George Kalafatis

George Kalafatis (born 1890, only a few hundred meters away from Apostolos Nikolaidis stadium, in Exarchia of Athens) was the founder of Panathinaikos. He graduated from the Health Department of the University of Athens. Being a big athletic talent he distinguished himself in his throwing, jumping and running records.But football was his big passion. So at the age of 18 and being a champion of his team Panellinios (Panhellenic), he was trying to create a football team. All the big fields in Athens, mainly in the areas of Goudi and Rouf were the first football fields of the Kalafatis' team. When Panellinios denied the official creation of a football department, George Kalafatis established the first team of Panathinaikos, named "Podosferikos Omilos Athinon" (P.O.A.) at the time. It was the fall of 1908. Apart from G. Kalafatis other establishing members of POA were: his brother Alexandros who had been the first president, Dimitris Doukakis, Periklis Mpoumpoulis, Emmanouil Chrisis (vice-president), Granitsas, Mantzakos, Papageorgiou, Gaetas, Demertzis, I. Stavropoulos, Pashos, Misakian, Reppas, Sapounias, Garoufalias.