There have been several defeats, plenty of trouble and even relegation to the third division for AEK Athens. The Greek champions have been through so much in the last 24 years, but now one of Greece’s most historic clubs has returned to the top. The “Double-Headed Eagle” won the league title last season and is now bidding to enter the group stage of the Champions League.
To get there AEK need to overcome two obstacles, two national champions, the first one being Celtic in the third qualifying round.
AEK’s course up to this point has been far from easy. The Yellows had to wait for 24 years to win their 12th title in their 94 years of history, but it was after a long and grueling list of events in the last decade.
The huge financial problems led in 2013 to the relegation of the Athens club that traces its roots to the then Constantinople, present day Istanbul. In order for the club’s debts to be settled, AEK chose to go straight to the highest amateur division, the third tier of Greek football.
Predictably but not easily, AEK topped the third division in 2013-14 and climbed to the Football League, Greece’s second tier, which it topped again in 2015 to return to the Super League.
AEK strongman Dimitris Melissanidis followed a tight financial policy on a low budget after the return of the club to the top flight in 2015-16. Last season (2017-18) his efforts paid off: First with the beginning of works for a new stadium at Nea Philadelphia, north of Athens city centre, at the club’s heartland. Then the 24 years of waiting came to an end with the march to the Super League title a few months ago.
For AEK to be crowned champion there were some other factors contributing, that did not have so much to do with football: The title decider against PAOK at Thessaloniki was not destined to finish. The match was abandoned scoreless in injury time, after a PAOK goal was disallowed as offside due to the pitch invasion of pistol-wielding PAOK owner Ivan Savvidis. PAOK lost the match 3-0 and AEK won the league.
After the title, that PAOK disputed, the time came for AEK to prove their worth: In the first instance when AEK was asked to defend their supremacy, they came up short: They lost 2-0 to PAOK at the Greek Cup final in Athens on May 12, allowing the Thessaloniki club to speak of a stolen league and a “double” of theirs.
Despite the joy of winning the first title since 1994, the transition to the 2018-19 preseason had AEK fans complaining: They saw the architect of the 2018 triumph, manager Manolo Jimenez, choose a return to Spain and to second-division club Las Palmas.
In the Canaries team the Spanish coach has taken along Sergio Araujo, who already belonged to Las Palmas and played for AEK on loan in the last year-and-a-half. Also the most valuable Greek player of the club, Lazaros Christodoulopoulos has swapped AEK with archrival Olympiakos. Two other major departures in the transfer window have been Ognjen Vranjes and Jakob Johansson.
All this led to the first worries among the AEK support, which for now have been contained. Battle-hardened manager of Panathinaikos, Marinos Ouzounidis was hired to replace Jimenez. After his hiring, Melissanidis satisfied the transfer appetite of the fans, first by buying Marko Livaja, who last season contributed to AEK title campaign playing on loan.
Then there were more notable additions to the roster of the Greek champion: Bosnian defender Vranjes has been replaced by Marios Economou, who previously plied his trade in Italy with Bologna, and three promising Latin American stars were added to the club’s midfield and attack, in Lucas Boyé (a 22-year-old forward from Torino), Ezequiel Ponce (a 21-year-old striker from Roma) and 23-year-old Brazilian midfielder Alef from Sporting Braga.
The main stage of the preseason training took place in Poland with AEK’s firing power going missing as the team scored no goals at all in the friendlies played there, while also remaining scoreless in the friendly against Atromitos in Athens. However the club’s dress rehearsal for the matches against Celtic went well, with AEK beating Turkey’s Galatasaray 3-2 at the Olympic Stadium of Athens.
All in all, with the signings of Boyé, Ponce and Alef added to the championship-winning stars of Petros Mantalos, Livaja, Tasos Bakasetas and Victor Klonaridis, AEK appear able to threaten any defence. Yet their weak spot remains its defending in set pieces, where both Galatasaray goals came from last week, a problem recorded since last season.
True, AEK sport a perfect record against Scottish teams, as Rangers, Hibernian, Hearts and Dundee United have all succumbed to the Greek club after 1994. This is something Celtic should worry about when meeting the Greek champion.
George Georgakopoulos
