How to get to the Champions League

In 2014, two clubs - AEP Paphos and AEK Kouklia - merged to form Pafos FC.

Starting life in the Cypriot Second Division, the new club had a modest 9,300-seater stadium and an uncertain future. Just over a decade later, they are not only domestic champions, but preparing to face Europe’s elite in the UEFA Champions League main draw.

The turning point came in 2017, when Total Sports Investment and Roman Dubov took ownership. A long-term plan was set in motion to professionalise the club, invest in infrastructure and compete for honours in Cyprus and beyond.

Key milestones have followed:

• Major training centre renovations.
• Joining TransferRoom, world football's transfer marketplace, in 2021, opening access to 800+ clubs and 550+ agencies worldwide.
• Expansion of the Academy in 2023/24.
• Appointment of Spanish Head Coach Juan Carlos Carcedo in 2023.

The results speak for themselves. Pafos lifted their first-ever trophy, the Cypriot Cup, in 2023/24, before becoming league champions in 2024/25 and reaching the Round of 16 in the UEFA Conference League.

In this 2025/26 season, they eliminated Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Dynamo Kyiv and FK Crvena Zvezda to reach the league phase of the Champions League.

Central to that success has been a modern, data-led recruitment model. Players have been signed from Brazil, Portugal, Sweden and beyond, with TransferRoom helping Pafos identify and secure key talent.

TransferRoom gives them real-time access to market intelligence such as player availability and player pitches from clubs and agencies, clubs' requirement in the transfer market and comprehensive data including player performance stats, squad and Head Coach analysis, and unique datasets such as Expected Transfer Value (xTV). And they can contact club and agency executives directly on the platform.

Read: How Greek and Cypriot football has become a new hotbed for top talent

Two standout deals done via TransferRoom are for current first-team stars Anderson Silva and Jajá. It was Jajá who sealed Champions League qualification, scoring an 89th-minute winner in the play-off second leg.

Rodolfo Vaz, Director of Scouting, explained: "The building of the club has been a process, with last year winning the league, so we are doing very well.

"We use TransferRoom on a daily basis to help. Everyday I make sure to open the platform.

"We started conversations in the platform, then met in person, then the deals happened. Every year we do deals through TransferRoom."

Vaz was speaking at the TransferRoom Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where more than 120 clubs and 20 agencies from across the global game met for one-to-one meetings and networking to negotiate transfers, share knowledge and requirements and build connections. TransferRoom hosts even bigger events in Europe, where 200+ clubs and 40+ agencies attend Deal Days, and 300+ clubs and 60+ agencies attend two-day Summits.

It's not just this summer when Pafos FC have been using the platform and events to open up global transfer market opportunities and get deals done.

The club's former Head of Scouting, Bolívar Silveira, told us how they utilised a 15-minute meeting with Trusted Agency Elenko Sports at the 2023 TransferRoom Summit in London helped them to secure the loan signing of Matheus Davó from Brazilian giants Corinthians.

"We know Elenko and the player very well, but we never spoke about it," Silveira said in the video below.

"Then in London, we had the opportunity to put the deal on the table, and that's how everything started. 

"We used this opportunity to talk business in 15 minutes."

For a club still in its footballing infancy, the message is clear: Pafos FC are just getting started.

And they are not in the Champions League to make up the numbers. They mean business.

How to join TransferRoom

There are over 800 clubs worldwide using TransferRoom, including Pafos FC. You can find out how to join them here.

Agents, get access to the decision-makers at top clubs in over 130 leagues worldwide as a TransferRoom Trusted Agent. Find out more here.