From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Apr 2027
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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lysandros Thomakos and AEK agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Apr 2027
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Tempers go at AEK
Orbelín Pineda 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 watch12 Apr 2027
“I did not go to Volos NPS to sit and watch. I want to come back to AEK and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 33 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Konstantinos Angelakis is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Apr 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 Mar 2027
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Mar 2027
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at AEK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Penrice 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Steven Zuber and AEK agree another 1 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Mar 2027
Tempers go at AEK
Orbelín Pineda 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
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 watch15 Mar 2027
“I watch every AEK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Volos NPS runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Mar 2027
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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Petros Mantalos commits to AEK for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Mar 2027
Tempers go at AEK
Orbelín Pineda 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
James Penrice 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.
Loan watch1 Mar 2027
“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 6 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces22 Feb 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 26 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad22 Feb 2027
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“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.
Match20 Feb 2027
Aris Thessaloniki left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
“I watch every AEK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sibenik runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The terraces22 Feb 2027
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.80, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Tempers go at AEK
Orbelín Pineda 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
Boardroom15 Feb 2027
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Tonny Vilhena has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means AEK have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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 ratings15 Feb 2027
João Mário runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
“I watch every AEK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Volos NPS runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad15 Feb 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
7 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 Feb 2027
The deal that would have taken Niclas Eliasson to PAOK has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to AEK with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad8 Feb 2027
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Răzvan Marin 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 ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
22 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.
Loan watch8 Feb 2027
“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 26 matches say the rest.
Market8 Feb 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. AEK have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
A performance of 8.78 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match6 Feb 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aboubakary Koita. 1‑0 against Levadiakos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Feb 2027
Domagoj Vida hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEK can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market1 Feb 2027
Add another name to the list: PAOK have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Niclas Eliasson. The answer from AEK has not changed — yet.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at AEK heard it as anything else.
Squad1 Feb 2027
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 ratings1 Feb 2027
Niclas Eliasson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.33. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad1 Feb 2027
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
Squad1 Feb 2027
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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Robert Ljubičić, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market25 Jan 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 AEK can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 26 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Konstantinos Angelakis is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sverrir Ingi Ingason and AEK agree another 2 years.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
Match23 Jan 2027
A bad afternoon for AEK against Olympiacos
0‑1 to Olympiacos, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. AEK will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Jan 2027
Business between these two is never simply business. AEK wanted Sverrir Ingi Ingason, Panathinaikos did not want to sell to them of all clubs, and the signature at the end of it says who won that argument.
Match16 Jan 2027
Still nobody has beaten AEK
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market18 Jan 2027
As if he never left: Steven Zuber returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Steven Zuber is a AEK player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Tempers go at AEK
Orbelín Pineda 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Steven Zuber and AEK agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Loan watch18 Jan 2027
“I watch every AEK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Volos NPS runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A smaller club would suit Răzvan Marin now
He has had enough of the noise. Whether AEK can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
Squad18 Jan 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Jan 2027
A derby is never about the football alone, but the football helped: 3‑1, and the away end emptied early. Bragging rights renewed for another season.
Market11 Jan 2027
Stavros Pilios has left for Olympiacos in a $2.2M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Match9 Jan 2027
8 unbeaten for AEK
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation AEK did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The AEK support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
Boardroom11 Jan 2027
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
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.
Loan watch11 Jan 2027
“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 22 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AEK may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
24 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Tempers go at AEK
Orbelín Pineda 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Stavros Pilios again, and this time the name on the line is Olympiacos. AEK are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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 ratings4 Jan 2027
A performance of 8.90 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Dec 2026
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Tempers go at AEK
Oleksandr Zubkov 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 ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match26 Dec 2026
Still nobody has beaten AEK
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad28 Dec 2026
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 ratings28 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Barnabás Varga at his very best
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at AEK.
Squad28 Dec 2026
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
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.
Match26 Dec 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market21 Dec 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at AEK heard it as anything else.
Match19 Dec 2026
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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
22 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
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.
