# 1995–96 AEK Athens F.C. season

The 1995–96 season was the 72nd season in the existence of AEK Athens F.C. and the 37th consecutive season in the top flight of Greek football. They competed in the Alpha Ethniki, the Greek Cup and the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. The season began on 20 August 1995 and finished on 29 May 1996.

## Kits

Supplier: Kappa Sponsor(s): Ethniki Asfalistiki, Filmnet
| Home | Away |

## Overview

In the summer of 1995, the new major shareholder and president of the team was Michalis Trochanas. In collaboration with Dušan Bajević, he maintained the already very good existing roster and strengthened it with Batista, who returned from Olympiacos, Maladenis and Pavlopoulos. AEK had a quality player material and this was largely due to the fact that many players who were already in the team were having one of the best seasons of their careers. Bajević managing to fit all the stars of the roster in the starting eleven, built a team that seemed capable of "destroying" any domestic opponent.
In the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, the team after defeating Sion in the first round they were eliminated by Borussia Mönchengladbach in the second round.
AEK played incredible football scoring 87 goals in 34 matches but finished second, behind Panathinaikos, which was much less spectacular, but proved to be slightly more substantial. During the second round, AEK lost much of their self-concentration as a team, due to the Bajević issue. The journalistic information from reports of Olympiacos, who insisted that he had agreed with Sokratis Kokkalis for his move to Olympiacos on the coming summer. Initially those rumors sounded like a joke on the side of AEK, however, the more the Bosnian-Greek coach did not deny them, the greater became the anxiety and insecurity in the club, in which Bajević was then worshiped as a god and the whole story affected the competitive part. At the same time, a big part of the issue was caused by the eccentric announcements of the idiosyncratic Michalis Trochanas, whose behavior in general was later invoked by Bajević for his eventual departure. The victory of Panathinaikos in April at the Olympic Stadium, also played an important role in the outcome of the championship.
The fantastic football that AEK played this season was rewarded by winning the Cup. A conquest that left no room for doubt, since the "yellow-blacks" after qualifying as first in their group, they eliminated with relative ease at knock-out stage Iraklis and both their rivals, Olympiacos and Panathinaikos in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, respcetivelly. In the final AEK scored a record of 7 goals against Apollon Athens, winning by 7–1, despite the dismissal of Batista at the 52nd minute.
In the end, AEK lost the championship, but the football they played during the season remained not only in the history of the club, but of Greek football in general. All the players who usually made up the starting line-up stood out, with Vasilios Tsiartas finishing as the league's top scorer with 26 goals and Kostis, Ketsbaia and Batista also scoring a double-digit number of goals.

## Management team

| Position | Staff |
| Manager | Dušan Bajević |
| Assistant manager | Petros Ravousis |
| Fitness coach | Dimitris Bouroutzikas |
| Academy director | Andreas Stamatiadis |
| Academy manager | Apostolos Toskas |
| Academy manager | Giorgos Karafeskos |
| Head of Medical | Lakis Nikolaou |
| Physiotherapist | Nikos Pantazis |

