AEK OOOOOH LEO AEEEEEEEK OHHHH LEEEEOOOO!


(Friend in college was Greek, I still have the scarf) Hurray!

Divino! you are my new mecha god!

This is HUGE. I cannot just begin to tell you! :)

What are some fun chants you guys have?

The only (English) one I've even heard a fraction of is:

"Nobody likes us and we don't care."

...and then Copenhagen got beaten 3-1. Bummer.

Yeah, but Celtic beat Man U.

(Congrats, btw, carmina. That must feel great).

jason,

here is the title chant and videoclip for AEK (youtube-- it really brings tears in my eyes):
I only have one love in my heart
the yellow-black stripped goddess
None other
And as long as earth is turning
I will love you, AEK
As long as I live I will sing for you!


The team was founded in 1924 by immigrants from Asia Minor and this is why the video clip is showing Istanbul (Constantinople) and footage from that time. Part of my family also comes from Asia Minor but most fans today don't. The truth is we have the most notorious fans (aka hooligans) hotheads who are often very rude and destructive (read: class distinctions, soccer clubs not only in Greece are often identified with the financial and social status of their fans, more or less). But this is a historical club and unfortunately nearly bankrupt nowadays (our new manager is actually an ex-player who saved the team from the previous money laundering, mafia, racketeering crooks). The gate where the most hotheaded fans sit, Gate 21, that is why the fans are called Original 21, is both feared and revered. HeH!
Athletically, we are an OK team. In the national leagues we come third or fourth but that is because the owners of the other teams are better pimps and buy games. They are wealthy tycoons, ship owners, oil barons, major government contractors and cohorts. Our owner is a mere ex-football player and his wife a successful (yet awfully bad) pop singer. But we fight for the ideals!

The team was founded in 1924 by immigrants from Asia Minor and this is why the video clip is showing Istanbul (Constantinople) and footage from that time.

A very emotionally charged period, if my cursory knowledge of modern Greek history is correct. That was the time of the expulsions, wasn't it?

I'm not a sports fan by any stretch of the imagination but I can't think of an American team in any sport with such an intimate connection to a turning point in the nation's history.

The gate where the most hotheaded fans sit, Gate 21, that is why the fans are called Original 21, is both feared and revered. HeH!

So if you want a fight, you know where to sit. Very efficient.

But we fight for the ideals!

Nice to hear a word like "ideals" mentioned in connection with a sports team.

Good luck! Thanks for the cool video!

Yes, jason, that was one of the darkest and most poignant times of the modern greek history. The expulsions (my family comes from Smyrna) produced an influx of impoverished immigrants that amounted to 1/3 of the population in Greece at the time. Very sad period which though enriched "motherland" Greece with a lot of new elements: it gave us some of the best poetry/literature/social activism and (in my opinion) the finest modern greek music (rembetika). And AEK of course :)

and the "ideals" are really, money, revenues from the games and the ads, but at least less so than for other teams. I am cooling down as you can see. Back to reality...

Please, lets not talk about football.

*sobs*

Please, lets not talk about football.

Yes, let's not go there please.

AEKacat

thanks GeckoD!

hugs to awkwardpause, seanyboy and jan, in soccer sad moments do not last long. Sweet ones neither...

eekacat, AEKecat. :)