Champions League debut and David Luiz - the rise of Pafos

Cypriot side Pafos FC will make their Champions League debut on Wednesday - just 11 years after their formation.

The club have made waves in recent years, playing in Europe for the first time last season and reaching the Conference League last 16, as well as winning their first league title.

And this season they have reached another huge milestone in coming through three rounds of qualifying to reach the Champions League proper - one of only two teams, alongside Kazakh outfit Kairat Almaty, to feature for the first time.

Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Dynamo Kyiv and Red Star Belgrade were all dispatched by Pafos through qualifying.

Their reward is eight matches in the league phase, including a home game against Bayern Munich and trip to Chelsea, but they start with a trip to Greece to face Olympiakos on Wednesday.

"Everybody was in ecstasy," former Brazil and Chelsea defender David Luiz, who joined the club in August, told BBC Sport about the moment Pafos qualified.

"Everybody was totally happy because we did something amazing. Nobody expected us to be in the Champions League this season.

"I'm very happy to be here because I can see this feeling, with everybody's hunger, to do something great."

Pafos were formed in 2014 when two clubs from the region merged - AEK Kouklia and AEP Paphos - who themselves had been formed in a 2000 merger of two other teams in the district (which can be spelt either way).

They started in the second tier and bounced around between that and the top flight until the 2017 takeover of Roman Dubov, a Russian businessman with British citizenship who had a spell as Portsmouth owner in 2011.

"Our vision was clear - we wanted to create something new, something competitive, something sustainable - not just a football club but one that could give back to the community," he recently told Gold magazine., external

"Cyprus is a nation with such a love of football and, in Pafos, we believed that we had an opportunity to build something from the ground up."

There was no instant success, though.

Cypriot journalist Andreas Odysseos told the BBC World Service: "Total Sport Investment have transformed the club, 100%. It was a team that struggled to stay in the top division.

"In Mediterranean countries, the passion is over the top. So, if the team goes well, everybody will go to the stadium. If the team doesn't go well, not a lot of people will go. There is nothing in the middle.

"They have done some wrongs, spending that didn't give them anything. They have been spending since 2017. There was some trial and error to come to this day today. They tried many models, they tried many people."

Scotland's Steven Pressley, now Dundee boss, had 19 games in charge in 2018.

Welshman Cameron Toshack had 21 games in 2019-20.

England's Stephen Constantine took the team for 18 games in 2021.

A couple of ex-Blackburn defenders had a go, too - former Manchester United man Henning Berg and ex-Real Madrid player Michel Salgado, who was sporting director but also had two caretaker spells.

And as a player, ex-Premier League midfielder Jason Puncheon was at Pafos from 2019 to 2022.

Things changed with the arrival of Spaniard Juan Carlos Carcedo in June 2023. He had been Unai Emery's assistant manager at six different clubs, including Arsenal.

He managed Ibiza and Zaragoza before moving to Cyprus.

Carcedo's first season in charge ended with the club's maiden trophy - the 2023–24 Cypriot Cup, with a 3-0 win over Omonia, who were in their home stadium for the game.

In his second season Pafos came through three rounds of Conference League qualifying, finishing 12th in the league phase and then winning in the play-off round before losing to Djurgardens in the last 16.

They finished the season as champions of Cyprus for the first time - winning the title by seven points and opening up a route to the Champions League.

Jaja's 89th-minute goal in Pafos' home game against Red Star Belgrade to make it 1-1 (3-2 on aggregate) sealed their place in the league phase.

Journalist Odysseos explained: "The president of Cyprus [Nikos Christodoulides] is a very big Pafos FC fan who goes to the stadium.

"He was at the game. He watched it with anxiety. At the final whistle he was celebrating like a little kid. He was very crazy. There was a viral video of him celebrating like a kid.

"It's like winning the league in Cyprus, it's that big a deal.

"It's like a record you put next to your name - one championship, one cup and one league phase presence. It's a very big issue here."

This summer, Pafos pulled off the surprise signing of defender Luiz, who at the age of 38 had been playing for Fortaleza in Brazil, after initially leaving Arsenal for Flamengo in 2021.

"He came here not only to play but develop the Pafos image, for them to become an even bigger football attraction as football destination," said Odysseos. "It's a PR move, mainly. Everyone has welcomed him.

"We are a country that has one million people so when you have a big star, a legend, to come here, and you see him play, you will say 'wow, he's here'."

Luiz has so far made two substitute appearances in the Cypriot top flight.

He is currently involved in legal proceedings in Brazil following allegations that he threatened a woman.

Luiz posted a video on social media saying he exchanged messages with the woman, but denied threatening anyone.

His management team said the case was under "judicial confidentiality" and that his recently published video would be his only public statement on the matter.

The defender won the Champions League in 2012 with Chelsea, who will face Pafos in their seventh league phase game in January.

"I'm going to play against Chelsea with my heart totally full of energy," he said. "Also to say thank you for everybody. But also to give my best in the pitch because also everybody wants to see that.

"So it's going to be a moment where I'm going to be so happy and the game is going to be hard for us, for sure. Sometimes in life you just have to say thank you and enjoy it.

"Nobody expected many things for us in the Champions League, but I think we can do something special."

"It's going to be a big opportunity for us to show our qualities for the world."

Additional reporting by Olly Foster and Mani Djazmi.

Watch highlights of every Champions League game from 22:00 on Wednesday on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app.

There will also be a Champions League Match of the Day on BBC One on Wednesday, from 22:40 to 00:00.