2017–18 AEK Athens F.C. season

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Having achieved a good previous season, AEK kept their main squad and with Manolo Jiménez on the bench, they made additions to strengthen the team. Having signed Panagiotis Tsintotas and Giorgos Giakoumakis from the previous season, the team also acquired Victor Klonaridis, who returned after 5 years, while from the international market they acquired Uroš Ćosić, as well as Hélder Lopes and Marko Livaja from Las Palmas, with the latter coming as a loan. The club also proceeded in the loan of the international Icelandic winger, Arnór Ingvi Traustason. Past players with great contribution in the previous years, such as Dimitrios Kolovetsios, Ronald Vargas, Christos Aravidis and Tomáš Pekhart left the team.

AEK began their competitive duties in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, where in a difficult draw they faced CSKA Moscow. The Russian team, having great experience from these type of matches and with a stable squad for many years, did not have any difficulties against the inexperienced AEK and with victories by 0–2 in Athens and by 1–0 in Moscow, they eliminated yellow-blacks from the dream of the participation in the Champions League, sending them to the play-off round of the Europa League. There, they got unlucky again, as they were drawn against the Belgian Club Brugge. However, this time the team appeared well-prepared against their opponent and in the first match at the Jan Breydel Stadium they easily held the 0–0, despite being down to 10 men during the second half. In the rematch at the Olympic Stadium, AEK in one of their best European appearances in recent years turned the qualifying event into a triumph, by winning with 3–0 and dominating their opponents throughout the match. Thus, AEK returned to the group stage of the Europa League after 6 years.

In the championship, AEK started equally well, making some additional changes to their roster. Initially, Dídac Vilà who had been in conflict with the management over the termination of his contract, eventually went to Espanyol and Hugo Almeida moved to Hajduk Split. On the last day of the transfer window, AEK managed to bring back on loan Sergio Araujo, who stood out in the last season, as the Argentine could not stay away from the team he was beloved and became the third player to come from Las Palmas during the transfer period. Furthermore, another comeback took place, this time with Panagiotis Kone returning after 9 years, as a loan from Udinese. The team appeared well worked in all their lines and were in contention for the championship from the start. The home win against Olympiacos, where despite their dominance, they conceded 2 goals against the flow of the match, but managed to overturn the score by winning 3–2 and the easy victory over PAOK with 1–0, despite being down to 10 men early in the game, stood out in the first round. While AEK continued with wins, they suffered some losses in games that came close to European games, losing two key players along the way, with the captain, Petros Mantalos, as well as Jakob Johansson, suffering a cruciate ligament injury and practically staying out the rest of the season.^[1]

In the Europa League group stage, AEK were placed in Group D with Milan, Rijeka and Austria Wien. The team, with 1 win and 5 draws, managed to finish in second place with and advance to the round of 32 of the competition after ten years, scoring 8 games undefeated in European competitions. There, they faced the Ukrainian Dynamo Kyiv. In the first game in Athens, AEK entered strongly, but they conceded a goal in the only chance of Dynamo in the match and then the Ukrainians were closed in their area with the yellow-blacks pressing relentlessly equalizing at the end of the match. With no easy task, AEK traveled to NSC Olimpiyskiy, where they pressed Dynamo, who were playing to keep the qualification score. The yellow-blacks missed big chances and in the end the goal never came, with AEK being eliminated without defeat and completing a 10-match unbeaten streak in European competitions.

