AEK Athens
The club
AEK Athens were founded on 13 April 1924 by Greek refugees from Constantinople, and the name is an acronym of Athlitiki Enosis Konstantinoupoleos, the Athletic Union of Constantinople. Since 2022 they have played at the Agia Sophia Stadium in Nea Filadelfeia, capacity 32,500, built on the site of the club's historic Nikos Goumas ground. They play in yellow and black and are known as the Dikefalos, the Double-Headed Eagle, after the Byzantine emblem on the badge, as well as Enosi (the Union) and the Kitrinomavri (the Yellow-Blacks). The away kit is white.
Recent seasons
AEK won the Greek title in 2017/18 and again in 2022/23, then went three seasons without one. They were not in the Champions League in 2025/26, which follows from having finished outside the title in 2024/25; the exact 2024/25 placing was not confirmed from the sources read here.
The 2025/26 season was their best in years. AEK topped the Super League Greece regular season with 60 points from 26 matches, 18 wins, 6 draws and 2 defeats, 49 goals scored and 17 conceded, one point clear of Olympiacos on 58 and three clear of PAOK on 57. They held first place through the play-offs and sealed the championship on 10 May 2026 with a 2-1 home win over Panathinaikos, finishing on 72 points to Olympiacos's 66 and PAOK's 64. It was the club's 14th Greek title and their first since 2022/23. Luka Jovic was the leading scorer with 17 league goals and 21 in all competitions. The Greek Cup run ended in the quarter-finals. Average home league attendance was 26,665. Marko Nikolic was the manager throughout and remains in post.
Honours and landmarks
Fourteen Greek championships: 1939, 1940, 1962/63, 1967/68, 1971, 1977/78, 1978/79, 1988/89, 1991/92, 1992/93, 1993/94, 2017/18, 2022/23 and 2025/26. The club also counts sixteen Greek Cups, one League Cup in 1989 and two Greek Super Cups; the full list of cup years, and which of them is the most recent, was not established from the sources read here. AEK are the only club to have won every competition run by the Hellenic Football Federation. AEK were the first Greek club to reach a European Cup quarter-final, in 1968/69.
Notable scorelines
No club-record win or record defeat was established from the sources read here, and that is worth stating plainly rather than guessing. The results that are documented are recent and European: a 6-0 win over Aberdeen at the Agia Sophia Stadium in the 2025/26 Conference League league phase, and the quarter-final loss to Rayo Vallecano, 4-3 on aggregate, in April 2026.
European record
AEK are one of the few Greek clubs with real European depth. They reached the European Cup quarter-finals in 1968/69, the first Greek side to do so. They were UEFA Cup semi-finalists in 1976/77, beaten by Juventus. They reached the Cup Winners' Cup quarter-finals in both 1996/97 and 1997/98. In the 2002/03 Champions League group stage they went unbeaten across six matches without winning any of them, drawing all six, an oddity that is still cited in Greek football. They returned to the Europa League group stage in 2017/18.
The most recent campaign is the one that matters most for context. In 2025/26 AEK went the whole way through the Conference League: they came through the qualifying rounds, won a place in the league phase, beat Aberdeen 6-0 at home in that phase, came through the round of 16 and reached the quarter-finals, where Rayo Vallecano knocked them out 4-3 on aggregate in April 2026. Rayo went on to the final. The exact dates of the individual legs of the AEK quarter-final were not confirmed from the sources read here.
Winning the 2025/26 Greek title took AEK straight into the Champions League play-off round for 2026/27, skipping the qualifying rounds entirely.
