The new face of AEK Athens
The new face of AEK Athens
Former Basketball Champions League gold medalist, AEK Athens is changing almost completely the roster. Till now 3 Greeks and 6 Americans have left the team and I am very curious how they will end the acquisition campaign. Because they will need strong players if the organization wants some results in Europe and the Greek league.
The rebuilding process included as well ending the contract with the Italian coach Luca Banchi, who was replaced with Ilias Papatheodorou. The club parted ways with experienced Greek players who were important pieces of AEK’s core for the last seasons, Dusan Sakota, Vassilis Kavvadas and Vassilis Xanthopoulos and at the moment they signed only one local player Nikos Gkikas.
From the foreigner players they had last season, the BasketballCL powerhouse has kept only Jonas Maciulis and Howard Sant-Roos and recently they added former Euroleague scoring ace, Keith Langford. The main problem will be the age of both Jonas Maciulis who will be 35 in February next year and Keith Langford who will be soon 36. The next additions have to be brilliant enough to replace the departed American legionaries like Vince Hunter, Gabe York, Delroy James, Jordan Theodore, Malcolm Griffin and Trevor Mbakwe.
Definitely, AEK will remain a top club in Europe but I doubt they will have the same success as the last seasons. New teams like Promitheas and Peristeri are coming strong for the next year and we don’t know yet any move from PAOK. The season will be tough in Basketball Champions League as well where any newcomers like Tencyconta Zaragoza, Baxi Manresa, VEF Riga, Turk Telekom, Dinamo Sassari and so on can make the surprise and could be very serious title contenders. The BasketballCL is growing every season and with this roster, I don’t see any chances for the Greek club to reach the next Final 4.
Photo credit: championsleague.basketball
Gratian Cormos
The new face of AEK Athens
