Panathinaikos Chicago

A father and son pair Panathinaikos supporters, Dimitrios Chronopoulos and Dionissios "Denny" Chronopoulos, founded Panathinaikos Chicago in 2019 with the idea of forming a youth academy for the Chicago area community - driven by their passion for Greek Football club Panathinaikos. Within the 1st year the academy grew from 1-30 children in the youth academy which led to the idea of creating a football club with a pyramid structure going from youth to adult players.

In 2020 during the COVID pandemic, the team successfully applied to the National Premier Soccer League (4th division of US Football) and the building a competitive first team began under player-owner Dionissios "Denny" Chronopoulos. Leading the first team team as head coach is former Greek National Under 21 Team Captain George Katsaros (footballer).

Despite being an amateur organisation, Panathinaikos Chicago operates as a semi-professional club, which led to the club being noticed and recognised by former Panathinaikos players Giorgos Karagounis and Djibril Cisse on social media.

Notable players recruited for the first season is Captain John Austin Ricks (Syracuse University, former San Jose Earthquakes U18 Captain) , Yeison Esquivel (Division 1 Professional in Costa Rica & Nicaragua, U17 Costa Rican National Team), Arsenios Dimitriou (APOEL F.C. U19, Cyprus U17 National Team), and Jesus Cervantes (Diriangen FC)-1st Division Nicaragua).

Due to Djibril Cisse's time at Panathinaikos, it was proposed to Cisse that he should join the club and there was mutual interest from the French player. After a year of back and forth communication, an agreement was made for Djibril Cisse to play with PAO Chicago's first team. Due to the COVID-19 travel ban from Europe, Cisse announced via social media that he was unable to enter the United States but reiterated that his transfer will happen once the ban is lifted.

PAO Chicago's official Team Jerseys in 2019-20 was Kappa Di Robbe.

As of 2021, Hummel is PAO Chicago's official Team Jersey provider until 2023.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  GRE Denny Chronopoulos — GK  MEX Javi Martinez — DF  NGA Salvation Nkiko — DF  RSA Leonardo Georgiou — DF  IRQ Amir Ali — MF  USA John Austin-Ricks — MF  CRC Yeison Esquivel — MF  MEX Arath Mercado — MF  CYP Arsenios Dimitriou

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  MEX Jesus Cervantes — FW  GRE Anastasios Kokkinias 9 FW  FRA Djibril Cissé

• Official website