2007–08 AEK Athens F.C. season

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In the summer of 2007, AEK strengthened their roster with many players with the more resounding transfer being that of Rivaldo, while also Blanco, Macho, Arruabarrena and Nsaliwa among others, joined the team, as the Spanish Serra Ferrer remained at their bench. The club sold 25,495 season tickets.

The draw of the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League brought the Spanish Sevilla against AEK. AEK had a very positive presence at Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium, but lost with two goals in the second half. The rematch of Athens was overshadowed by the tragedy of the death of the Sevilla player, Antonio Puerta.^[1] UEFA postponed the game, ordering it to be played a week later. AEK welcomed Sevilla on the evening of September 3, lined up with full offensive orientations. They put a lot of pressure on Sevilla in the first twenty minutes, but a penalty by Júlio César put an end to any chances of qualification for AEK, who finally went on to the UEFA Cup with a heavy 1–4.

In the first round of the UEFA Cup, AEK were drawn with the Austrian Salzburg, which had now moved to the Red Bull group. In Athens, AEK took the lead early in the match and in the second half, AEK doubled the lead the goal-poem from Rivaldo with a mixture of volley and scissor-kick. Towards the end, AEK scored a third goal and gained a huge lead for the rematch. At the Red Bull Arena, Salzburg's goal put AEK in danger and by defending properly, kept the difference from the first leg and thus the qualification to the group stage. There they met Villarreal, Fiorentina, Mladá Boleslav and Elfsborg, where with 1 win, 2 draws and 1 loss they finished third and advanced to the round of 32.

In the league, the yellow-blacks started the year strong by winning the first 6 matches and it took until the 7th match to have their first loss. They were also defeated by Asteras Tripolis in a match after which the vice-president, Nikos Koulis stated that AEK had the right to object to the illegal participation of the footballer of Asteras, Sokratis Fyntanidis,^[2] but such a move did not suit the mentality of AEK and so the matter did not proceed. Something that AEK would to find in front of them later in the season. Then 2 consecutive defeats in the middle of the season, left AEK well behind in the league race. On 3 February, Olympiacos lost to Apollon Kalamarias with 1–0. After the match, the red and whites found out that the player of Apollon, Roman Wallner had an irregular participation because he had already played in the same season in 2 teams and therefore did not have the right to play in a third one. The HFF nevertheless issued a report to the footballer. Olympiacos, who did not share the same morals as AEK, filed an objection and asked to win the match "on paper". The decision that came out ordered the replay of the match, which did not satisfy the Piraeus who appealed the decision.

In the Cup, AEK eliminated Fostiras of Daniel Batista in the round of 32. In the next phase, AEK faced Skoda Xanthi in a knockout game where, playing bad football, were eliminated with a 2–0 defeat. The people of the team disapproved of players, coach and management and 3 days later Serra Ferrer was sacked.^[3] The position of coach was taken over by his assistant and former footballer of the team, Nikos Kostenoglou.

AEK recovered competitively by making some victories, while Olympiacos, who rested on their high difference started throwing away points, but did not show that their top spot was seriously threatened. While the Wallner case was unfolding, the championship was coming to an end with Olympiacos losing their concentration and AEK covering up the difference. On 30 March, AEK beat Olympiacos with an emphatic 4–0 and got the upper hand on claiming the league. However, the decision of the Appeals Committee of the HFF ruled the game on paper in favor of Olympiacos and with their victory against AEL on the 27th matchday secured the championship. Apollon Kalamarias finally appealed to CAS, which considered itself incompetent, did not proceed with the examination of the case and the standings were validated since the championship had already ended.^[4] In the penultimate matchday against PAOK in Toumba Stadium, AEK played outstanding football and won easily by 0–4. In the last match against Asteras Tripolis, AEK honored Akis Zikos for his contribution to the club, while there was tension in the stands as the crowd wanted to honor the "champion" of that season, AEK who, however, would not lift the cup that afternoon.^[5] In Piraeus, however, they celebrated as if nothing had happened. Eventually the regular season ended with a message on the stadium matrix reading "Proud of AEK 2007–2008".

