From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Francisco Tcherkaski, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Up for the corner, and Luka Bogdan delivers — 7.73
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Luka Bogdan scored, was marked 7.73, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 24, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; AEL are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at AEL
Luther Singh 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 234% of everything AEL earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luka Bogdan. 2‑0 against Anorthosis, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at AEL 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
3 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.
Match23 Sep 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and François-Régis Mughe obliged against Ermis. 1‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is AEL.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The match ball belongs to Fernando Forestieri, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.80 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Francisco Tcherkaski, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.52
A mark of 8.52 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad28 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 AEL this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
6 goals in one match, Fernando Forestieri on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of AEL and Apollon.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 4‑2, and it was Fernando Forestieri’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to AEL.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Sep 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at AEL
Luther Singh 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Franco Grigera gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Franco Grigera has just signed for AEL, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Vladimir Screciu 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.
Squad21 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I watch every AEL game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gandzasar runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
5 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
The chances came and went for Thapelo Maseko
5 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
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.47 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tempers go at AEL
Vladimir Screciu 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.
Squad14 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
AEL get the job done against Omonoia
A 1‑0 win over Omonoia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad14 Sep 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 17, 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 Sep 2026
Vladimir Screciu asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at AEL
Luther Singh 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Vladimir Screciu 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. 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
12 new faces, and AEL are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.85 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market31 Aug 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 AEL can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Luther Singh 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 AEL this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings31 Aug 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.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at AEL
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Fernando Forestieri’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to AEL.
Market31 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Grigoris Soteriou 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
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marios Konstantinou 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. Nikos Merkis 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 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 AEL, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at AEL
Luther Singh 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at AEL 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. AEL know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market24 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Christoforos Frantzis has his answer from AEL; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at AEL would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
A move Vladimir Screciu would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Vladimir Screciu is living that version at AEL, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Luther Singh 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 AEL this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Aug 2026
Doxa pay $290.0K, 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at AEL training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladimir Screciu 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniil Paroutis and AEL agree another 3 years.
Market17 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
AEL say no — this time
The offer from Anorthosis for Panagiotis Kyriakou was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market10 Aug 2026
AEL get their man
The chase for Petros Ioannou ended with $560.0K changing hands and AE Kition out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Market10 Aug 2026
Gimnasia y Esgrima did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $330.0K for Juan Cruz Franzoni, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Luther Singh 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 AEL this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
In brief
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Squad
5 new faces, and AEL are still learning each other
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Squad
The new deal changes things for Juan Cruz Franzoni
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luther Singh commits to AEL for another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at AEL
Luther Singh 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Panagiotis Panagi again, and this time the name on the line is Doxa. AEL are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at AEL training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dušan Stevanović 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months and counting on Luther Singh
Still no offer on the table, and Luther Singh’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.