Olympiakos, made history on Wednesday 29th May 2024 by becoming the first Greek club to win a European trophy.  The most popular football team in Greece beat the Italian team Fiorentina 1-0, in the 116th minute of extra time, in the UEFA Conference League Final played in Athens.  Olympiakos is owned by Greek shipping magnate Evangelos Marinakis, who also owns Nottingham Forest in the English Premier League.  After the victory, Marinakis addressed the supporters, saying "Today a crazy dream has become reality for our Olympiakos, for Piraeus, for Greece.  We are particularly happy and proud for the people of Olympiakos.  In our 99-year history, the people of Olympiakos have dreamt of a European title, next year we will play in the Europa League, with the final held in Bilbao".

Olympiakos striker Ayoub El Kaabi provided the dramatic ending, diving low to head in a goal from a left-wing cross in the second period of extra time.  Ayoub El Kaabi scored a hat-trick in the semi-final away leg against English top-four team Aston Villa (2-4) scoring another two goals in the home leg in Piraeus (2-0) leaving a 6-2 aggregate scoreline to reach the final against Fiorentina. 

The Olympiakos Spanish head coach, Jose Luis Mendilibar, had only been appointed by Evangelos Marinakis to lead the Piraeus club in February, after winning the Europa League Cup with Sevilla FC the previous season.  He's certainly got off to a great start.  

The Conference League champions later arrived at the Municipal Theatre in Piraeus, in an open-top bus just before 5:00am with the giant trophy. Their jubilant fans were waiting for them to celebrate together with the first European cup for any Greek club side.

Olympiakos use the transliterationised Latin brand name of Olympiacos in Europe, but are still known as Olympiakos in Greece.

Greeks have waited 20 years to celebrate a European football victory, ever since their national football team won the Euro 2004 competition, beating the hosts Portugal in the final held in Lisbon.  Let's hope we don't have to wait as long for the next celebration.