In the winter, AEK, in order to replace the injured Mantalos and Johansson, proceeded with the transfers of the international Iranian midfielder Masoud Shojaei and the Spanish Erik Morán, while Traustason, Patito Rodríguez and Vinícius departed, with the latter being replaced by Niklas Hult from Panathinaikos. Despite the small roster, the team continued in the same manner in a very competitive league, until the following events occurred. Their contenders for the league, PAOK and Olympiacos faced each other in Thessaloniki and before the start of the game, the coach of the red and whites, Óscar García was hit with a paper roll in the face, resulting in the departure of the squad of Olympiacos and their 0–3 victory on paper. This resulted in PAOK being punished with a 3-point deduction and a one-game home ban, which coincided against AEK.^[2] PAOK filed an appeal and after the midnight before the crucial match, the decision came out returning the points, as well as lifting their home ban,^[3] with the team of Thessaloniki "magically" managing in a few hours to print and sell all the tickets for the match.^[4] So, under these cirmconstances, AEK went to the Toumba Stadium to compete and in a game, where despite the hostile referee, they managed to limit their opponent and everything was going smoothly, until the 90th minute, when at the only big chance of PAOK in the match, Fernando Varela scored with his teammate, Maurício got in the course of the ball with a projection in the air, from an obvious offside position. The referee Kominis initially counted the goal, but after protests from the players of AEK to the assistant, Pontikis and after consultation between the referees, they decided to cancel the goal. This resulted in the major shareholder of PAOK, Ivan Savvidis storming in the pitch with bodyguards to take the team and leave. When the captain of the black and whites, Vieirinha signaled him not to do this, he attacked Kominis. A moment later, he took off his jacket and a revolver was revealed in his belt. Then Kominis decided to stop the match and sent the teams to the locker rooms. After consultation, Kominis returned to the pitch with the players of PAOK to continue the match with the score at 1–0, but the yellow-blacks in the image of the gun refused to come out. The match was abandoned with the score 1–0 in favor of PAOK and the case was transferred to courts, where AEK was vindicated and were awarded the match with 0–3^[5] and with the Thessaloniki team being punished with a 3-point deduction from this year's championship, 3 from the next season's championship, a 3-game home ban and the punishment of Ivan Savvidis and Ľuboš Micheľ.^[6] With this decision, AEK's task of claiming the championship became easier and eventually came true in the home match against Levadiakos, where they managed to mathematically secure the title winning by 2–0, in celebratory atmosphere in the packed Olympic Stadium. After winning the last game at Rizoupoli Stadium against Apollon Smyrnis, AEK were crowned champions and held a title party in Nea Filadelfeia with their fans, in front of their under construction stadium.^[7]

In the cup, AEK emphatically finished at the top of their group with only wins and eliminated Panetolikos just as easily for the round of 16. In the quarter-finals they faced Olympiacos and after a heroic 0–0 draw at Karaiskakis Stadium, prevailed 2–1 at the Olympic Stadium, eliminating them for the second time in a row. Also noteworthy was that AEK had 3 wins, 1 draw and no defeats in 4 matches against the red and whites during the season. In the semi-finals they faced AEL and in the first game the team appeared tired from the back-to-back games, suffering their first defeat in the institution. In the return match the team from Larissa were closed in their area, playing to keep the qualifying score with the yellow-blacks pressing relentlessly throughout the game. In the seventh and final minute of the stoppage time, a goal with a stunning bicycle kick from a difficult angle by Lazaros Christodoulopoulos gave AEK the qualification to the final for the third consecutive year, with the visitors conceding the superiority of the yellow-blacks. For the second year in a row, AEK faced PAOK, who were boiling in anger at losing the championship. This time at the Olympic Stadium on 12 May, AEK appeared tired from their effort throughout the season and lost by 2–0 hands down to title-hungry PAOK.^[8]

