Despite the good performance in the last season, Fernando Santos resigned[1] due to the disrupted relationship with the administrative leader of the club.

On the other hand, Psomiadis made many impressive transfers such as Georgatos, Katsouranis, Borbokis, Wright, Centeno, Kreek, Nalitzis and Prieto.

Finally, AEK took the lead at the beginning of the second half and ceremoniously took the qualification to the Champions League group stage with a second victory by 1–0.

AEK continued in the UEFA Cup and faced the Israeli Maccabi Haifa, an opponent that was certainly up to their standards.

The first match in Athens, Maccabi came in stronger and won a penalty that hit the crossbar and then the ball didn't pass the line.

From there on, AEK woke up and then the game became a monologue for the Greek team that reached the score 4–0 until the 35th minute, that remained until the final whistle.

The rematch of Nea Filadelfeia proved to be of historical importance, since it was the last European game at Nikos Goumas Stadium.

In the rematch of Toumba Stadium, AEK took an early lead, bringing the aggregate score at even, but finally a goal at the end of the match gave PAOK the qualification.

A notable event of the season was the fight against Makis Psomiadis, who generally, towards the end of 2002, started to have more and more "enemies" within the club.

In January, Demis Nikolaidis filed a lawsuit against Psomiadis, who had come by his house at 3 a.m. to check if the international striker was staying overnight and also for blackmail, insult and threatening his life and physical integrity, while stating that in the incident that took place outside Nikolaidis' and his wife's, Despina Vandi, house, apart from Psomiadis, some of his bodyguards were also present.

The list is sorted by competition order when total clean sheets are equal, then by shirt number and then alphabetically by surname.