## 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 29 May 1996, 23:59 UTC+3.
| Player | Position(s) | Date of birth (Age) | Signed | Previous club | Transfer fee | Contract until |
| Goalkeepers ||||||||
| Spyros Ikonomopoulos | GK | (1959-07-25)25 July 1959 (aged 36) | 1978 | AEK Athens U20 | — | 1997 |
| Ilias Atmatsidis | GK | (1969-04-24)24 April 1969 (aged 27) | 1992 | Pontioi Veria | Free | 1999 |
| Vasilis Karagiannis | GK | (1969-09-27)27 September 1969 (aged 26) | 1993 | Diagoras | Free | 2000 |
| Dionysis Chiotis | GK | (1977-06-04)4 June 1977 (aged 19) | 1994 | AEK Athens U20 | — | 2005 |
| Defenders ||||||||
| Stelios Manolas (Captain) | CB / RB | (1961-07-13)13 July 1961 (aged 34) | 1979 | AEK Athens U20 | — | 1996 |
| Georgios Koutoulas | CB / LB | (1967-02-09)9 February 1967 (aged 29) | 1987 | AEK Athens U20 | — | 1999 |
| Michalis Vlachos (Vice-captain) | CB / DM | (1967-09-20)20 September 1967 (aged 28) | 1993 | Olympiacos | Free | 1997 |
| Vaios Karagiannis | LB / CB | (1968-06-25)25 June 1968 (aged 28) | 1990 | A.O. Karditsa | Free | 2000 |
| Konstantinos Pavlopoulos | CB | (1968-07-02)2 July 1968 (aged 27) | 1995 | OFI | Free | 1998 |
| Vasilios Borbokis | RB / RM | (1969-02-10)10 February 1969 (aged 27) | 1993 | Apollon Kalamarias | Free | 1997 |
| Charis Kopitsis | RB / RM / LB / LM | (1969-03-05)5 March 1969 (aged 27) | 1992 | Panionios | Free | 1997 |
| Nikos Kostenoglou | CB / RB | (1970-10-03)3 October 1970 (aged 25) | 1994 | Skoda Xanthi | ₯100,000,000 | 1998 |
| Michalis Kasapis | LB / LM | (1971-08-06)6 August 1971 (aged 24) | 1993 | Levadiakos | ₯50,000,000 | 1998 |
| Georgios Theodoridis | CB | (1973-07-08)8 July 1973 (aged 22) | 1991 | Doxa Markochori | ₯5,700,000 | 1997 |
| Midfielders ||||||||
| Toni Savevski | CM / LM / DM | (1963-07-14)14 July 1963 (aged 32) | 1988 | Vardar | ₯34,000,000 | 1996 |
| Refik Šabanadžović | DM / CM / CB / RB | (1965-08-02)2 August 1965 (aged 30) | 1991 | Red Star Belgrade | ₯47,800,000 | 1996 |
| Temur Ketsbaia | RM / LM / RW / LW / AM / CM | (1968-03-18)18 March 1968 (aged 28) | 1994 | Anorthosis Famagusta | ₯200,000,000 | 1997 |
| Vasilios Tsiartas (Vice-captain 2) | AM / RM / LM / SS | (1972-11-12)12 November 1972 (aged 23) | 1992 | Naoussa | ₯100,000,000 | 1998 |
| Christos Maladenis | CM / RM / LM / AM / RW / LW / SS | (1974-05-23)23 May 1974 (aged 22) | 1995 | Skoda Xanthi | ₯120,000,000 | 2000 |
| Forwards ||||||||
| Dimitris Saravakos | RW / LW / SS / AM | (1961-07-26)26 July 1961 (aged 34) | 1994 | Panathinaikos | Free | 1997 |
| Daniel Batista | ST / SS / AM | (1964-09-09)9 September 1964 (aged 31) | 1995 | Olympiacos | Free | 1998 |
| Vasilis Dimitriadis | ST | (1966-02-01)1 February 1966 (aged 30) | 1991 | Aris | ₯95,000,000 | 1997 |
| Christos Kostis | SS / ST / AM / RW / LW | (1972-01-15)15 January 1972 (aged 24) | 1994 | Iraklis | ₯450,000,000 | 1998 |
| Ilias Anastasakos | ST / LW / LM | (1978-03-03)3 March 1978 (aged 18) | 1995 | A.O. Dafniou | Free | 2002 |
| Left during Winter Transfer Window ||||||||
| Stavros Stamatis | DM / CM / CB / RB / LB / AM | (1966-01-31)31 January 1966 (aged 30) | 1988 | Charavgiakos | ₯22,000,000 | 1995 |

## Transfers
### In
#### Summer

| Pos. | Player | From | Fee | Date | Contract Until |
| DF | Georgios Theodoridis | Edessaikos | Loan return | 1 July 1995 | 30 June 1997 |
| DF | Konstantinos Pavlopoulos | OFI | Free transfer | 1 July 1995 | 30 June 1998 |
| MF | Stathis Karalagas | Marko | Loan return | 1 July 1995 | 30 June 1997 |
| MF | Christos Maladenis | Skoda Xanthi | ₯120,000,000 | 1 July 1995 | 30 June 2000 |
| FW | Ilias Anastasakos | A.O. Dafniou | Free transfer | 1 July 1995 | 30 June 2002 |
| FW | Daniel Batista | Olympiacos | Free transfer | 1 July 1995 | 30 June 1998 |

### Out
#### Summer

| Pos. | Player | To | Fee | Date |
| DF | Manolis Papadopoulos | Apollon Athens | End of contract | 1 July 1995 |
| DF | Georgios Agorogiannis | Panionios | End of contract | 1 July 1995 |
| MF | Stathis Karalagas | Agios Dimitrios | Free transfer | 1 July 1995 |
| FW | Samouil Drakopulos | PAS Giannina | End of contract | 1 July 1995 |

#### Winter

| Pos. | Player | To | Fee | Date | Source |
| MF | Stavros Stamatis | Ionikos | Free transfer | 31 December 1995 | |

