# 1965–66 AEK Athens F.C. season

The 1965–66 season was the 42nd season in the existence of AEK Athens F.C. and the seventh consecutive season in the top flight of Greek football. They competed in the Alpha Ethniki and the Greek Cup. The season began on 28 November 1965 and finished on 10 July 1966.

## Overview

The 1965–66 season was characterized both for AEK Athens and for Greek football in general, by both interesting and strange events. The strictness of the football authorities was the price paid by the yellow-blacks on the effort made at the beginning of the season with their agent and former player, Kleanthis Maropoulos, in order to cooperate with the representatives of the regional clubs, creating a block of reaction to the dominance of Olympiacos and Panathinaikos in the decisions of the centers of authority. The "eternals", alarmed by the coalition of the rest that Maropoulos seemed to be succeeding even threatened to withdraw from the national Championship, terrorizing the smaller ones with the suspicion of loss of revenue from it, delaying its start until 28 November, when the first matchday was set.
In AEK, the start of the season was overshadowed by the conflict between the management and Mimis Papaioannou and by the latter's decision to leave the pitches and turn to singing. The 23-year-old forward, having impressed Real Madrid officials with his performance and skills in a 3–3 friendly draw on 12 May 1965, was negotiating a transfer to the Spanish club and when he run into the management's refusal to his concession, he became bittered and withdrew from the club's activities. Taking advantage of his vocal abilities, he participated in the musical group that surrounded Stelios Kazantzidis, with whom he left for a tour in the Greek immigrants of Germany. The abstention of Papaioannou put an obstacle on the plans of AEK coach, Tryfon Tzanetis who in the summer of 1965 had taken care to shield the club with impressive transfers such as the defender of Apollon Athens, Tasos Vasiliou, the forward of PAO Safrafolis, Kostas Nikolaidis and the big star the Fostiras in the midfield, Panagiotis Ventouris, while Nikos Stathopoulos, Giorgos Karafeskos and Michalis Simigdalas were promoted from the infrastructure departments to the first team. The absence of Papaioannou from the team's preparation and his looming absence from their competitive duties forced Kostas Nestoridis, who had made the decision to leave AEK, to change his decision and remain with the team at the start of the season. However, due to his advanced age, Nestoridis was no more sufficient to fill the gap of Papaioannou and AEK started their competitive activities in the Championship with two defeats and one victory in the first 3 matches. Αt the beginning of December 1965, the differences between AEK and Papaioannou have begun to bridge and after getting a new contract of 500,000 drachmas, he returned to the team, shortly before the derby with Panathinaikos at the Leoforos Alexandras Stadium. Despite the fact that the lack of training caused him to suffer from cramps throughout the match, Papaioannou contributed to AEK's 2–3 victory by scoring one of the three goals while the other two scored by Kostas Nikolaidis. That match was the beginning of a 14-match undefeated streak, which brought the club on a distance of 3 points from the top. AEK was firmly in contention for the title, but the next two matches with the derbies at Karaiskakis Stadium against Olympiacos and in Nea Filadelfeia against Panathinaikos negated any hopes they may have had. On 27 March at Faliro, Olympiacos was sweeping, winning by 4–0 and in 3 April in the match against Panathinaikos, as the game was at 1–1 and while there had been previous violent episodes between the players in the first half, Panathinaikos scored at the 88th minute with Takis Loukanidis from an offside position. The referee awarded the goal and wild incidents occurred with the participation of fans entering the field, which resulted in the match permanently stopped at the expense of AEK, who were zeroed and the game awarded to Panathinaikos. These incidents, led the officials of AEK not to participate in the next match in Serres against Panserraikos as a sign of protest. AEK were again zeroed and the threat of relegation after a possible third zeroing forced the club to return to the Championship, eventually finishing 3rd.
AEK began their obligations in the Greek Cup eliminating Edessaikos at home for the round of 32, then Apollon Kalamarias away at the round of 16 and Ethnikos Piraeus at home in the quarter-finals. The semi-final draw that came out were AEK–Kavala and Olympiacos–Trikala. Kavala demanded that the match be played at their home ground citing a provision of the then regulations that stipulated that if one of the two teams came from Northern Greece in a pair of semi-finals, then the home team was automatically designated. AEK did not accept it, arguing that this regulation only concerned the clubs from Thessaloniki and not all clubs of Northern Greece in general. In order to reconcile things, the HFF, set the match at a neutral ground, the Kaftanzoglio Stadium, but Kavala refused to compete, insisting that the match should be played at their stadium. Thus, AEK advanced to the final as they were awarded the game without a match, where Olympiacos had already qualified after their 5–0 victory over Trikala. The definition by the HFF of setting the Final on 10 July 1966, at the Karaiskakis Stadium, brought the reactions of the Olympiacos whose management sent a letter to the Federation announcing their decision not to show up, protesting the advanced date in relation to the preparation of the club of Piraeus for the next season's European Cup. Thus, on 7 July, the HFF, unable to convince Olympiacos for their participation in the final, declared AEK the winner with a 2–0 victory without a match.
In the midst of such situations, Kostas Nestoridis, one of the greatest Greek footballers and one of the timeless "yellow-black" legends, departed from the club after 11 years of presence.