In the round of 32 of the UEFA Cup, AEK were drawn with the Spanish Getafe. Kostenoglou made a lot of changes in faces and the formation, but the team did not seem to respond. Getafe took the lead three minutes before the end and AEK reacted, closing the Spaniards in their area, reaching the equalizer with a rare beauty back-heel shot of Blanco. The second leg at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez was one of AEK's worst nights in European cups. Getafe chased the qualification and easily won with 3–0. AEK was unacceptable, passionless and indifferent and ended the month with exclusion from the European cups.

After the team were deprived of winning the league and without administrative reactions and collisions within the club, AEK went down to the play-offs under the shadow of the Wallner case. After the easy victory in the first game against Panionios, bad appearances followed, lackluster and with obvious internal problems in the team's performance. As it turned out later, many boardmembers and footballers did not even want to participate in the play-offs. AEK suffered great defeats at Leoforos Alexandras Stadium and Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium and with the last two matches being completely indifferent, the team finished third, where they should have been crowned champions.^[6]

Squad information

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 14 May 2008, 23:59 UTC+3.

No.	Player	Nat.	Position(s)	Date of birth (Age)	Signed	Previous club	Transfer fee	Contract until
Goalkeepers
32	Marcelo Moretto		GK	(1978-05-10)10 May 1978 (aged 30)	2007	Benfica	€800,000	2008
50	Jürgen Macho		GK	(1977-08-24)24 August 1977 (aged 30)	2007	Kaiserslautern	€300,000	2009
84	Giannis Arabatzis		GK	(1984-05-28)28 May 1984 (aged 24)	2002	Makrochori	Free	2011
Defenders
2	Edson Ratinho		RB / RM / RW	(1986-05-31)31 May 1986 (aged 22)	2007	Mogi Mirim	€350,000	2012
3	Rodolfo Arruabarrena		LB	(1975-07-20)20 July 1975 (aged 32)	2007	Villarreal	Free	2009
4	Geraldo Alves		CB / RB	(1980-11-08)8 November 1980 (aged 27)	2007	Paços de Ferreira	€300,000	2010
5	Traianos Dellas (Captain)		CB	(1976-01-31)31 January 1976 (aged 32)	2005	Roma	Free	2009
6	Georgios Alexopoulos		CB / RB	(1977-02-07)7 February 1977 (aged 31)	2005	Egaleo	Free	2010
14	Federico Azcárate		CB	(1984-06-15)15 June 1984 (aged 24)	2007	Atlético Madrid B	Free	2011
15	Sokratis Papastathopoulos		CB / RB / LB / DM	(1988-06-09)9 June 1988 (aged 20)	2005	Apollon Petalidiou	Free	2008
31	Nikolaos Georgeas (Vice-captain 3)		RB / LB / DM	(1976-12-27)27 December 1976 (aged 31)	2001	Kalamata	€1,500,000	2010
