Kiko

Left Back - Anorthosis
3 Jan 2027
Sunday
Process

Marked for Kiko

17 Edition

The Anorthosis Chronicle

23 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Kiko damages knee ligaments — 16 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Squad

Words exchanged at Anorthosis

Clifford Aboagye and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Match

Anorthosis get the job done against Ethnikos Achnas

A 2‑1 win over Ethnikos Achnas, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Squad

Appearance number 200 for Clifford Aboagye

200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Andreas Chrysostomou at his very best

Marked 8.17. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Anorthosis.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Kostakis Kolias kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Marios Ilia

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Dimitris Theodorou

Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Konstantinos Panagi falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

In brief

Back issues
16 Edition

The Anorthosis Chronicle

16 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Kiko out for 23 days

23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Anorthosis lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

The dugout

Konstantinos Panagi keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Anorthosis may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Stijn Middendorp has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Anorthosis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Tempers go at Anorthosis

Clifford Aboagye was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Babacar Dione falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

No hiding place for Tamás Kiss

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tamás Kiss, and the manager let it.

The dugout

When it matters, Michalis Ioannou plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Looking ahead

Marios Ilia faces his old club

Ethnikos Achnas next, and one man in the Anorthosis dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.

Market

The Alessio da Cruz story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alessio da Cruz signs something — a contract at Anorthosis or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

15 Edition

The Anorthosis Chronicle

9 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Kiko

31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Anorthosis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Alessio da Cruz

Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Clifford Aboagye in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A quiet fortnight at Anorthosis

With 7 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.

Squad

A row about effort at Anorthosis

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Babacar Dione was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

A promise honoured at Anorthosis

Something was said to Nahuel da Silva and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.

Match

Anorthosis and Omonoia take a point apiece

It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

The dugout

Half-satisfied: Kostakis Kolias on the draw

“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.

The dugout

Anorthosis pick somebody else ahead of Nemanja Tošić

There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.

In brief

14 Edition

The Anorthosis Chronicle

2 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Kiko damages knee ligaments — 38 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 38 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Player ratings

Clifford Aboagye was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 42. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Rafael Lopes yet — 7.87

At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Squad

A falling-out at Anorthosis

Clifford Aboagye and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Anorthosis get the job done against Doxa

A 2‑0 win over Doxa, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Squad

A month that belonged to Nahuel da Silva

The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Anorthosis who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Ronan Coughlan

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Player ratings

Tobias Schättin takes the honours

Marked 7.94 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Anorthosis had the best player on the pitch.

Boardroom

Wages eat 98% of everything Anorthosis earn

There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.

In brief

13 Edition

The Anorthosis Chronicle

26 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Kiko out for 45 days

45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Anorthosis lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

The dugout

Gabriel Furtado: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Anorthosis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Player ratings

Michalis Ioannou runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Player ratings

Nahuel da Silva, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.99

A mark of 7.99 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Squad

Rafael Lopes in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Nahuel da Silva

At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

Match

Nahuel da Silva sends Anorthosis past Agia Napa

It finished 2‑0, and it was Nahuel da Silva’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Anorthosis.

Player ratings

Alessio da Cruz was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

Squad

Babacar Dione falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

In brief

10 Edition

The Anorthosis Chronicle

5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Nahuel da Silva, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60

A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Squad

A falling-out at Anorthosis

Clifford Aboagye and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Nahuel da Silva the difference as Anorthosis beat APOEL

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nahuel da Silva. 1‑0 against APOEL, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Squad

International break empties Anorthosis

7 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.

Boardroom

Wages eat 118% of everything Anorthosis earn

There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Andreas Karamanolis

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Player ratings

Clifford Aboagye beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

A row about effort at Anorthosis

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Babacar Dione was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

The afternoon belonged to Kiko

A mark of 7.75, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.

In brief

8 Edition

The Anorthosis Chronicle

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Age has not caught Rafael Lopes yet — 8.47

At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.47 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Player ratings

Babacar Dione runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Stijn Middendorp has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Anorthosis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Tempers go at Anorthosis

Clifford Aboagye was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Goal number 100 for Rafael Lopes

100 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Joel Roca

Anorthosis asked and Olympiacos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Match

Rafael Lopes the difference as Anorthosis beat Nea Salamis

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rafael Lopes. 2‑0 against Nea Salamis, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Squad

Kiko reaches 200 appearances

200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.

The dugout

Kostakis Kolias has his say

“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Kostakis Kolias on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.

In brief

7 Edition

The Anorthosis Chronicle

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Clifford Aboagye runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Kiko puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Anorthosis, and it is not being withdrawn.

Transfer targets

Deadline beats Anorthosis to Veljko Nikolić

The clock did what Aris would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.

Squad

Clifford Aboagye in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

APOEL tell Anorthosis: Sunusi Ibrahim is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

The dugout

No hiding place for Ronan Coughlan

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ronan Coughlan, and the manager let it.

Squad

A row about effort at Anorthosis

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Babacar Dione was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Christos Kosidis signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Christos Kosidis and Anorthosis agree another 4 years.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Kostakis Kolias chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.

In brief

1 Edition

The Anorthosis Chronicle

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Clifford Aboagye signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Clifford Aboagye commits to Anorthosis for another 3 years.

Squad

Clifford Aboagye wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Anorthosis can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

Squad

A falling-out at Anorthosis

Clifford Aboagye and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Doxa join the queue for Fanos Katelaris

Add another name to the list: Doxa have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Fanos Katelaris. The answer from Anorthosis has not changed — yet.

Transfer targets

Southampton tell Anorthosis: Baylee Dipepa is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Market

Anorthosis and Kiko are talking past each other

“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.

Market

49 months and counting on Jacob Karlstrøm

Still no offer on the table, and Jacob Karlstrøm’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.

Squad

A row about effort at Anorthosis

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Babacar Dione was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Anorthosis ask about Kypros Neofytou

A loan enquiry to AEL: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

In brief