Quotes
- "Προφανώς και δεν υπάρχει αίσθηση για πρόβα τζενεράλε, διεκδικούμε ένα τρόπαιο." (Obviously there is no sense of a dress rehearsal about this; we are competing for a trophy.) - Marko Nikolic, AEK Athens head coach, to sport-fm.gr, 11 August 2026, on the Greek Super Cup against OFI. https://www.sport-fm.gr/article/5140818
- "Ο ΟΦΗ πρόκειται για μια εξαιρετική ομάδα με πολύ καλό προπονητή." (OFI are an excellent team with a very good coach.) - Marko Nikolic, AEK Athens head coach, to sport-fm.gr, 11 August 2026. https://www.sport-fm.gr/article/5140818
- "Απολαμβάνω κάθε στιγμή στην ΑΕΚ, για αυτό ανανέωσα το συμβόλαιό μου." (I am enjoying every moment at AEK, which is why I renewed my contract.) - Marko Nikolic, AEK Athens head coach, to sport-fm.gr, 11 August 2026. https://www.sport-fm.gr/article/5140818
- "Σε αυτή την ομάδα βασιζόμαστε ενόψει Super Cup και Play Offs του Champions League." (This is the squad we are relying on for the Super Cup and the Champions League play-offs.) - Marko Nikolic, AEK Athens head coach, to Gazzetta, 8 August 2026. https://www.gazzetta.gr/football/superleague/2559990/nikolits-panta-anoihtoi-se-metagrafi-me-ayti-tin-omada-tha-pame-se
- "Είναι πάντα πιθανό. Πάντα ειμαστε ανοιχτοί στο μεταγραφικό παράθυρο." (It is always possible. We are always open in the transfer window.) - Marko Nikolic, AEK Athens head coach, to Gazzetta, 8 August 2026, asked about further signings. https://www.gazzetta.gr/football/superleague/2559990/nikolits-panta-anoihtoi-se-metagrafi-me-ayti-tin-omada-tha-pame-se
No verbatim quote from Nikolic specifically about the Levski Sofia play-off tie was confirmed from the sources read here. Greek reports of his 3 August comments say he described the potential play-off opponents as serious clubs with serious budgets who had won their national championships, but the exact wording was not established and it is therefore not reproduced here as a quote.
Right now (2026/27)
Marko Nikolic is the manager and has extended his contract. The summer has been an expensive one. Oleksandr Zubkov joined from Trabzonspor for a reported 4m euros on 3 June, Kaan Kairinen from Sparta Prague for a reported 4m euros on 7 July, Lovro Majer from VfL Wolfsburg for a reported 6m euros on 29 July, and Milan Vitalis from Gyor for a reported 2.5m euros on 6 August. Orbelin Pineda left for Monterrey on 18 July for a reported 8m euros, and Marko Grujic, Niklas Jonsson, Thomas Callens and Pereyra all left as free agents. The net outlay is reported at around 8.1m euros.
The Super League Greece season does not start until 22 August 2026, when AEK are at home to Iraklis, so AEK come into their European tie with almost no competitive domestic football behind them. Their one match before it is the Greek Super Cup against Greek Cup winners OFI on 12 August 2026, the first fixture of the Greek season. The result of that match was not available at the time of writing.
The European tie: AEK Athens are in the **Champions League play-off round** against **Levski Sofia**, drawn on 3 August 2026. The first leg is in Sofia on 18 August 2026 and the return is at the Agia Sophia Stadium on 26 August. **The first leg has not been played as of 12 August 2026.** Levski reached the play-off by beating Kairat Almaty 2-0 on aggregate, 1-0 at home in Sofia on 4 August and 1-0 in Kazakhstan on 11 August. AEK entered directly at the play-off round as Greek champions and have not played a European match this season. Whoever loses the tie drops into the Europa League league phase.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AEK_Athens_F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_AEK_Athens_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_AEK_Athens_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Super_League_Greece https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Greek_Super_Cup https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/clubs/50129--aek-athens/matches/ https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/02a7-2133e87717bc-9913021d47f2-1000--uefa-champions-league-play-off-draw/ https://www.sport-fm.gr/article/5140818 https://www.gazzetta.gr/football/superleague/2559990/nikolits-panta-anoihtoi-se-metagrafi-me-ayti-tin-omada-tha-pame-se https://www.espn.com/soccer/match/_/gameId/401902671/levski-sofia-kairat-almaty
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.