Midfielders
1	Pantelis Kafes (Vice-captain 2)		CM / DM / AM / RM / LM	(1978-06-24)24 June 1978 (aged 30)	2007	Olympiacos	Free	2010
8	Tam Nsaliwa		DM / CM / CB	(1982-01-28)28 January 1982 (aged 26)	2007	Panionios	€400,000	2010
10	Rivaldo		AM / SS / LM	(1972-04-19)19 April 1972 (aged 36)	2007	Olympiacos	Free	2009
11	Gustavo Manduca		RM / AM / RW / LM / LW / CM / SS / ST	(1980-06-08)8 June 1980 (aged 28)	2007	Benfica	€800,000	2010
16	Akis Zikos		DM / CM	(1974-06-01)1 June 1974 (aged 34)	2006	Monaco	Free	2008
19	Panagiotis Lagos		LM / LW / LB / CM / DM	(1985-07-18)18 July 1985 (aged 22)	2006	Iraklis	€900,000	2010
22	Panagiotis Kone		AM / RM / LM / RW / LW / CM	(1987-07-26)26 July 1987 (aged 20)	2005	Lens U19	Free	2010
25	Vasilios Pliatsikas		DM / CM / RB / CB	(1988-04-20)20 April 1988 (aged 20)	2005	Chaidari	Free	2010
27	Christos Bourbos		RM / RB / RW / DM	(1983-06-01)1 June 1983 (aged 25)	2004	PAS Giannina	Free	2008
34	Panagiotis Tachtsidis		CM / DM / AM	(1991-02-15)15 February 1991 (aged 17)	2007	AEK Athens U20	—	2010
80	Georgios Tofas		AM / RM / LM	(1989-06-17)17 June 1989 (aged 19)	2007	Enosis Neon Paralimni	Free	2010
88	Dániel Tőzsér		AM / CM / DM / LM	(1985-05-12)12 May 1985 (aged 23)	2006	Ferencváros	€150,000	2010
Forwards
7	Charilaos Pappas		RW / LM / LW / SS	(1983-05-12)12 May 1983 (aged 25)	2007	Olympiacos	Free	2009
9	Pantelis Kapetanos		ST / RW	(1983-06-08)8 June 1983 (aged 25)	2006	Iraklis	€400,000	2011
18	Ismael Blanco		ST / SS	(1983-01-19)19 January 1983 (aged 25)	2007	Colón	€450,000	2008
20	Manú		RW / RM / LW / LM	(1982-08-28)28 August 1982 (aged 25)	2007	Benfica	Free	2008
23	Mohamed Kallon		ST / SS / LW	(1983-01-19)19 January 1983 (aged 25)	2008	Free agent	Free	2008
33	Nikos Liberopoulos (Vice-captain)		SS / ST / AM	(1975-08-04)4 August 1975 (aged 32)	2003	Panathinaikos	Free	2009
36	Edinho		ST / SS / RW	(1982-07-07)7 July 1982 (aged 25)	2008	Vitória de Setúbal	€150,000	2008
83	Michalis Pavlis		SS / ST / RW / LW	(1989-09-22)22 September 1989 (aged 18)	2006	AEK Athens U20	—	2011
99	Júlio César		LW / SS / AM / RW / ST	(1980-02-26)26 February 1980 (aged 28)	2005	Gil Vicente	€540,000	2009
Left during Winter Transfer Window
81	Xenofon Panos		RB / RM / LB	(1989-08-25)25 August 1989 (aged 18)	2007	AEK Athens U20	—	2011
89	Nikos Barboudis		RB / CB	(1989-03-06)6 March 1989 (aged 19)	2007	Ilisiakos	€60,000	2010
24	El Hadji Diouf		AM / CM	(1989-08-20)20 August 1989 (aged 18)	2007	Xam-Xam	Free	2011
56	Përparim Hetemaj		CM / DM / AM / RM / LM / RW / LW	(1986-12-12)12 December 1986 (aged 21)	2006	HJK Helsinki	€450,000	2010

