Nestos Chrisoupolis

The exception came through the amateur ranks. In the 2014–15 season Nestos won the Greek Amateur Cup, and that run also brought the Amateur Super Cup the same year. Two second-place finishes in the National Amateur Championship, in 1986 and 1993, mark the closest the club came before that.

Promotion to the second tier had happened before, and had never lasted. Nestos went up in 1973–74 and came down the following season; the same pattern repeated after the 1986 and 1993 promotions, each ending in relegation within a year or two. That history sat behind the 2025 promotion, when Nestos won Gamma Ethniki Group 1, beating Apollon Kalamarias 2–0 on the final day to return to Super League 2 for the first time in fifty years.

The step up was tested quickly. In the Greek Cup that followed, Chrysoupoli's ground came close to a sell-out for a group-stage draw against AEK Athens. In the league itself, Super League 2 survival was not settled in the regular season: Nestos finished seventh in the North Group and had to secure its place through the relegation play-offs, going unbeaten there with six wins and four draws.