## Players
### 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 10 July 1966, 23:59 UTC+2.
| Player | Position(s) | Date of birth (Age) | Signed | Previous club | Transfer fee | Contract until |
| Goalkeepers ||||||||
| Stelios Serafidis | GK | (1935-08-06)6 August 1935 (aged 30) | 1953 | AEK Athens U20 | — | 1972 |
| Vangelis Petrakis | GK | (1938-09-07)7 September 1938 (aged 27) | 1962 | Aris | Free | 1967 |
| Theodoros Maniateas | GK | (1945-03-19)19 March 1945 (aged 21) | 1964 | Panthisiakos | Free | 1969 |
| Defenders ||||||||
| Alekos Sofianidis | LB / LM / LW | (1937-08-03)3 August 1937 (aged 28) | 1959 | Beşiktaş | Free | 1969 |
| Aleko Yordan | CB | (1938-01-10)10 January 1938 (aged 28) | 1962 | Beykoz | Free | 1969 |
| Tasos Vasiliou | CB | (1938-08-04)4 August 1938 (aged 27) | 1965 | Apollon Athens | ₯1,500,000 | 1970 |
| Giorgos Kefalidis | RB / CB | (1941-03-21)21 March 1941 (aged 25) | 1964 | Pierikos | Free | 1972 |
| Fotis Balopoulos | CB / DM / CM / ST | (1943-12-17)17 December 1943 (aged 22) | 1964 | Proodeftiki | ₯450,000 | 1970 |
| Lakis Fragoudakis | CB / DM | 1944 (aged 21–22) | 1964 | Free agent | Free | 1970 |
| Midfielders ||||||||
| Giorgos Petridis | AM / SS / ST | (1938-02-10)10 February 1938 (aged 28) | 1957 | Pera Club | Free | 1966 |
| Stelios Skevofilakas | LM / RM / AM | (1939-01-06)6 January 1939 (aged 27) | 1960 | Eleftheroupoli | Free | 1972 |
| Fanis Tasinos | LM / CM | (1941-10-28)28 October 1941 (aged 24) | 1963 | Korinthos | ₯500,000 | 1966 |
| Nikos Stathopoulos | LM / LB | (1943-11-08)8 November 1943 (aged 22) | 1965 | AEK Athens U20 | — | 1974 |
| Michalis Simigdalas | CM | (1944-06-23)23 June 1944 (aged 22) | 1963 | AEK Athens U20 | — | 1969 |
| Giorgos Karafeskos | CM / DM / RM / RW | (1946-12-08)8 December 1946 (aged 19) | 1963 | AEK Athens U20 | — | 1974 |
| Forwards ||||||||
| Andreas Stamatiadis (Captain) | RW / LW / SS / ST | (1935-08-16)16 August 1935 (aged 30) | 1952 | AEK Athens U20 | — | 1969 |
| Dimitris Antoniou | RW / ST | 1939 (aged 26–27) | 1965 | Apollon Limassol | Free | 1968 |
| Kostas Papageorgiou | ST | (1941-01-01)1 January 1941 (aged 25) | 1963 | Atromitos | ₯200,000 | 1969 |
| Mimis Papaioannou | SS / ST / AM | (1942-08-23)23 August 1942 (aged 23) | 1962 | Veria | ₯175,000 | 1979 |
| Spyros Pomonis | LW / LM | (1944-02-12)12 February 1944 (aged 22) | 1960 | AEK Athens U20 | — | 1973 |
| Kostas Nikolaidis | RW / LW / SS / ST | (1944-09-10)10 September 1944 (aged 21) | 1965 | PAO Safrabolis | Free | 1973 |
| Nikos Sevastopoulos | RW / SS / AM / ST | (1945-02-26)26 February 1945 (aged 21) | 1963 | AEK Athens U20 | — | 1971 |
| Left during season ||||||||
| Panagiotis Ventouris | AM / SS | (1943-03-01)1 March 1943 (aged 23) | 1965 | Fostiras | ₯435,000 | 1972 |
| Kostas Nestoridis | ST / SS | (1930-03-15)15 March 1930 (aged 36) | 1955 | Panionios | Free | 1966 |