In

Summer

No.	Pos.	Player	From	Type	Fee	Date	Contract Until	Source
2	DF	Edson Ratinho	Mogi Mirim	Transfer	€350,000	1 July 2007	30 June 2012	[7]
3	DF	Rodolfo Arruabarrena	Villarreal	Transfer	Free	1 July 2007	30 June 2009	[8]
4	DF	Geraldo Alves	Paços de Ferreira	Transfer	€300,000	1 July 2007	30 June 2010	[9]
7	FW	Charilaos Pappas	Olympiacos	Transfer	Free	1 July 2007	30 June 2010	[10]
8	MF	Tam Nsaliwa	Panionios	Transfer	€400,000	1 July 2007	30 June 2010	[11]
10	MF	Rivaldo	Olympiacos	Transfer	Free	1 July 2007	30 June 2009	[12]
11	MF	Gustavo Manduca	Benfica	Transfer	€800,000	1 July 2007	30 June 2010	[13]
14	DF	Federico Azcárate	Atlético Madrid B	Transfer	Free	1 July 2007	30 June 2011	[14]
24	MF	El Hadji Diouf	Xam-Xam	Transfer	Free	25 July 2007	30 June 2011	[15]
27	MF	Christos Bourbos	Kerkyra	End of loan	—	1 July 2007	30 June 2010
34	MF	Panagiotis Tachtsidis	AEK Athens U20	Promotion	—	1 November 2007	30 June 2010
50	GK	Jürgen Macho	Kaiserslautern	Transfer	€300,000	31 August 2007	30 June 2009	[16]
80	MF	Georgios Tofas	Ethnikos Piraeus	End of loan	—	1 July 2007	30 June 2010
81	DF	Xenofon Panos	AEK Athens U20	Promotion	—	1 July 2007	30 June 2011
89	DF	Nikos Barboudis	Ilisiakos	Transfer	€60,000	1 July 2007	30 June 2010	[17]
—	GK	Giannis Fysekis	Anagennisi Karditsa	End of loan	—	1 July 2007	30 June 2010
—	DF	Dimitrios Koutromanos	Ethnikos Piraeus	End of loan	—	1 July 2007	30 June 2011
—	DF	Vasilios Vallianos	Anagennisi Karditsa	End of loan	—	1 July 2007	30 June 2008
—	DF	Andreas Chronis	NY Red Bulls Academy	Transfer	Free	1 July 2007	31 December 2010	[18]
—	MF	Panagiotis Zorbas	Niki Volos	End of loan	—	1 July 2007	30 June 2011
—	FW	Aggelos Komvolidis	Ethnikos Piraeus	End of loan	—	1 July 2007	30 June 2010

Winter

No.	Pos.	Player	From	Type	Fee	Date	Contract Until	Source
23	FW	Mohamed Kallon	Free agent	Transfer	Free	29 January 2008	30 June 2008	[19]
—	DF	Savvas Gentsoglou	Panachaiki	Loan termination	—	31 December 2007	30 June 2009
—	MF	Nikolaos Kaltsas	Anagennisi Karditsa	Loan termination	—	31 December 2007	30 June 2010

Out

Summer

No.	Pos.	Player	To	Type	Fee	Date	Source
4	DF	Vangelis Moras	Bologna	End of contract	—	1 July 2007	[20]
5	DF	Bruno Cirillo	Levante	Contract termintion	—	4 July 2007	[21]
7	MF	Ilias Kyriakidis	AEL	Transfer	€225,000	17 June 2007	[22]
11	MF	Gustavo Manduca	Benfica	End of loan	—	30 June 2007
13	DF	Martin Pautasso	Club Olimpia	Contract termintion	—	30 June 2007	[23]
14	DF	Stavros Tziortziopoulos	Omonia Nicosia	End of contract	—	1 July 2007	[24]
17	MF	Vladan Ivić	Aris	Contract termintion	—	31 August 2007	[25]
22	GK	Dionysis Chiotis	Kerkyra	End of contract	—	27 July 2007	[26]
23	MF	Vasilios Lakis	PAOK	Contract termintion	—	3 July 2007	[27]
25	MF	Emerson	APOEL	End of contract	—	1 July 2007	[28]
70	MF	Guillaume Plessis	Boulogne	End of contract	—	1 July 2007
79	FW	Leonidas Kampantais	Arminia Bielefeld	End of contract	—	1 July 2007	[29][30]
—	GK	Antonis Lykouris	Free agent	Contract termintion	—	30 June 2007
—	FW	Aggelos Komvolidis	Iraklis	Contract termintion	—	24 July 2007	[31]

Loan in

Summer

No.	Pos.	Player	From	Fee	Date	Until	Option to buy	Source
18	FW	Ismael Blanco	Colón	€450,000	10 August 2007	30 June 2008	Y	[32]
20	FW	Manú	Benfica	Free	30 August 2007	30 June 2008	Y	[33]
32	GK	Marcelo Moretto	Benfica	€800,000	13 July 2007	30 June 2008	Y	[34]

Winter

No.	Pos.	Player	From	Fee	Date	Until	Option to buy	Source
36	FW	Edinho	Vitória de Setúbal	€150,000	1 February 2008	30 June 2008	Y	[35]