• 7 June 2017 Ilias Vouras and Christos Aravidis leave the club as their contracts are not renewed.^[9]
• 21 June 2017 Portuguese left-back Hélder Lopes signs a 2-year deal with AEK, on a free transfer from Las Palmas.^[10]
• 24 June 2017 Goalkeeper Panagiotis Tsintotas signs a 3-year deal with AEK, on a free transfer from Levadiakos.^[11]
• 26 June 2017 Striker Giorgos Giakoumakis signs a 4-year deal with AEK, on a transfer from Platanias.^[12]
• 27 June 2017 Ronald Vargas and Dimitrios Kolovetsios leave the club as no deal for their announcement was made.^[13]
• 29 June 2017 Greek-Belgian forward Viktor Klonaridis signs a three-year deal with AEK Athens from Lens.^[14] On the same day, Super League newcomers Lamia announces the loan transfer of Stavros Vasilantonopoulos from AEK.^[15]
• 1 July 2017 Croatian forward Marko Livaja signs from Las Palmas on a season long loan deal for €200,000 with a purchase option of €1,800,000 in the summer of 2018. Livaja became the third player which was transferred from Las Palmas to AEK within 2017, after Sergio Araujo and Hélder Lopes.^[16]
• 3 July 2017 Serbian centre-back Uroš Ćosić signs with AEK for three years, with an extension clause of one more year, in a full transfer from Empoli.^[17]
• 3 July 2017 Tomáš Pekhart leaves the club as his contracts is not renewed.
• 4 July 2017 Icelander winger Arnór Ingvi Traustason signs with AEK on loan for one year from Rapid Wien, with a permanent buy-out clause at the summer of 2018. Arnór, as presented in the official video, will wear the shirt with number 30.^[18] On the same day, Lamia officially announced that, after Vasilantonopoulos, midfielder Ilias Tselios is loaned to Lamia, as well.^[19]
• 14 July 2017 The UEFA Champions League draw brought Russian club CSKA Moscow as opponents of AEK for the third qualifying round.^[20]
• 25 July 2017 AEK obtained the official construction license, inviting the fans of AEK to the sanctification on upcoming Thursday, where the new stadium will break ground at Nea Filadelfeia.^[21] On the same day, the construction license was featured on the giant screen of the Olympic Stadium, where AEK faced CSKA Moscow for the Champions League.
• 27 July 2017 The sanctification for the beginning of the construction of Agia Sophia Stadium took place, with more than 15,000 fans of AEK being present, in Nea Filadelfeia, with the club officially thanking them for their presence. Among others, he club's administrative leader Dimitris Melissanidis, former club player Stelios Serafidis made a speech about the new stadium.^{[22][23][24][25]}
• 28 July 2017 Agia Sophia Stadium officially broke ground.^[24]
• 21 August 2017 Youngsters Paris Babis, Christos Antoniou and Christos Giousis sign professional contracts with AEK.^[26]
• 25 August 2017 AEK qualifies in the Group stage of the Europa League and they are placed in the Group D with Milan, Rijeka and Austria Wien
• 29 August 2017 The contracts of Dídac Vilà^[27] and Konstantinos Manolas^[28] are terminated by a mutual consent.
• 30 August 2017 The contract of Hugo Almeida is terminated by a mutual consent.^[29]
• 31 August 2017 Sergio Araujo^[30] and Panagiotis Kone^[31] return to AEK as a one-season loan from Las Palmas and Udinese, respectively.
• 16 November 2017 Petros Mantalos signs new 4-year deal.^[32]
• 6 December 2017 The loan of Arnór Ingvi Traustason is terminated by a mutual consent.
• 8 December 2017 The contract of Patito Rodríguez is terminated by a mutual consent.^[33]
• 11 December 2017 AEK advanced to the round of 32 of the Europa League and were draw with Dynamo Kyiv
• 28 December 2017 Iranian midfielder Masoud Shojaei signs a deal with AEK until the end of the season, on a free transfer from Panionios.^[34]
• 2 January 2018 Spanish midfielder Erik Morán signs a 3 and a half deal with AEK, on a transfer from Leganés.^[35]
• 18 January 2018 The contract of Vinícius Freitas is terminated by a mutual consent.^[36]
• 31 January 2018 Swedish left-black Niklas Hult signs a 2 and a half deal with AEK, on a transfer from Panathinaikos.^[37]
• 30 March 2018 Dmytro Chyhrynskyi signs new 2-year deal.^[38]
• 5 May 2018 AEK were crowned champions.
• 30 May 2018 Stavros Vasilantonopoulos signs new 2-year deal.^[39]

NOTE: The players are the ones that have been announced by the AEK Athens' press release. No edits should be made unless a player arrival or exit is announced. Updated 12 May 2018, 23:59 UTC+3.