## Transfers
### In

| Pos. | Player | From | Fee | Date | Contract Until |
| DF | Tasos Vasiliou | Apollon Athens | ₯1,500,000 | 1 August 1965 | 30 June 1970 |
| MF | Nikos Stathopoulos | AEK Athens U20 | Promotion | 1 July 1965 | 30 June 1974 |
| MF | Panagiotis Ventouris | Fostiras | ₯435,000 | 1 July 1965 | 30 June 1972 |
| FW | Dimitris Antoniou | Apollon Limassol | Free transfer | 1 July 1965 | 30 June 1968 |
| FW | Kostas Nikolaidis | PAO Safrabolis | Free transfer | 1 July 1965 | 30 June 1973 |
| FW | Nikos Sevastopoulos | Hellenic | Loan return | 1 July 1965 | 30 June 1971 |
    a. $^^$ plus Panagiotis Stasinopoulos.

### Out

| Pos. | Player | To | Fee | Date |
| DF | Panagiotis Stasinopoulos | Apollon Athens | Free transfer | 1 August 1965 |
| DF | Theofilos Vernezis | Free agent | End of contract | 1 July 1965 |
| DF | Manolis Kanellopoulos | Egaleo | End of contract | 1 July 1965 |
| MF | Miltos Papapostolou | Retired | Retired | 1 July 1965 |
| MF | Emilios Theofanidis | PAOK | End of contract | 1 July 1965 |
| FW | Lefter Küçükandonyadis | Retired | Retired | 1 July 1965 |
| FW | Kostas Nestoridis | South Melbourne Hellas | Free transfer | 29 March 1966 |

### Loan out

| Pos. | Player | To | Fee | Date | Until | Option to buy | Source |
| MF | Panagiotis Ventouris | Hellenic | Free | 1 January 1966 | 30 June 1966 | N | |

### Contract renewals

| Pos. | Player | Date | Former Exp. Date | New Exp. Date | Source |
| FW | Mimis Papaioannou | 23 December 1965 | 30 June 1970 | 30 June 1979 | |

### Overall transfer activity

Expenditure: ₯1,935,000
Income: ₯0
Net Total: ₯1,935,000

## Competitions
### Overall record

| Competition | First match | Last match | Starting round | Final position | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record |
| Competition | First match | Last match | Starting round | Final position | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win % |
| Alpha Ethniki | 28 November 1965 | 19 June 1966 | Matchday 1 | 3rd | 30 | 19 | 5 | 6 | 58 | 26 | +32 | 063.33 |
| Greek Cup | 6 January 1966 | 10 July 1966 | Round of 32 | Winners | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 4 | +5 | 100.00 |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | Total | 35 | 24 | 5 | 6 | 67 | 30 | +37 | 068.57 |
Last updated: 10 July 1966 Source: Competitions

### Alpha Ethniki
#### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Olympiacos (C) | 30 | 23 | 4 | 3 | 67 | 18 | +49 | 80 | Qualification for European Cup first round |
| 2 | Panathinaikos | 30 | 23 | 3 | 4 | 85 | 24 | +61 | 79 | |
| 3 | AEK Athens | 30 | 19 | 5 | 6 | 58 | 26 | +32 | 71 | Qualification for Cup Winners' Cup first round |
| 4 | Panionios | 30 | 12 | 7 | 11 | 38 | 37 | +1 | 60 | |
| 5 | Aris | 30 | 11 | 8 | 11 | 42 | 42 | 0 | 60 | Invitation for Inter-Cities Fairs Cup first round |
* ↑ AEK Athens were deducted 2 points.
* ↑ Panionios were deducted 1 point.

#### Results summary

| Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away |
Source: Competitive matches

#### Results by Matchday

| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| Ground | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | A | H | A | H | H | H | A | Η | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | H | A | H | A |
| Result | L | W | L | W | W | D | D | W | W | W | D | W | W | D | W | W | W | L | L | L | W | W | W | D | W | W | W | L | W | W |
| Position | 9 | 5 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |

#### Fixtures
### Greek Cup

AEK entered the Greek Cup at the round of 32.

