History of AEK Athens F.C.

Clubs such as Énosis Tataoúlon (Ένωσις Ταταούλων) and Iraklís (Ηρακλής) from the Tatavla district, Mégas Aléxandros (Μέγας Αλέξανδρος) and Ermís (Ερμής) of Galata and Olympiás (Ολυμπιάς) of Therapia existed to promote the Hellenic athletic and cultural ideals.

AEK's first president, Konstantinos Spanoudis (1871–1941), a journalist and associate of the then Greek Prime Minister, Eleftherios Venizelos, petitioned the government to set aside land for the establishment of a sports ground.

AEK ended up finishing third, but they won the Cup, even though the final did not take place, since the other semi-finalists, Panathinaikos and Olympiacos were disqualified due to serious incidents of their fans in the semi-final at Leoforos Alexandras Stadium.

Honours Won: Greek Cup: 1 (1966) Runner-up: — 1965–66 season In the summer of 1965, Tryfon Tzanetis in his fifth and final spell in the club, strengthened the roster with the great transfers such as Tasos Vasiliou, Kostas Nikolaidis and Panagiotis Ventouris, while Nikos Stathopoulos was promoted from the academies.

1977–78 season, Part I Barlos strengthened the roster with Milton Viera and Dušan Bajević, while Giorgos Sidiropoulos, Timo Zahnleiter, Walter Wagner and Georgios Dedes among others departed.

Honours Won: Alpha Ethniki: 1 (1978), Greek Cup: 1 (1978) Runner-up: — 1977–78 season, Part II Fadrhonc's assistant, Andreas Stamatiadis sat on the bench for the next two games as an interim coach and from there Zlatko Čajkovski took over the fate of AEK.

With the exclusion of the yellow-blacks from the European competitions meant that no matter what the result of the game was, Panathinaikos would play in the UEFA Cup, but if AEK won would serve their sentence immediately.

[28] Honours Won: — Runner-up: — 1983–84 season, Part I In the summer of 1983, AEK faced another administrative change in their presidency, as Michalis Arkadis left and the Cypriot travel agency owner, Lefteris Panagidis stepped in and replaced him.

Iraklis, not accepting the decision, showed up in order to make a parody of the match and by the 53rd minute were left with six players resulting in the of awarding the game to AEK, who secured a place in the next season's UEFA Cup.

After the away 1–1, a scandal broke out on the eve of the rematch, as the former player of AEK, Dinos Ballis visited the hotel where the team were located with a bouquet for Theologis Papadopoulos and created suspicions that he was trying to bribe him.

AEK decided to make a transfer excess in order to achieve a great course in the Champions League and signed Christos Kostis, Dimitris Saravakos, Temur Ketsbaia and Nikos Kostenoglou, while Dionysis Chiotis was promoted from the academies.

Τhe new major shareholder and president of the team, Michalis Trochanas in collaboration with Bajević, maintained the roster and strengthened it with the return of Daniel Batista and the transfer of Christos Maladenis.

In the cup, AEK, after qualifying as first in their group and eliminating both their rivals, Olympiacos and Panathinaikos in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, respectively, reached the final against Apollon Athens and won the trophy with record victory with 7–1.

At the same time, Vasilios Tsiartas was sold to Sevilla, the contract of Refik Šabanadžović was expired and followed Bajević to Olympiacos, Dimitris Saravakos left and Spyros Ikonomopoulos retired after 19 years at the club.

Honours Won: — Runner-up: — 1999–2000 season, Part I Melissanidis who had taken over the management, addressed the Serbian market hiring Ljubiša Tumbaković, while the club signed Dragan Ćirić as a loan.

However, the highlight of the match was the fair play move by Nikolaidis, who after scoring a goal with his hand, asked the referee to disallow it, which led the International Olympic Committee to award him for his sportsmanship.

Despite the departures of Akis Zikos, Vaios Karagiannis and Carlos Gamarra, AEK signed Grigoris Georgatos, Kostas Katsouranis, Michel Kreek, Mauricio Wright and Walter Centeno, while Vasilios Borbokis returned to the club.

There they were placed alongside Real Madrid, Roma and Genk, achieving a record by drawing all six of the group stage matches,[54] eventually finishing 3rd and continued in the UEFA Cup.

[69] There were big changes in the squad with Daniel Majstorović,[70] Ignacio Scocco, Sebastián Saja, Juanfran, Angelos Basinas,[71] Sotirios Kyrgiakos,[72] and Rafik Djebbour arriving at the club.

Among the departures were those of three captains, Akis Zikos, Traianos Dellas[73] and Nikos Liberopoulos, Rivaldo, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Rodolfo Arruabarrena, Panagiotis Kone, Dániel Tőzsér and Júlio César.

Jiménez's contract was mutually terminated following heavy defeats in the European games and PAOK[83] Honours Won: — Runner-up: — 2011–12 season, Part II Former player and manager Nikos Kostenoglou agreed to return to AEK's managerial position.

2014–15 Season In the summer of 2014 AEK made signings from first division teams with Petros Mantalos, Giannis Anestis, Vasilios Lampropoulos, Christos Aravidis, Dimitrios Kolovetsios, Michalis Bakakis and Helder Barbosa.

This season marked the club's return to European competitions, facing AS Saint-Etienne in the 3rd qualifying round of the Europa League, where after the 0–0 in France, they were narrowly eliminated by losing 0–1 in Greece.

Honours Won: — Runner-up: — 2016–17 season, Part II Immediately after the removal of Ketsbaia, Jose Morais was hired, with the purpose for the team to play offensive football.

In the Champions League qualifiers AEK managed to pass through the group stage, eliminating Celtic and MOL Vidi, making a domestic record of a 14-game unbeaten streak in the UEFA competitions.

Among the summer transfers, the buying of Damian Szymański and the signings of Ionuț Nedelcearu, Yevhen Shakhov, Levi García, Muamer Tanković and Karim Ansarifard stood out.

On the other hand, Vasilis Barkas, Marios Oikonomou, Niklas Hult, Daniele Verde and Victor Klonaridis departed, while the permanent stay of Ognjen Vranješ and Sergio Araujo once again did not occur.

The collapse of the team resulted in AEK facing embarrassing defeats in the play-offs, which brought them close to a disastrous fifth-place finish, which meant the absence from the European competitions.

Several transfers were made, with the permanent return of Ognjen Vranješ and Sergio Araujo, while players, such as Cican Stanković, Georgios Tzavellas, Lazaros Rota, Ehsan Hajsafi, Milad Mohammadi, Nordin Amrabat and Steven Zuber also arrived, with the latter caming as a loan.

Players, such as Domagoj Vida, Harold Moukoudi, Djibril Sidibé, Jens Jønsson, Mijat Gaćinović, Niclas Eliasson and most importantly, Orbelín Pineda on loan, arrived, while the transfer of Steven Zuber became permanent.