Marked for Facundo Forestieri
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Aug 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AEL Larisa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AEL Larisa may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market9 Aug 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEL Larisa can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Nasos Dabizas is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Yvann Maçon 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Emiliano Karaj gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Emiliano Karaj has just signed for AEL Larisa, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
$39.0K was the most the club would pay and OFI were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Gaël Kakuta 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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
A loan enquiry to Gornik Zabrze: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AEL Larisa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match16 Jan 2027
No end in sight to AEL Larisa's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AEL Larisa has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Estudiantes, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The offer went to Panetolikos this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Yvann Maçon and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
AEL Larisa asked and Legia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Spyros Risvanis 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 ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“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 AEL Larisa know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Dec 2026
Yvann Maçon and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreas Makris 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 ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match26 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gaël Kakuta, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Thanasis Nikolaou left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Spyros Risvanis's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Looking ahead28 Dec 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Aris Thessaloniki in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
Gaël Kakuta breaks a bone — 17 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match21 Nov 2026
The wait goes on for AEL Larisa
5 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Yvann Maçon and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Andreas Makris 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 ratings23 Nov 2026
Pione Sisto beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Facundo Forestieri and AEL Larisa agree another 3 years.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“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.
Match23 Nov 2026
Halfway: AEL Larisa sit in position 11
14 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kermit Mahlangu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.