#### Matches
## Statistics
### Squad statistics

    As of 10 July 1966
| No. | Pos | Player | Alpha Ethniki | Alpha Ethniki | Greek Cup | Greek Cup | Total | Total |
| No. | Pos | Player | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| Goalkeepers |||||||||
| — | GK | Stelios Serafidis | 11 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 14 | 0 |
| — | GK | Vangelis Petrakis | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 0 |
| — | GK | Theodoros Maniateas | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Defenders |||||||||
| — | DF | Alekos Sofianidis | 29 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 32 | 0 |
| — | DF | Aleko Yordan | 26 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 28 | 2 |
| — | DF | Tasos Vasiliou | 29 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 32 | 0 |
| — | DF | Giorgos Kefalidis | 18 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 19 | 0 |
| — | DF | Fotis Balopoulos | 13 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 0 |
| — | DF | Lakis Fragoudakis | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Midfielders |||||||||
| — | MF | Giorgos Petridis | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 1 |
| — | MF | Stelios Skevofilakas | 27 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 29 | 1 |
| — | MF | Fanis Tasinos | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| — | MF | Nikos Stathopoulos | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 1 |
| — | MF | Michalis Simigdalas | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| — | MF | Giorgos Karafeskos | 22 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 25 | 4 |
| Forwards |||||||||
| — | FW | Andreas Stamatiadis | 28 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 31 | 6 |
| — | FW | Kostas Papageorgiou | 15 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 7 |
| — | FW | Mimis Papaioannou | 25 | 23 | 3 | 5 | 28 | 28 |
| — | FW | Spyros Pomonis | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 1 |
| — | FW | Kostas Nikolaidis | 21 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 24 | 14 |
| — | FW | Nikos Sevastopoulos | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Left during season |||||||||
| — | MF | Panagiotis Ventouris | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| — | FW | Kostas Nestoridis | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |

### Goalscorers

    As of 10 July 1966
| Rank | Pos. | Player | Alpha Ethniki | Greek Cup | Total |
| 1 | FW | Mimis Papaioannou | 23 | 5 | 28 |
| 2 | FW | Kostas Nikolaidis | 11 | 3 | 14 |
| 3 | FW | Kostas Papageorgiou | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| 4 | FW | Andreas Stamatiadis | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| 5 | MF | Giorgos Karafeskos | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| 6 | DF | Aleko Yordan | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 7 | MF | Michalis Simigdalas | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | MF | Stelios Skevofilakas | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | MF | Nikos Stathopoulos | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | MF | Giorgos Petridis | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | FW | Spyros Pomonis | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | FW | Kostas Nestoridis | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Own goals | Own goals | Own goals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | Totals | Totals | 58 | 9 | 67 |

### Hat-tricks

Numbers in superscript represent the goals that the player scored.
| Player | Against | Result | Date | Competition |
| Mimis Papaioannou | Edessaikos | 4–3 (H) | 6 January 1966 | Greek Cup |
| Kostas Nikolaidis | Niki Volos | 6–0 (H) | 6 March 1966 | Alpha Ethniki |
| Mimis Papaioannou | PAOK | 5–1 (H) | 17 April 1966 | Alpha Ethniki |
| Mimis Papaioannou | Panionios | 5–1 (H) | 1 May 1966 | Alpha Ethniki |
| Mimis Papaioannou | Egaleo | 4–1 (H) | 15 May 1966 | Alpha Ethniki |

### Clean sheets

The list is sorted by competition order when total clean sheets are equal and then alphabetically by surname. Clean sheets in games where both goalkeepers participated are awarded to the goalkeeper who started the game. Goalkeepers with no appearances are not included.
    As of 10 July 1966
| Rank | Player | Alpha Ethniki | Greek Cup | Total |
| 1 | Vangelis Petrakis | 8 | 0 | 8 |
| 2 | Stelios Serafidis | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| 3 | Theodoros Maniateas | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Totals | Totals | 13 | 1 | 14 |

### Disciplinary record

    As of 10 July 1966
| N | P | Name |
| Goalkeepers ||||||||||||||
| — | GK | Stelios Serafidis |
| — | GK | Vangelis Petrakis |
| — | GK | Theodoros Maniateas |
| Defenders ||||||||||||||
| — | DF | Alekos Sofianidis |
| — | DF | Aleko Yordan |
| — | DF | Tasos Vasiliou |
| — | DF | Giorgos Kefalidis |
| — | DF | Fotis Balopoulos |
| — | DF | Lakis Fragoudakis |
| Midfielders ||||||||||||||
| — | MF | Giorgos Petridis |
| — | MF | Stelios Skevofilakas |
| — | MF | Fanis Tasinos |
| — | MF | Nikos Stathopoulos |
| — | MF | Michalis Simigdalas |
| — | MF | Giorgos Karafeskos |
| Forwards ||||||||||||||
| — | FW | Andreas Stamatiadis |
| — | FW | Kostas Papageorgiou |
| — | FW | Mimis Papaioannou |
| — | FW | Spyros Pomonis |
| — | FW | Kostas Nikolaidis |
| — | FW | Nikos Sevastopoulos |
| Left during season ||||||||||||||
| — | FW | Kostas Nestoridis |
| — | MF | Panagiotis Ventouris |

## Awards

| Player | Pos. | Award | Source |
| Mimis Papaioannou | FW | Alpha Ethniki Top Scorer | |