the championship title in Thessaloniki, playing two matches barrage against PAOK. The first took place on 12 May 1929 and ended 1–1, while the second was held on 2 June with Aris to beats 4–3, having Nikos Aggelakis scoring a hat-trick.
On 20 April 1929, the first friendly match took place between Aris and Panathinaikos, the "yellows" to defeat 5–4.The second championship came four years later in 1932,[6] only this time his opponents were Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, AEK, Ethnikos, PAOK and Iraklis. Aris managed to collect 22 points in this mini tournament, four more than the second, Panathinaikos, scoring large wins like 7–0 against Panathinaikos, 7–3 against Iraklis and 3–0 versus AEK and Olympiacos in Athens, also new star players emerged, Kitsios,Aggelakis, Bogdanos, Gigopoulos, while Belgian manager De Valer guided effectively the club.
Four years after winning the first Panhellenic title, the "yellows" won the championship. Aris became champion amassing a total of 22 points, four more than secondPanathinaikos and scoring big wins like 7–0 against Panathinaikos with four goals Maywood, 6–1 on Apollon Athens with six goals in the Aggelakis' first home appearance with the first group of Kleanthis Vikelidis, 7–3 vs Iraklis with four goals Kitsos and away 0–3 over Olympiacos, PAOK and AEK. Leading scorer of the league emerged Nikos Kitsos with 15 goals and Nikos Aggelakis to 14.
Big stars of that team were Kitsos, Aggelakis, Caltech, and Vogdanou Gkikopoulos while coach De Valera.
That same year, the EPO instituted for the first time the Greek Cup, Mars crashing Panathinaikos 7–2 in the quarterfinal. This was followed by victory over Apollon Athens, to reach the final where they lost 5–3 from AEK Athens, losing the chance to win the first doubles.
Aris won their third title in 1946,[7] playing against two teams,AEK from Athens andOlympiacos from Piraeus, champions of the other two minor domestic leagues. Aris beat Olympiacos twice, scoring two goals and conceding none; came to a draw with AEK in Athens and defeated them in PAOK's stadium in Thessaloniki (score 4–1). Aris has not won a championship since the establishment of the First Division (1959).
Up to 1959, when the united First Division was created, Aris managed to finish first 14 times in the Macedonian division.
Aris' status remained high during this period, which was marked by the construction of the club's homeground, theKleanthis Vikelides Stadium, named after the legendaryhomonymous player. Before World War II, Aris' homeground was located in the center of the city, near theThessaloniki International Fair, but was abandoned in 1936 in order for thePedion tou Areos park (Mars Field) to be created. The club managed to buy some land during 1951 in a quarter of the city namedCharilaou, where the new Stadium was slowly built.
Also in 1959, the tripartite minor league system was abandoned and a new, unified Championship was created.
The club's accomplishments during these years were significant. It was one of the first teams in Greece to qualify for European tournaments. Under the leadership ofAlexandros Alexiades,Giorgos Pantziaras andTakis Loukanidis.
In the 1970s, Aris was reorganized and a vast number of young players from Thessaloniki, includingKouis,Foiros,Drambis,Zindros andPapafloratos led the club. Its most important achievements during that period included a successful1980 UEFA campaign when Aris eliminatedBenfica andPerugia. Aris was also the first Greek club to score a victory both in Italy and Portugal. At home, the team shared first place with Olympiacos at the end of the1980 campaign, though it lost the title 2–0 in a tie-breaker against the Piraeus club in Volos National Stadium.
After the mid-1980s and the retirement of the club's honored old guard, Aris entered in a slow decline, rarely reaching European league qualification or notable Greek League position, which—in combination with appreciable financial troubles that left the club near bankruptcy—led to the club's relegation to the Second Division in 1997 and 2005. Both times though Aris managed to resume its place in the first division.
