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🇨🇾 Unai Emery's old assistant and Russian money have created a new Cypriot superpower

🇨🇾 Unai Emery's old assistant and Russian money have created a new Cypriot superpower

Pafos are chasing their first-ever Cypriot title! Their rise has been remarkable!

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Graham Ruthven
Feb 13, 2025
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The Soccer Dispatch
The Soccer Dispatch
🇨🇾 Unai Emery's old assistant and Russian money have created a new Cypriot superpower
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Anticipation for last season’s Cypriot Cup final was so high that several Pafos supporters slept on the pitch the night before the match.

When the team from southwest Cyprus beat Omonia Nicosia in their first-ever cup final to win their first-ever piece of major silverware, nobody in the city of Paphos went to sleep. They partied all night.

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They might party for a week if Pafos can stay at the top of the Cypriot First Division until the end of the season. Founded only 11 years ago, the club based on the southwest coast of the Mediterranean island is disrupting the established order.

Indeed, the likes of APOEL, Omonia Nicosia and other traditional Cypriot superpowers are trailing in Pafos’ wake and it’s in no small part due to Russian money and Unai Emery’s former assistant.

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