Loan out

Summer

No.	Pos.	Player	To	Fee	Date	Until	Option to buy	Source
28	GK	Stefano Sorrentino	Recreativo de Huelva	€340,000	16 July 2007	30 June 2008	Y	[36]
90	DF	Savvas Gentsoglou	Panachaiki	Free	30 August 2007	30 June 2008	N	[37]
—	GK	Giannis Fysekis	Lamia	Free	30 June 2007	30 June 2008	N
—	DF	Nikolaos Kourkoulas	Nea Ionia	Free	30 June 2007	30 June 2008	N
—	DF	Dimitrios Koutromanos	Anagennisi Karditsa	Free	30 June 2007	30 June 2008	N
—	DF	Andreas Chronis	Nea Ionia	Free	30 June 2007	30 June 2009	N
—	DF	Vasilios Vallianos	A.O. Nea Ionia	Free	30 June 2007	30 June 2008	N
—	MF	Giorgos Paligiorgos	Anagennisi Karditsa	Free	30 June 2007	30 June 2009	N

Winter

No.	Pos.	Player	To	Fee	Date	Until	Option to buy	Source
24	MF	El Hadji Diouf	Ilisiakos	Free	31 December 2007	30 June 2008	N
56	MF	Përparim Hetemaj	Apollon Kalamarias	Free	31 December 2007	30 June 2008	N
81	DF	Xenofon Panos	Nea Ionia	Free	31 December 2007	30 June 2009	N
89	DF	Nikos Barboudis	Fostiras	Free	31 December 2007	30 June 2008	N
—	DF	Savvas Gentsoglou	Nea Ionia	Free	31 December 2007	30 June 2008	N
—	MF	Nikolaos Kaltsas	Acharnaikos	Free	31 December 2007	30 June 2008	N

Contract renewals

No.	Pos.	Player	Date	Former Exp. Date	New Exp. Date	Source
5	DF	Traianos Dellas	1 June 2007	30 June 2007	30 June 2009	[38]
6	DF	Georgios Alexopoulos	23 May 2008	30 June 2008	30 June 2010	[39]
31	DF	Nikolaos Georgeas	22 May 2008	30 June 2008	30 June 2010	[40]

Overall transfer activity

Overall record

Super League Greece

Regular season

League table

Results summary

Results by Matchday

Fixtures

Play-offs

Table

Results summary

Results by Matchday

Fixtures

Greek Cup

AEK entered the Greek Cup at the Round of 32.

Matches

UEFA Champions League

Third qualifying round

The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 3 August 2007.

Sevilla v AEK Athens

15 August 2007 First leg	Sevilla	2–0	AEK Athens	Seville, Spain
21:45 EEST (UTC+3)	Maresca  42' Fabiano 48' Kanouté 68'	Report	Arruabarrena  42' Zikos  90+1'	Stadium: Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium Attendance: 34,852 Referee: Ľuboš Micheľ (Slovakia)

AEK Athens v Sevilla

3 September 2007 Second leg	AEK Athens	1–4 (1–6 agg.)	Sevilla	Athens, Greece
21:45 EEST (UTC+3)	Zikos  19' Bourbos  43' Manduca 64' Papastathopoulos  75' Rivaldo 82' (pen.)	Report	Fabiano 32' (pen.), 45' Keita 40' Kerzhakov 53'	Stadium: Olympic Stadium Attendance: 37,777 Referee: Paul Allaerts (Belgium)
Note: The match was postponed until 3 September due to the death of Antonio Puerta.[1]

UEFA Cup

First round

The draw for the first round was held on 31 August 2007.^[41]

AEK Athens v Red Bull Salzburg

20 September 2007 First leg	AEK Athens	3–0	Red Bull Salzburg	Athens, Greece
19:45 EEST (UTC+3)	Alves 3',  40' Ratinho  35' Rivaldo 58' Nsaliwa  76' Kone 82' Liberopoulos  88'	Report	Carboni  38' Vargas  52'   72' Lokvenc  69' Zickler  72'	Stadium: Olympic Stadium Attendance: 25,523 Referee: Mike Dean (England)