Los Angeles Chargers Bring Flag Football to Greece’s Santorini in October

Charge d’Affaires astatine the US Embassy successful Athens, Maria Olson, with Chargers fans Debbie and Steve Stackiewicz.
Credit: Courtesy of Los Angeles Chargers

After their archetypal sojourn to Athens earlier this year, the Los Angeles Chargers are acceptable to instrumentality to Greece with a landmark bid of events connected the land of Santorini.

From October 10–12, 2025, the squad volition big younker emblem shot camps, a showcase game, and a assemblage ticker party, each supported by the Municipality of Thira arsenic portion of the Santorini Experience.

The inaugural reflects the Chargers’ broader mission to beforehand emblem shot worldwide—especially arsenic the athletics prepares to debut astatine the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

Inspiring the adjacent generation

The three-day programme connected Santorini volition diagnostic the first-ever emblem shot camps successful Greece. On Friday morning, October 10, children aged eleven to thirteen volition instrumentality the tract to larn the fundamentals of the athletics successful a harmless and structured setting. The pursuing day, teenagers thirteen and older volition articulation their ain camp, designed to deepen knowing of the crippled portion emphasizing teamwork and diversion development.

Immediately aft the opening campy connected Friday, an accumulation crippled volition springiness the section assemblage a accidental to acquisition the excitement of emblem football. NFL legends and progressive players are expected to instrumentality part, offering fans a uncommon accidental to spot the athletics played by immoderate of its astir recognizable figures.

The play volition reason connected Sunday evening with a ticker party, bringing unneurotic Greek media and NFL fans to acquisition the unrecorded broadcast of the Chargers’ clash with the Miami Dolphins. Against the backdrop of Santorini’s caldera, the lawsuit is acceptable to item some the planetary scope of the league and the Chargers’ beardown transportation to Greece.

Los Angeles Chargers Player Philip Rivers. Credit: Flickr / Brook Ward / CC BY NC 2-0

Greece becomes portion of NFL history

The Santorini play follows different milestone infinitesimal for the NFL successful Greece. In April, the Chargers staged a unrecorded NFL Draft announcement from Athens, broadcast to implicit 5 cardinal viewers worldwide.

With the Acropolis arsenic a backdrop, Maria Olson, Chargé d’Affaires astatine the US Embassy successful Athens, revealed the Chargers’ fifth-round prime from the balcony of the Hotel Grande Bretagne.

It was much than a draught pick—it was a symbolic motion linking the birthplace of ideology to the aboriginal of American football, and a motion of the NFL’s committedness to expanding its planetary reach.

Γειά σου from hellas 🇬🇷

📺 | #NFLDraft connected NFLN/ABC/ESPN pic.twitter.com/5SINrQa496

— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) April 26, 2025

Los Angeles Chargers’ Greek connection

Founded successful 1959, the Los Angeles Chargers were initially a charter subordinate of the AFL and joined the NFL arsenic a effect of the AFL–NFL merger successful 1970. Greek-American billionaire existent property developer Alexander Gus Spanos, calved to Greek immigrants Constantino and Evanthia Spanos, became the team’s bulk holder successful 1984.

His son, Dean, took implicit regular operations from his begetter successful 1994, becoming president and CEO, until helium passed operations to his ain sons successful 2015. He took implicit afloat ownership aft his father’s decease successful 2018.

In October 2024, Dean Spanos was honored by The Hellenic Post and International Foundation for Greece during a ceremonial astatine the Acropolis Museum successful Athens. The commemorative postage stamp he was presented with, featuring his portrait, forms portion of the “Dinstinguished Greek Personalities – IFG” bid and is presently successful circulation passim the country.

According to Forbes, the Los Angeles Chargers were worthy 5.1 cardinal dollars successful August 2024, which brings them astatine fig 20 connected the database of the astir invaluable NFL teams.