Marked for Hakim Sahabo
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match24 Oct 2026
A derby is never about the football alone, but the football helped: 1‑0, and the away end emptied early. Bragging rights renewed for another season.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for AEK and a story that will outlast his contract.
Match24 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play AEK right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The dugout26 Oct 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at AEK
Brian Oliván 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Oleksandr Zinchenko is on it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Stavros Pelkas, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at AEK
Kervin Arriaga 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.
The dugout12 Oct 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AEK can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Hakim Sahabo 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The division's best last weekend was a AEK man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Luka Jović was the best thing in any of them.
Market12 Oct 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AEK know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
João Mário knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AEK, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
7 appearances at Dobrudzha and the goals keep coming. AEK are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Next up on the road: Panetolikos, position 11. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 42. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A falling-out at AEK
Oleksandr Zinchenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Sven Köhler reaches 200 appearances
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Barnabás Varga
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hakim Sahabo, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The weekend belonged to Luka Jović
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
Match26 Sep 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Atromitos defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Market28 Sep 2026
The Luka Jović story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Luka Jović signs something — a contract at AEK or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Sep 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Hakim Sahabo reports back to AEK with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Match12 Sep 2026
Kifisia take the points off AEK
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Sep 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.18 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Doors closed at AEK
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Luka Jović beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Spyridon Diamantakos and AEK agree another 3 years.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Stavros Pelkas after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Kervin Arriaga knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AEK, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Market7 Sep 2026
So close: Luka Jović’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Adana Demirspor moved on, Luka Jović reports back to AEK, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 11 in, 11 out at AEK
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. AEK will try again when the window opens; OFI may not be selling by then.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Charalampos Lykogiannis is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at AEK
Brian Oliván and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at AEK
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Market7 Sep 2026
The Hakim Sahabo conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Panserraikos will make the call about Hakim Sahabo this week. AEK have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.