Years of innocence

The story of Greek football, mainly in the 1920s, when the Hellenic Football Federation establishes the National Team, the Championship and the Cup. Up to 1959, Greek football is at an amateur level, played on dry fields, where players and fans on crowded platforms experience the same degree of poverty. Great historical events define our country at the time, such as the 1922 refugees, the "Ohi day" in 1940, the occupation, the civil war and the exiles.

Panionios, Apollon Smyrnis and Ethnikos Piraeus were, throughout the twentieth century, the unsung backbone heroes of Greek football. They were powerful teams, who supplied the grand teams with great players and were always the regulators of the title. Always on the backseat of the then powerful POK’s (Central Football Club) system, with fewer but devoted fans, dedicated to fair and honest play; they gradually left the scene, as did their era.

Panathinaikos, that made it to the European Champions Cup final in 1971, at Wembley Stadium, is the top Greek team of all time. That team was created by a schism and the restoration that followed it. Ferenc Puskas was the visionary of the team at the bench and its big stars were “General” Mimis Domazos and “Gunner” Antonis Antoniadis. The spirit of that team remains unchanged even today, fifty years later, when they gather together again at the Stadium of Alexandras Avenue.

PAOK’s team in the seventies made history as the most spectacular team of all time in Greek football. When Koudas returned, after Olympiakos tried to sign him, something that PAOK's administrative leader, the famous Giorgos Pantelakis, staunchly opposed, PAOK shot to prominence, played mythical football, but only won one championship and two cups. The club was certainly persecuted by the football status quo, but it also did itself an injustice.

The short term of Goulandris in Olympiakos, from 1971 to 1975, was the only case where Greek football became a dream come true. A dream that ended abruptly, when Nikos Goulandris suddenly left, leaving, however, a legacy of football bliss behind him.

In the club’s entire history, the 1970s incarnation of the AEK team, presided by Loukas Barlos, was by far the one that stirred up the most powerful emotions, both in its fans and in its players. We focus on a highly exciting period that is full of spectacle, love, beauty and intense passion.