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.
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
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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.
Transfers
In
Summer
Out
Summer
Winter
Contract renewals
Overall transfer activity
Expenditure
Summer: ₯120,000,000
Winter: ₯0
Total: ₯0
Income
Summer: ₯0
Winter: ₯0
Total: ₯0
Net Totals
Summer: ₯120,000,000
Winter: ₯0
Total: ₯120,000,000
Pre-season and friendlies
Competitions
Alpha Ethniki
League table
Results summary
Results by Matchday
Fixtures
Greek Cup
Group 1
Matches
Round of 32
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
First Round
Second Round
Statistics
Squad statistics
! colspan="11" style="background:#FFDE00; text-align:center" | Goalkeepers
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! colspan="11" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Defenders |-
! colspan="11" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Midfielders |-
! colspan="11" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Forwards |-
! colspan="11" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Left during Winter Transfer Window |-
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Goalscorers
Hat-tricks
Numbers in superscript represent the goals that the player scored.