The man whose face adorns the Pafos crest is Evagoras Pallikarides, a poet and revolutionary who fought against British colonization in Cyprus. He was executed at the age of 19 in 1957, having been sentenced to death by hanging for possession and the potential distribution of firearms. He was the youngest insurgent executed by the British campaign. The incident had a huge impact in Cyprus and turned him into a historical symbol, a martyr of resistance in the country, and marked an important step towards Cypriot independence in 1961.
The image of Pallikarides was inherited from the crest of AEP Paphos, one of the clubs that eventually gave rise to the modern iteration of Paphos FC.
AEP Pafos, in turn, had already been the result of the unification of two historic teams in the city, APOP Pafos and Evagoras Pafos. The latter, in addition to the name, also paid tribute to the young Cypriot revolutionary on its crest.