Loan watch21 Dec 2026
“I watch every AEK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Volos NPS runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad21 Dec 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match9 Dec 2026
The cup run ends for AEK
0‑0 against Levadiakos, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
32 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 31, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad14 Dec 2026
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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AEK have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Răzvan Marin 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
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 ratings14 Dec 2026
A defender's afternoon for Domagoj Vida
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 26, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Tempers go at AEK
Orbelín Pineda 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.
Market7 Dec 2026
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
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.
Squad7 Dec 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.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Shots: 11. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Nov 2026
Cruel end for Volos NPS as AEK pounce
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. AEK scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market30 Nov 2026
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
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 ratings30 Nov 2026
Aboubakary Koita was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.11. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match28 Nov 2026
Three points for AEK, 2‑1 the final word against Volos NPS in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Răzvan Marin, and the manager let it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Thomas Strakosha
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEK lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market23 Nov 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 25 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Tempers go at AEK
Orbelín Pineda 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Aris Thessaloniki left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Loan watch23 Nov 2026
“I watch every AEK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Volos NPS runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Thomas Strakosha damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
32 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
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 ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Nov 2026
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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Orbelín Pineda 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
Thomas Strakosha damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 28, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 24 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad9 Nov 2026
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Levadiakos made AEK work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.15, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Thomas Strakosha
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEK lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match2 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for AEK
Position 12 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match31 Oct 2026
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.
Market2 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
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 ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match31 Oct 2026
Niclas Eliasson scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to OFI, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad2 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.13, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
In brief
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Match
No time for OFI to settle
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Boardroom
Nobody left the AEK dressing room in a hurry
-
Squad
Tempers go at AEK
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Oct 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
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.
Match24 Oct 2026
5 matches without a win for AEK
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around AEK are no longer polite ones.
Squad26 Oct 2026
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
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 ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
18 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.
Loan watch26 Oct 2026
“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 9 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 38, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad19 Oct 2026
There were 9 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match17 Oct 2026
4 matches without a win for AEK
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around AEK are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
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.
Match17 Oct 2026
No goals between AEK and PAOK
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. PAOK will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Oct 2026
Derby day misery for AEK
Losing 1‑2 is one thing; losing to Panathinaikos in a derby is a wound that takes months to close.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at AEK
Orbelín Pineda 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Hakim Sahabo is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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 ratings12 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Orbelín Pineda at his very best
Marked 8.51. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at AEK.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
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 watch12 Oct 2026
“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 9 matches say the rest.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AEK will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market5 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dimitris Kaloskamis is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
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 ratings5 Oct 2026
Niclas Eliasson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match3 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
10 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 45. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market28 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEK can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AEK will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 7.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market28 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at AEK
Orbelín Pineda 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Martin Georgiev is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oleksandr Zubkov, and the manager let it.
Match26 Sep 2026
AEK hit back inside 2 minutes
Panserraikos held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. AEK answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Sep 2026
Cruel end for Atromitos as AEK pounce
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. AEK scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.74, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alexandros Tzamalis is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Harold Moukoudi. 2‑1 against Atromitos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Shots: 13, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AEK will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 28 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Market14 Sep 2026
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Asteras take the points off AEK
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.74, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 31 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 26, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A first appearance Alexandros Tzamalis will want to forget — 5.73
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.73, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of James Penrice
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Răzvan Marin wants out of the spotlight
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at AEK
Orbelín Pineda 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
Graduation day at AEK
2 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Petros Mantalos
“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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vasileios Tsadjaris 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Christos Mandalos 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Volos NPS leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Everyone has stopped pretending: Torpedo Moscow will make the call about Mijat Gaćinović this week. AEK have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market17 Aug 2026
Luka Jović has left for Racing Genk in a $5.1M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market17 Aug 2026
The deal that would have taken Angelos Angelopoulos to Olympiacos has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to AEK with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at AEK
Orbelín Pineda 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Barnabás Varga
“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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Dimitris Kaloskamis’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market10 Aug 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Luka Jović reports back to AEK with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Oleksandr Zubkov and AEK agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at AEK
Orbelín Pineda 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at AEK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Harold Moukoudi 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
237 appearances across 11 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and AEK know what they have.
Market3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Orbelín Pineda commits to AEK for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at AEK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Domagoj Vida 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.