Barnabás Varga

Striker - AEK
26 Jan 2027
Tuesday
Process

Marked for Barnabás Varga

26 Edition

The AEK Sentinel

25 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Kaan Kairinen in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Barnabás Varga falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

Barnabás Varga’s goal not enough for AEK

Barnabás Varga scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Olympiacos, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

Squad

Another clean sheet for Thomas Strakosha

12 shut-outs and counting. Goalkeepers are only noticed when they fail, and Thomas Strakosha has given nobody the chance.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Luis Ángel Díaz

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Loan watch

Lysandros Thomakos wants to come home

“I did not go to Aris Thessaloniki to sit and watch. I want to come back to AEK and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 24 matches say the rest.

In brief

Back issues
25 Edition

The AEK Sentinel

18 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Thomas Strakosha keeps AEK in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Squad

Tempers go at AEK

Lovro Majer was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Market

As if he never left: Alexandros Paschalakis returns

Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Alexandros Paschalakis is a AEK player again, and the town has its story of the summer.

Squad

Words at AEK training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Barnabás Varga is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad

Răzvan Marin gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Lovro Majer

Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

The run at home goes on for AEK

8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

Match

AEK find a way past PAOK

PAOK made AEK work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

Nothing got past Marko Grujić

17 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.

In brief

23 Edition

The AEK Sentinel

4 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

12 unbeaten for AEK

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 12 matches without defeat is a foundation AEK did not have in the autumn.

Squad

Thomas Strakosha keeps AEK in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Squad

Lovro Majer is named among the best

There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. AEK will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.

Squad

Tempers go at AEK

Kaan Kairinen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Words at AEK training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Barnabás Varga is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Player ratings

Nothing got past Marko Grujić

19 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.

Player ratings

Niclas Eliasson runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Player ratings

Nothing got past Kaan Kairinen

Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.

Match

No goals between AEK and Panetolikos

Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Panetolikos will be the happier side with the point.

In brief

22 Edition

The AEK Sentinel

28 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

11 unbeaten for AEK

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation AEK did not have in the autumn.

Squad

Lovro Majer in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Barnabás Varga falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Niclas Eliasson

Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Aboubakary Koita the difference as AEK beat Panserraikos

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aboubakary Koita. 1‑0 against Panserraikos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Aboubakary Koita at his very best

Marked 8.10. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at AEK.

Squad

Getting past Thomas Strakosha has become the hardest job in the division

10 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.

Loan watch

Lysandros Thomakos counts the days

“I watch every AEK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Aris Thessaloniki runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

Squad

Thomas Strakosha has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at AEK will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

In brief

20 Edition

The AEK Sentinel

14 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

AEK bow out of the cup

OFI go through and AEK go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.

Player ratings

Dereck Kutesa runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Thomas Strakosha decides it from twelve yards

1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.

Match

9 unbeaten for AEK

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation AEK did not have in the autumn.

Player ratings

A defender's afternoon for Roberto Pereyra

Defensive actions: 24. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.

Squad

Kaan Kairinen in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Barnabás Varga falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

AEK find a way past Asteras

Asteras made AEK work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

The kick that got away from Petros Mantalos

Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.

In brief

19 Edition

The AEK Sentinel

7 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Barnabás Varga

Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Still nobody has beaten AEK

The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Squad

Tempers go at AEK

Răzvan Marin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Market

Niclas Eliasson wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Words at AEK training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Barnabás Varga is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad

Luis Ángel Díaz wants to go home

“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and AEK know it.

Match

AEK see off Kifisia

Three points for AEK, 2‑0 the final word against Kifisia in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Squad

Luis Ángel Díaz gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Player ratings

Lovro Majer takes the honours

Marked 7.99 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, AEK had the best player on the pitch.

In brief

17 Edition

The AEK Sentinel

23 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

The wait goes on for AEK

8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Player ratings

Both of them Niclas Eliasson's — 8.38

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.38, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

Tempers go at AEK

Lovro Majer was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Match

Niclas Eliasson among the goals in a wild afternoon

6 goals in one match, Niclas Eliasson on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of AEK and Aris Thessaloniki.

Squad

Words at AEK training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Barnabás Varga is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Luis Ángel Díaz

Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Player ratings

Lovro Majer in the eights

A performance of 8.07 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Match

AEK share the spoils with Aris Thessaloniki

A 3‑3 draw with Aris Thessaloniki leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

Loan watch

Zois Karargyris counts the days

“I watch every AEK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at BATE runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

In brief

16 Edition

The AEK Sentinel

16 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

7 matches without a win for AEK

The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around AEK are no longer polite ones.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Niclas Eliasson

Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Lovro Majer in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Barnabás Varga falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

The goals have deserted AEK

3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AEK can tell you which week it ends in.

Player ratings

Nothing got past Marko Grujić

Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.

Loan watch

Nikos Vlioras counts the days

“I watch every AEK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Aris Thessaloniki runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Jeremy Antonisse

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Squad

Petros Mantalos dropped after a run of poor form

The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.

In brief

15 Edition

The AEK Sentinel

9 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Luis Ángel Díaz puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at AEK, and it is not being withdrawn.

Match

6 matches without a win for AEK

The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around AEK are no longer polite ones.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Thomas Strakosha

There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Market

Thomas Strakosha wants more than AEK are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Tempers go at AEK

Lovro Majer was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Lovro Majer

Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Barnabás Varga is still paying for one afternoon at AEK

Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.

