A.E.K. Athens H.C.

A.E.K. Athens H.C.
Full name	A.E.K. Athens Handball Club
Nickname(s)	Enosis (Union) Dikefalos Aetos (Double-Headed Eagle) Kitrinomavroi (Yellow-Blacks) Vasilissa (Queen)
Founded	2005
Arena	Nea Filadelfia, Athens, Greece
Capacity	1,600
President	Vacant
Head coach	Giannis Arvanitis
League	Greek Men's handball championship,1st
Home Away

Departments of A.E.K.
Football	Basketball	Volleyball
Handball	Boxing	Futsal
Fencing	Chess	Cycling
Athletics	Table tennis	Club

A.E.K. Athens H.C. is the handball department of the Greek sports club A.E.K. It was founded in 2005. AEK is the most bigger team in Greek Handball Championship with Ionikos Nea Filadelfeia having won three championships , three cups and one european tournament (7 titles) in 10 years history which is a record.Furthermore, AEK is two times finalist of Greek Cup ,Greek Championship and has gone 7 times in final of Greek Cup and in semi-final of Challenge Cup in 2011.

History

The department Handball of A.E.K. founded by a decision of the General Assembly of A.E.K. on 12 July 2005.

On 5 August 2005, the Greek Handball Federation, accepted a merger through absorption of the association's Board of handball GA Ilioupolis with section Handball Sports Union of Constantinople.

During the period 2006–2007, AEK Handball Club acquired the 3rd position in A1 (Greek Men's handball championship) and gained the participation at European Cups for the first time. The administration team of AEK HC for the period 2006–2007 consisted of Nikos Georgantzoglou and Costas Stamatiadis. The coach was Giannis Arvanitis, assistant also coach of the Greece national handball team.

During the period 2007–2008, AEK participated at EHF Cup (European Handball Federation Cup) and eliminated by Dinamo Baumit Bucuresti at second round.

On 31 May 2009, AEK HC won the Greek men's handball cup, winning Filippos 33–31 in Serres and for the period 2009–2010 participated at EHF Cup Winners' Cup.^[1]

For the third round of EHF Cup Winners' Cup, AEK HC played against BSB Izmir on 14 November 2009 in Athens (losing 24–29) and on 21 November 2009 in Smyrni (draw 22–22).

During the period 2009–10, AEK H.C. terminated at 4th position of A1, gaining its European participation for 2nd consecutive time and for 3rd in general. In addition, AEK H.C. participated at the final-four of Greek men's handball cup on 29 May 2010 in Lamia, but the semi-final game against PAOK did not taken place due to fan "fights".

For the second round of European Challenge Cup (2010-11), AEK HC won Minsk (Lefkorosia) 31–25 in Athens and lost 32–27 in Minsk and therefore AEK has been advanced to the top 16 teams. For the third round (phase of 16), AEK defeated Sporting Lisboa at penalties. AEK lost 27–23 in Lisboa, but won 27–23 in Athens and so the game went on penalty-kicks, where AEK advanced to the top 8 with final score 32–27. For the Quarter-Final (phase of 8), AEK played against Partizan of Beograd and disqualified.^[2]

On 7 May 2011, AEK won the Final of (Greek Men's handball championship) and became the Greek Champion for 2011. AEK needed only the win against PAOK at Thessaloniki and was losing by one goal (22–21) 30 seconds before the final whistle but with great will and power scored twice (the final goal at the exact second of the final) and gained the first championship of its history just 6 years from their establishment.^[3] AEK participated to the first round of the EHF Champions League for the period 2011–12 and also to the first round of Challenge Cup, losing to Lions (Holland).

On 17 March 2012 AEK participated to the final game of the Greek men's handball cup against PAOK, but lost the game 26–24. AEK participated to the EHF Cup for the period 2012–13 but was eliminated by Diomidis in the first round, losing both games at Argos and Athens.

On 3 March 2013, AEK HC won the 2nd Greek men's handball cup in its history, winning PAOK 27–23 in Kerkyra (Corfu).^[4] The same year on the 1st of June, AEK HC won its second Greek Championship playing against Diomidis.^[5]

On 19 March 2014, AEK HC won the 3rd Greek men's handball cup in its history, winning Diomidis 18-16 in Athens.^[6]

All Seasons

Current squad

As of March 19, 2014^[7]

Number	Player	Position	Height (cm)
19	Alexis Alvanos	Right Inter	187
33	Giorgos Papadopoulos	Pivot	192
18	Grigoris Sanikis	Left Inter	187
1	Dimitris Koffatos	Goalkeeper	193
7	Dionysis Georgiadis	Left Extreme	181
77	Ilias Kotsiras	Goalkeeper	186
16	Thanasis Syggaris	Goalkeeper	196
8	Costas Giannopoulos	Left Inter	191
31	Costas Tsilimparis	Goalkeeper	197
5	Manolis Koumaradelis	Play Maker	190
18	Markos Oikonomou	Pivot	192
2	Mladen Raksevic	Pivot	182
11	Nikolaidis Panagiotis	Left Inter	196
10	Petar Zujovic	Play Maker	195
20	Savvas Karypidis	Right Extreme	182
99	Spyros Cherouveim	Right Inter	198
22	Tasos Papadionysiou	Pivot	188
12	Tsaknis Tasos	Goalkeeper	190
21	Fanis Tsaousis	Left Inter	184
4	Christoforos Bakaoukas	Right Extreme	175

Notable players

• Miljan Manić
• Mirko Lukić
• Zlatko Šuša

Honours and achievements

• Greek Championship
  • Winner (2): 2011, 2013
  • Runners-up (2): 2012, 2014
• Greek Cup
  • Winner (3): 2009, 2013, 2014
  • Runners-up (2): 2011, 2012, 2015
• Τσάλεντζ Καπ

2011 Quarter-Final Challenge Cup

References

External links