Nikolaou accepted with the term that the 1971 signature premium of 300 thousand drachmas to be given to him and rejoined the team but the pay remained to be seen until today.

In the summer of 1980, Nikolaou decided to stop his football career remaining in the club only as the team's doctor.

As AEK faced problems midseason, Nikolaou was urgently called by the then coach, Miltos Papapostolou to put on his football shoes again and help the team.

[7] In his medicine career, Nikolaou received the title of the specialty of orthopedics and was declared a doctor of the University of Athens in 1975.

[8] From 1983 to 1986 Nikolaou did further training at Duke in the USA in the field of sports injuries and has been awarded by the American Orthopedic Association for his pioneering work in cruciate ligament transplants of the knee and his long-term studies in the field of the physiology of muscle injuries.

[2] He was the doctor of the national teams of Greece from 1982 to 1994, while he served as President of its Health Committee and consequently a member of the Board of Directors in 1994-95.

[3] On 8 October 1997, after pressure and with AEK Athens having financial issues, he accepted the assumption of the presidency of club under the owner company ENIC for a period of about a year.