No.	Player	Nat.	Position(s)	Date of birth (Age)	Signed	Previous club	Transfer fee	Contract until
Goalkeepers
1	Vasilis Barkas		GK	(1994-05-30)30 May 1994 (aged 24)	2016	Atromitos	€600,000	2019
16	Panagiotis Tsintotas		GK	(1993-07-04)4 July 1993 (aged 24)	2017	Levadiakos	Free	2020
22	Giannis Anestis		GK	(1991-03-09)9 March 1991 (aged 27)	2014	Panionios	Free	2018
87	Panagiotis Dounis		GK	(1997-03-29)29 March 1997 (aged 21)	2013	AEK Athens U20	—	2019
—	Thanasis Pantos		GK	(1998-10-09)9 October 1998 (aged 19)	2017	AEK Athens U20	—	2020
Defenders
2	Michalis Bakakis		RB / LB / CB / RM	(1991-03-18)18 March 1991 (aged 27)	2014	Panetolikos	€250,000	2019
3	Hélder Lopes		LB / LM / LW	(1989-01-04)4 January 1989 (aged 29)	2017	Las Palmas	Free	2019
4	Ognjen Vranješ		CB / RB	(1989-10-24)24 October 1989 (aged 28)	2016	Tom Tomsk	Free	2019
5	Vasilios Lampropoulos		CB / RB	(1990-03-31)31 March 1990 (aged 28)	2016	Panionios	Free	2019
12	Rodrigo Galo		RB / RM / RW / LB	(1986-09-19)19 September 1986 (aged 31)	2015	Paços de Ferreira	Free	2019
15	Uroš Ćosić		CB / RB / LB / DM	(1992-10-24)24 October 1992 (aged 25)	2017	Empoli	€500,000	2020
19	Dmytro Chyhrynskyi		CB	(1986-11-07)7 November 1986 (aged 31)	2016	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	Free	2020
23	Niklas Hult		LB / LM	(1990-02-13)13 February 1990 (aged 28)	2018	Panathinaikos	€200,000	2020
33	Georgios Giannoutsos		LB / CB / DM	(1998-07-16)16 July 1998 (aged 19)	2016	AEK Athens U20	—	2020
55	Adam Tzanetopoulos		CB / DM / CM	(1995-02-10)10 February 1995 (aged 23)	2013	Niki Volos	Free	2020
Midfielders
6	Astrit Ajdarević		CM / AM / DM / ST	(1990-04-17)17 April 1990 (aged 28)	2016	Örebro	Free	2019
8	André Simões (Vice-captain 2)		DM / CM	(1989-12-16)16 December 1989 (aged 28)	2015	Moreirense	Free	2019
18	Jakob Johansson (Vice-captain)		DM / CM / CB	(1990-01-21)21 January 1990 (aged 28)	2014	Göteborg	Free	2018
20	Petros Mantalos (Captain)		AM / LM / CM / LW / SS / RM / RW	(1991-08-31)31 August 1991 (aged 26)	2014	Xanthi	€500,000	2022
21	Panagiotis Kone		AM / RM / LM / RW / LW / CM	(1987-07-26)26 July 1987 (aged 30)	2017	Udinese	Free	2018
23	Masoud Shojaei		AM / LW / RW / SS / LM / RM	(1984-06-09)9 June 1984 (aged 34)	2017	Panionios	Free	2018
25	Konstantinos Galanopoulos		CM / DM	(1997-12-28)28 December 1997 (aged 20)	2015	AEK Athens U20	—	2021
32	Paris Babis		DM / CM	(1999-07-17)17 July 1999 (aged 18)	2017	AEK Athens U20	—	2022
39	Erik Morán		DM / CM	(1991-05-25)25 May 1991 (aged 27)	2018	Leganés	€130,000	2021
Forwards
7	Lazaros Christodoulopoulos		RW / LW / RM / LM / SS / AM / CM	(1986-12-19)19 December 1986 (aged 31)	2016	Hellas Verona	Free	2018
9	Giorgos Giakoumakis		ST / SS	(1994-12-09)9 December 1994 (aged 23)	2017	Platanias	€300,000	2021
10	Marko Livaja		SS / ST / AM / LW / RW / LM / RM	(1993-08-26)26 August 1993 (aged 24)	2017	Las Palmas	€200,000	2018
11	Sergio Araujo		ST / SS / LW / RW	(1992-01-28)28 January 1992 (aged 26)	2017	Las Palmas	€800,000	2018
14	Anastasios Bakasetas		SS / AM / ST / RW / LW / RM / LM	(1993-06-28)28 June 1993 (aged 25)	2016	Panionios	€300,000	2019
28	Victor Klonaridis		SS / LW / RW / LM / RM / ST / AM / CM	(1992-07-28)28 July 1992 (aged 25)	2017	Lens	€200,000	2020
31	Dimitrios Melikiotis		ST / SS / RW / LW	(1996-07-10)10 July 1996 (aged 21)	2017	Veria	Free	2021
70	Christos Antoniou		RW / RM	(1998-02-14)14 February 1998 (aged 20)	2017	AEK Athens U20	—	2022
77	Christos Giousis		RW / LW / RM / LM / SS / AM	(1999-10-08)8 October 1999 (aged 18)	2017	AEK Athens U20	—	2022
Left during Summer Transfer Window
—	Hugo Almeida		ST	(1984-05-23)23 May 1984 (aged 34)	2016	Hannover 96	Free	2018
Left during Winter Transfer Window
17	Vinícius Freitas		LB / LM / LW	(1993-03-07)7 March 1993 (aged 25)	2017	Lazio	Free	2019
30	Arnór Ingvi Traustason		LM / LW / RM / RW / SS / AM	(1993-04-30)30 April 1993 (aged 25)	2017	Rapid Wien	Free	2018
29	Patito Rodríguez		LW / LM / RW / RM / SS / AM	(1990-05-04)4 May 1990 (aged 28)	2016	Santos	Free	2018
40	Andreas Vlachomitros		SS / ST / RW / LW	(1997-07-03)3 July 1997 (aged 20)	2015	AEK Athens U20	—	2019

