Athens Kallithea’s “farewell” to Kyrgios

Michalis Kyrgias has now left Athens Kallithea, as he decided to retire from professional football, continuing his career with Hefaistos Peristeriou.

With the southern suburbs side bidding farewell to the 33-year-old centre-back, making special mention of his contribution and hoping their paths meet again.

The relevant announcement in detail:

“Athens Kallithea announces that defender Michalis Kyrgias, 33, has retired from professional football.

Kyrgias spent a total of 10 seasons with Apollon Smyrnis, helping the club rise from third to the top division of the league during that time, with his tenure there only interrupted by one season at Aris of Super League 1. After leaving the Apollon, Kyrgias moved to Ionikos for the 2020/21 season and immediately helped the team win promotion to Super League 1.

Kyrgias signed for AKFC in September 2021, when the team was promoted from the third division and starting their new project. He was directly voted in as team captain and has played a key role in the club’s progress over the past two seasons, with AKFC finishing in second place for the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons.

AKFC vice-president Petros Filippakos: “Mihalis came from the beginning, when almost nobody understood or believed in our project. Before our first season started, some even predicted that we would be relegated to the third division again. We have done so much progress since then, and Michalis has been one of the people at the heart of that development. He was the first leader under our project. Any success we achieve in the future will always have to be attributed to the people who helped lay the foundations. We are deeply “We are grateful for Michalis’ contribution to our team, and we wish him the best in the next chapter of his life. We look forward to seeing him back in action in El Paso soon.”

Thank you, Michael.”