Squad

AEK pick somebody else ahead of Răzvan Marin

There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.

Player ratings

A day to forget for Barnabás Varga

Marked 4.63, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.

In brief

14 Edition

The AEK Sentinel

2 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

No end in sight to AEK's wait for a win

5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AEK has to find a result from somewhere.

Market

Barnabás Varga wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at AEK hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Barnabás Varga falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Niclas Eliasson

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Squad

Jeremy Antonisse in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Lovro Majer runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Loan watch

Lysandros Thomakos has seen enough of Aris Thessaloniki

“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at AEK, and 0 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.

Squad

Răzvan Marin dropped after a run of poor form

The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.

Player ratings

Harold Moukoudi was immovable

15 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.

In brief

13 Edition

The AEK Sentinel

26 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Thomas Strakosha keeps AEK in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Match

The wait goes on for AEK

4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Squad

Tempers go at AEK

Răzvan Marin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Player ratings

Lovro Majer runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Words at AEK training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Barnabás Varga is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Loan watch

Zois Karargyris counts the days

“I watch every AEK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at BATE runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

In brief

11 Edition

The AEK Sentinel

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Derby day misery for AEK

Losing 0‑1 is one thing; losing to Panathinaikos in a derby is a wound that takes months to close.

Squad

Tempers go at AEK

Lovro Majer was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Real improvement from Marios Balamotis at AEK

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Marios Balamotis is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Market

Niclas Eliasson wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Words at AEK training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Barnabás Varga is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad

Luis Ángel Díaz wants to go home

“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and AEK know it.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Niclas Eliasson

Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Loan watch

Dimitris Kaloskamis has seen enough of Rubin

“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at AEK, and 2 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.

Player ratings

A day to forget for Filipe Relvas

Marked 4.75, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.

In brief

10 Edition

The AEK Sentinel

5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Thomas Strakosha keeps AEK in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Market

Thomas Strakosha wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Lovro Majer in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Barnabás Varga falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Player ratings

Nothing got past Marko Grujić

Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.

Squad

Domagoj Vida signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Domagoj Vida commits to AEK for another 2 years.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Niclas Eliasson

Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Player ratings

Nothing got past Răzvan Marin

Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.

Player ratings

A defender's afternoon for Kaan Kairinen

Defensive actions: 13. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.

In brief

9 Edition

The AEK Sentinel

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Lovro Majer

Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

AEK may not be able to give Barnabás Varga what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Barnabás Varga wants continental football; whether AEK can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Tempers go at AEK

Lovro Majer was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Match

AEK get the job done against Panserraikos

A 2‑1 win over Panserraikos, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Oleksandr Zubkov

Marked 8.07 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Jeremy Antonisse

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

In brief

8 Edition

The AEK Sentinel

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Lovro Majer in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Barnabás Varga falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

AEK find a way past Atromitos

Atromitos made AEK work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Loan watch

Lysandros Thomakos counts the days

“I watch every AEK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Aris Thessaloniki runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

Squad

AEK pick somebody else ahead of Luis Ángel Díaz

There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.

Squad

Barnabás Varga is off the mark for AEK

The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.

In brief

7 Edition

The AEK Sentinel

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Thomas Strakosha wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at AEK hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Player ratings

Lovro Majer runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Words at AEK training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Barnabás Varga is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad

Tempers go at AEK

Jeremy Antonisse was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Loan watch

Nikos Vlioras counts the days

“I watch every AEK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Aris Thessaloniki runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

Squad

AEK pick somebody else ahead of Petros Mantalos

There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.

Squad

Domagoj Vida gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Match

Lovro Majer rescues a point for AEK

It needed Lovro Majer to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Asteras, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

Market

The market said no: Alexander Callens stays put

AEK opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Alexander Callens stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.

In brief

5 Edition

The AEK Sentinel

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Market

Luka Jović moves on

Besiktas pay $12.1M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Thomas Strakosha

There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

The terraces

AEK sell a favourite for $12.1M

The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Luka Jović was one of the reasons people came, and $12.1M does not replace that by itself.

Squad

Tempers go at AEK

Kaan Kairinen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Player ratings

Marko Grujić was immovable

23 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.

Boardroom

5 academy players handed senior numbers at AEK

The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.

Market

Vasileios Fortounis steps up from the AEK academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vasileios Fortounis has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

Market

AEK promote Vasileios Nikolaou from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vasileios Nikolaou has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

Market

Leonidas Pelkas steps up from the AEK academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Leonidas Pelkas has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

In brief

2 Edition

The AEK Sentinel

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Luis Ángel Díaz gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luis Ángel Díaz has just signed for AEK, and for once the answer mattered.

Market

Olympiacos join the queue for Kaan Kairinen

Add another name to the list: Olympiacos have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kaan Kairinen. The answer from AEK has not changed — yet.

Market

Olympiacos come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and AEK did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market

Luis Ángel Díaz arrives at AEK as the heir apparent

Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Luis Ángel Díaz is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.

Squad

Lovro Majer signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lovro Majer commits to AEK for another 4 years.

Squad

Tempers go at AEK

Lovro Majer was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

In brief

  • Market Barnabás Varga wants more than AEK are offering
  • Squad Words at AEK training over how hard people work