No.	Pos.	Player	From	Type	Fee	Date	Contract Until	Source
3	DF	Hélder Lopes	Las Palmas	Transfer	Free	1 July 2017	30 June 2019	[10]
11	FW	Giorgos Giakoumakis	Platanias	Transfer	€300,000	1 July 2017	30 June 2021	[12]
15	DF	Uroš Ćosić	Empoli	Transfer	€500,000	3 July 2017	30 June 2020	[17]
16	GK	Panagiotis Tsintotas	Levadiakos	Transfer	Free	1 July 2017	30 June 2020	[11]
28	FW	Victor Klonaridis	Lens	Transfer	€200,000	1 July 2017	30 June 2020	[14]
32	MF	Paris Babis	AEK Athens U20	Promotion	—	1 July 2017	30 June 2022	[26]
55	DF	Adam Tzanetopoulos	Iraklis	End of loan	—	1 July 2017	30 June 2020
70	FW	Christos Antoniou	AEK Athens U20	Promotion	—	1 July 2017	30 June 2022	[26]
77	FW	Christos Giousis	AEK Athens U20	Promotion	—	1 July 2017	30 June 2022	[26]
87	GK	Panagiotis Dounis	Kallithea	End of loan	—	1 July 2017	30 June 2019
—	GK	Thanasis Pantos	AEK Athens U20	Promotion	—	1 July 2017	30 June 2020
—	DF	Stavros Vasilantonopoulos	Veria	End of loan	—	1 July 2017	30 June 2018
—	FW	Antonis Kyriazis	A.E. Kifisia	End of loan	—	1 July 2017	30 June 2017