### Contract renewals

| Pos. | Player | Date | Former Exp. Date | New Exp. Date |
| DF | Georgios Koutoulas | 30 May 1996 | 30 June 1996 | 30 June 1999 |
| DF | Vaios Karagiannis | 1 July 1995 | 30 June 1995 | 30 June 2000 |
| FW | Vasilis Dimitriadis | 30 May 1996 | 30 June 1997 | 30 June 1998 |

### Overall transfer activity
## 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 | 27 August 1995 | 29 May 1996 | Matchday 1 | 2nd | 34 | 25 | 6 | 3 | 87 | 22 | +65 | 073.53 |
| Greek Cup | 20 August 1995 | 15 May 1996 | Group Stage | Winners | 13 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 38 | 12 | +26 | 076.92 |
| UEFA Cup Winners' Cup | 14 September 1995 | 2 November 1995 | First round | Second round | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 7 | −2 | 025.00 |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | Total | 51 | 36 | 9 | 6 | 130 | 41 | +89 | 070.59 |
Last updated: 29 May 1996 Source: Competitions

### Alpha Ethniki
#### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Panathinaikos (C) | 34 | 26 | 5 | 3 | 72 | 22 | +50 | 83 | Qualification for Champions League qualifying round |
| 2 | AEK Athens | 34 | 25 | 6 | 3 | 87 | 22 | +65 | 81 | Qualification for Cup Winners' Cup first round |
| 3 | Olympiacos | 34 | 19 | 8 | 7 | 66 | 34 | +32 | 65 | Qualification for UEFA Cup first round |
| 4 | Iraklis | 34 | 17 | 7 | 10 | 51 | 39 | +12 | 58 | Qualification for UEFA Cup qualifying round |
| 5 | OFI | 34 | 17 | 6 | 11 | 57 | 52 | +5 | 57 | |

#### 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 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 |
| Ground | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | A |
| Result | W | L | W | W | W | W | W | D | W | W | W | W | W | L | W | W | W | W | W | D | W | W | D | W | D | W | L | W | D | W | W | D | W | W |
| Position | 1 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |

#### Fixtures
### Greek Cup
#### Group 1

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | PAO | AEK | PAN | OLY | ALM |
| 1 | Panathinaikos | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 | +8 | 12 | Round of 32 | | 3–1 | 2–0 | — | — |
| 2 | AEK Athens | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 6 | +7 | 9 | Round of 32 | — | | 4–1 | — | 6–2 |
| 3 | Panegialios | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 8 | −1 | 6 | | — | — | | 3–0 | 3–2 |
| 4 | Olympiacos Volos | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 9 | −6 | 1 | | 0–1 | 0–2 | — | | — |
| 5 | Almopos Aridea | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 16 | −7 | 1 | | 1–4 | — | 3–3 | — | |

#### Matches
##### Final
### UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
#### Second round
## Statistics
### Squad statistics

    As of 29 May 1996
| No. | Pos | Player | Alpha Ethniki | Alpha Ethniki | Greek Cup | Greek Cup | Cup Winners' Cup | Cup Winners' Cup | Total | Total |
| No. | Pos | Player | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| Goalkeepers |||||||||||
| — | GK | Spyros Ikonomopoulos | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| — | GK | Ilias Atmatsidis | 30 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 45 | 0 |
| — | GK | Vasilis Karagiannis | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| — | GK | Dionysis Chiotis | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Defenders |||||||||||
| — | DF | Stelios Manolas | 22 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 34 | 3 |
| — | DF | Georgios Koutoulas | 4 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| — | DF | Michalis Vlachos | 23 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 36 | 1 |
| — | DF | Vaios Karagiannis | 14 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 0 |
| — | DF | Konstantinos Pavlopoulos | 15 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 1 |
| — | DF | Vasilios Borbokis | 24 | 2 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 38 | 4 |
| — | DF | Charis Kopitsis | 19 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 33 | 2 |
| — | DF | Nikos Kostenoglou | 28 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 39 | 1 |
| — | DF | Michalis Kasapis | 28 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 43 | 0 |
| — | DF | Georgios Theodoridis | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Midfielders |||||||||||
| — | MF | Toni Savevski | 31 | 2 | 11 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 46 | 2 |
| — | MF | Refik Šabanadžović | 28 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 40 | 4 |
| — | MF | Temur Ketsbaia | 31 | 14 | 12 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 47 | 19 |
| — | MF | Vasilios Tsiartas | 33 | 26 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 47 | 32 |
| — | MF | Christos Maladenis | 28 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 41 | 2 |
| Forwards |||||||||||
| — | FW | Dimitris Saravakos | 17 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 27 | 5 |
| — | FW | Daniel Batista | 27 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 40 | 20 |
| — | FW | Vasilis Dimitriadis | 21 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 31 | 3 |
| — | FW | Christos Kostis | 34 | 19 | 13 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 49 | 27 |
| — | FW | Ilias Anastasakos | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Left during Winter Transfer Window |||||||||||
| — | MF | Stavros Stamatis | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |

### Goalscorers

    As of 29 May 1996
| Rank | Pos. | Player | Alpha Ethniki | Greek Cup | Cup Winners' Cup | Total |
| 1 | MF | Vasilios Tsiartas | 26 | 6 | 0 | 32 |
| 2 | FW | Christos Kostis | 19 | 8 | 0 | 27 |
| 3 | FW | Daniel Batista | 10 | 9 | 1 | 20 |
| 4 | ΜF | Temur Ketsbaia | 14 | 4 | 1 | 19 |
| 5 | FW | Dimitris Saravakos | 1 | 4 | 0 | 5 |
| 6 | MF | Refik Šabanadžović | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| 6 | DF | Vasilios Borbokis | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 8 | DF | Stelios Manolas | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 8 | FW | Vasilis Dimitriadis | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 10 | MF | Toni Savevski | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 10 | DF | Charis Kopitsis | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 10 | MF | Christos Maladenis | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 13 | DF | Konstantinos Pavlopoulos | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 13 | DF | Nikos Kostenoglou | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 13 | DF | Michalis Vlachos | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Own goals | Own goals | Own goals | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Totals | Totals | Totals | 87 | 38 | 5 | 130 |

### Hat-tricks

Numbers in superscript represent the goals that the player scored.
| Player | Against | Result | Date | Competition |
| Daniel Batista | Edessaikos | 5–2 (A) | 9 December 1995 | Alpha Ethniki |
| Vasilios Tsiartas | Aris | 4–0 (H) | 4 February 1996 | Alpha Ethniki |
| Daniel Batista | Athinaikos | 5–0 (H) | 28 February 1996 | Greek Cup |
| Vasilios Tsiartas | Ionikos | 6–0 (H) | 10 March 1996 | Alpha Ethniki |
| Vasilios Tsiartas | Apollon Athens | 7–1 (A) | 15 May 1996 | Greek Cup |
| Vasilios Tsiartas | Athinaikos | 6–0 (H) | 26 May 1996 | 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 29 May 1996
| Rank | Player | Alpha Ethniki | Greek Cup | Cup Winners' Cup | Total |
| 1 | Ilias Atmatsidis | 14 | 4 | 1 | 19 |
| 2 | Vasilis Karagiannis | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Totals | Totals | 15 | 5 | 1 | 21 |

### Disciplinary record

    As of 29 May 1996 N P Nat. Name Alpha Ethniki Greek Cup Cup Winners' Cup Total Notes Goalkeepers — GK Spyros Ikonomopoulos — GK Ilias Atmatsidis 2 1 3 — GK Vasilis Karagiannis 1 1 — GK Dionysis Chiotis Defenders — DF Stelios Manolas 5 1 4 1 2 11 1 1 — DF Georgios Koutoulas — DF Michalis Vlachos 4 3 2 9 — DF Vaios Karagiannis 1 1 — DF Konstantinos Pavlopoulos 3 3 — DF Vasilios Borbokis 6 1 7 — DF Charis Kopitsis 2 1 3 — DF Nikos Kostenoglou 4 1 1 1 1 6 2 — DF Michalis Kasapis 4 1 2 6 1 — DF Georgios Theodoridis Midfielders — MF Toni Savevski 2 2 — MF Refik Šabanadžović 4 1 1 6 — MF Temur Ketsbaia 4 1 1 5 1 — MF Vasilios Tsiartas 1 1 2 — MF Christos Maladenis 2 2 4 Forwards — FW Dimitris Saravakos — FW Daniel Batista 3 1 4 — FW Vasilis Dimitriadis 1 1 — FW Christos Kostis 2 2 — FW Ilias Anastasakos Left during Winter Transfer window — MF Stavros Stamatis

### Starting 11
## Awards

| Player | Pos. | Award |
| Vasilios Tsiartas | MF | Alpha Ethiniki Top Scorer |
| Demis Nikolaidis | FW | Greek Cup Top Scorer |
| Vasilios Tsiartas | MF | Greek Player of the Season (shared) |
| Temur Ketsbaia | MF | Foreign Player of the Season |
| Dušan Bajević | — | Manager of the Season |