In recent years, specially after the creation of anAris Members' Society that controls the club's fortunes, Aris has qualified several times for theUEFA Europa League, finished fourth in the Super League three times, and has reached in theGreek Cup Final four times, losing in 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2010, when 25,000 Aris fans went to Athens in the biggest ever move of fans in Greece.[9][10][11][12] In 2008 and 2010 Aris made it through to theUEFA Europa League group stage after eliminatingReal Zaragoza andAustria Wien respectively during theCup's play-off rounds. During the2010–11 UEFA Europa League they managed to play for the first time in club's history in Europe after Christmas, after a very good appearance in thegroup stage where they won 1–0[13] at home and 2–3[14] away and eliminated thetitle holdersAtlético Madrid. Recent developments include the interest from the club's board to construct a new, modern stadium in eastern Thessaloniki Metropolitan Area to replace the obsolete Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium and the modernization and expansion of the club's training facilities in Neo Rysio, Thessaloniki.Also, in a unique move for Greek standards, the board decided in December 2009 to establish a radio station,Aris FM 92.8[15] in order to promote the communication between Aris fans around the country and the coverage of the clubs activities. In 2014, due to financial problems Aris was relegated to the third tier of Greek football.[16]
After their relegation many were wondering who was going to take care of the team. American business man Alex Kalas emerged the first season with him in charge of the football department while they failed to gain promotion to theFootball League. In summer 2015 where the next elections for the role of head of football department Kalas won again and promised to put more money into the club. Kalas also made a number of signings, Honduran legendCarlos Costly,Sierra Leone internationalJohn Kamara, SpaniardGuillermo Pérez Moreno, Portuguese footballerFábio Ruben Moreira Tavares, defenderPaschalis Melissas and defenderStavros Petavrakis. Due to Aris failing to get into the second division Kalas was sacked despite only being there for a month. Aris would have to play another year inGamma Ethniki.While in theGamma Ethniki, the team demanded that theHellenic Football Federation allow them to be promoted to a higher level of Greek football. The federation declined to do this and several appeals against the decision were rejected. As a result, 10,000 fans took to the streets on the 26 and 31 August 2015 in Thessaloniki to protest the decision.[17] These protests caused clashes between the police and the fans that led to arrests[18] and Aris didn't manage to get promoted to the professional divisions.[19]
Although after the Aris election Arvanitidis became leader of the football department, Theodoros Karipidis was named the head of football department the day afterwards. He signed many players in a few days including former Greek footballer of the clubAndreas Tatos, formerReal Madrid defenderRaul Bravo[20] club legendSergio Koke, as well as manySuper League quality players likeKostas Kaznaferis,Vasilios Rovas,Nikos Tsoumanis,Giannis Siderakis as well as many others. Theodoros Karipidis appointedNikos Anastopoulos as the manager. During the 2015–16 season Aris managed to be promoted to the second division of Greece with a 21-point difference from the second club.[21] Finally, Irene Karypidis became the major shareholder with overwhelming proportion over 89%.[22]
Aris' fan base is spread across all the economic classes in the city ofThessaloniki and all over Greece.[23] Their rivalry is against clubs such as arch-rivalPAOK, but also against the biggest clubs of Athens/PiraeusPanathinaikos,AEK Athens andOlympiakos Piraeus .[24]Matches against PAOK are local derbies and an event that splitsThessaloniki and Northern Greece in two. Aris' main fan club is calledSuper 3 and has a symbol abulldog. It exist since 1988 with 50 more Super 3 clubs spread all over Greece and Europe. There are over 12,000 And 20,000 Super 3 members. In the rest of Europe there are also some organized Aris' fan clubs in countries such as Germany, Italy and Sweden. According to some polls Aris is the 5th most popular team in Greece with around 500,000 fans, an amount that is quite large considering the lack of titles for many decades.
A company of young Thessalonians inspired the name of the club byAres, the ancientOlympian "God of War", after the successful military operations of theKingdom of Greece during theBalkan Wars, and the liberation ofThessaloniki in 1912 from theOttoman empire. The emblem of the team is a restingAres (Greek: Άρης), as depicted in theLudovisi Ares sculpture. This emblem was chosen in the late 1970s to replace an older and simpler logo which was used since 1914. Also, during the 2000s, a scheme ofmeander was added to the crest.
The colors of the team are yellow or gold of glory, dominant colour in the culture ofMacedonia, and black. Alternative colours also used include white or even dark red uniforms. During the 2000s, the club introduced also a shade of lime.
The stadium of Aris Thessaloniki is namedKleanthis Vikelides after theclub's legendary player. It is located at 69 Alkminis, Charilaou; 54249 Thessaloniki, and was built in 1951. In 1972, it got a new roof, in 1975 a new north stand, and in 2004, it was fully renovated. Its current total capacity is 22,800 spectators.
Since the late 1970s, Aris Thessaloniki has created its own training grounds inNeo Rysio (Dasygenio Sports Center), just outside Thessaloniki near theInternational Airport covering three hectares and including football fields, hosting area with gym, pool and sauna, press room, offices, restaurant and locker rooms.[41] The facilities were rebuilt in September 2010 after a demand placed by managerHéctor Cúper.[42] The facilities were renovated again in 2018 and the grass was ultimately changed in 2019.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.