No.	Pos.	Player	From	Type	Fee	Date	Contract Until	Source
23	DF	Niklas Hult	Panathinaikos	Transfer	€200,000	31 January 2018	30 June 2020	[37]
24	MF	Masoud Shojaei	Panionios	Transfer	Free	28 December 2017	30 June 2018	[34]
31	FW	Dimitrios Melikiotis	Kerkyra	Loan termination	—	30 January 2018	30 June 2021
39	MF	Erik Morán	Leganés	Transfer	€130,000	2 January 2018	30 June 2021	[35]
—	GK	Thanasis Pantos	Acharnaikos	Loan termination	—	31 December 2017	30 June 2020
—	MF	Ilias Tselios	Lamia	End of loan	—	28 December 2017	30 June 2020

No.	Pos.	Player	To	Type	Fee	Date	Source
9	FW	Hugo Almeida	Hajduk Split	Contract termination	—	30 August 2017	[29]
10	MF	Ronald Vargas	Newcastle Jets	End of contract	—	16 September 2017	[40]
11	FW	Sergio Araujo	Las Palmas	End of loan	—	30 June 2017
14	FW	Tomáš Pekhart	Hapoel Be'er Sheva	End of contract	—	21 July 2017	[41]
16	GK	Ilias Vouras	Doxa Drama	End of contract	—	7 August 2017	[9]
21	FW	Christos Aravidis	Free agent	End of contract	—	30 June 2017	[9]
23	DF	Dídac Vilà	Espanyol	Contract termination	—[a]	29 August 2017	[27]
24	DF	Konstantinos Manolas	Levadiakos	Contract termination	—	29 August 2017	[28]
26	DF	Dimitrios Kolovetsios	Panathinaikos	End of contract	—	3 July 2017	[42]
—	FW	Antonis Kyriazis	Aris Limassol	End of contract	—	1 September 2017	[43]

No.	Pos.	Player	To	Type	Fee	Date	Source
17	DF	Vinícius	Chapecoense	Contract termination	—	18 January 2018	[36]
29	FW	Patito Rodríguez	Newcastle Jets	Contract termination	—	8 December 2017	[33]
30	MF	Arnór Ingvi Traustason	Rapid Wien	Loan termination	—	6 December 2017	[44]

No.	Pos.	Player	From	Fee	Date	Until	Option to buy	Source
10	FW	Marko Livaja	Las Palmas	€200,000	1 July 2017	30 June 2018	Y	[16]
11	FW	Sergio Araujo	Las Palmas	€800,000	31 August 2017	30 June 2018	N	[30]
21	MF	Panagiotis Kone	Udinese	Free	31 August 2017	30 June 2018	Y	[31]
30	MF	Arnór Ingvi Traustason	Rapid Wien	Free	5 July 2017	30 June 2018	Y	[18]

No.	Pos.	Player	To	Fee	Date	Until	Option to buy	Source
31	FW	Dimitrios Melikiotis	Kerkyra	Free	16 August 2017	30 June 2018	N	[45]
87	GK	Giannis Papadopoulos	Kissamikos	Free	9 August 2017	30 June 2018	N	[46]
—	GK	Thanasis Pantos	Acharnaikos	Free	2 September 2017	30 June 2018	N	[47]
—	DF	Alkiviadis Markopouliotis	Kissamikos	Free	9 August 2017	30 June 2018	N	[46]
—	DF	Stavros Vasilantonopoulos	Lamia	Free	26 June 2017	30 June 2018	N	[15]
—	MF	Ilias Tselios	Lamia	Free	5 July 2017	31 December 2017	N	[19]

No.	Pos.	Player	To	Fee	Date	Until	Option to buy	Source
—	MF	Ilias Tselios	Ergotelis	Free	10 January 2018	30 June 2018	N	[48]
—	MF	Andreas Vlachomitros	Apollon Pontou	Free	25 January 2018	30 June 2018	N	[49]

Notes

No.	Pos.	Player	Date	Former Exp. Date	New Exp. Date	Source
19	DF	Dmytro Chyhrynskyi	30 March 2018	30 June 2018	30 June 2020	[50]
20	MF	Petros Mantalos	16 November 2017	30 June 2019	30 June 2022	[32]
—	DF	Stavros Vasilantonopoulos	30 May 2018	30 June 2018	30 June 2020	[39]