As father and son, my son Leandros (Lee) and I, recently shared an unforgettable experience built around our common love of football at the AEK Football Academy.
The love of a father, a parent, for their children is unfathomable. As our children grow into young adults and begin to carve their own road their reliance on us, as parents, lessens. That is good, as parents it shows that we did the best we could have.
So, when the chance arises to share in activities with our children again, as we once we did when they were young and wholly reliant on us, it has great meaning. We respect that our child makes that decision on their own volition.
Lee trained for two weeks in the AEK Football Academy and this was Lee’s second time this year. It wasn’t football training what drew us back to AEK Football Academy – a sufficient reason – it was the love, and care the leaders and coaches in the academy provided to young players. Their approach to these young people, strengthened our bond as father and son.
Strategy, skills, video analyses, ice baths, strength and conditioning are there, but form a small part of each session. Under the guidance of head Training Manager and former footballer, Ilias Kiriakidis and coaches Thodoris Tripotseris, and Fotis Panagis, Lee became part of a larger family.
AEK has a purpose-built training facility that matches the best in Europe.
One of Greece’s most successful businessmen and philanthropist, and owner of AEK, Dimitris Melissanidis has fully funded the program which includes twenty coaches to oversee up to 100 players.
Football clubs and players do not pay fees for AEK training facilities. The Academy’ philosophy is underscored by Hellenic athletic, social, and cultural codes which form a kernel of our identity and history.
Each team member is supported and encouraged and treated with respect and compassion.
I expressed my gratitude to Dimitri Melissanidis for his desire to nurture and develop the careers of boys and girls, and young men and women through the AEK academy. His vision is big.
“My next step is to build accommodation for those kids and their parents who cannot travel daily to the Club. I also want to build a library for them. Education is critical,” Melissanidis said.
Respect is a cornerstone of the academy. Respect for the young players, respect for their coaches, and respect for each other. It can’t be underestimated.
Of great importance was the history of AEK as a club founded by Greek Asia Minor refugees. And we commemorate in September the burning of Smyrna and the population exchanges which saw close to two million Hellenes exiled from Asia Minor, now Turkey. AEK is more than a club it played a role in integrating refugees and assuaged their trauma.
The stadium – a new home to the Club also includes two museums dedicated to the history of AEK.
I expressed to Melissanidis about our own migrant experience in Australia and the role football played in socialisation for post-war Greek migrants in Australia.
South Melbourne Hellas and Heidelberg United – two former NSL clubs and almost 50 clubs of Hellenic background in Victoria –still impact on our intergenerational Greek migrant identity. Not unlike AEK does for generations of Asia Minor refugees and others.
Our migrant experience was burdened with challenges. Racism, backbreaking work in menial jobs, language barriers, alienation, and confusion were common. Football clubs – like other community organisations – provided Greek migrants a social gel. They offered a liminal time out of time experience. Excitement and drama. They opened a space for migrants to come together and build a sport that is now ubiquitous to Australia.
Many Greeks have succeeded, especially as the second generation. And we owe part of that success to the resilience fostered in our football clubs. For all Greek Australians these clubs foster a community and civic spirit.
They offered our elders, our parents, and us, as kids a positive sense of self and became social families. These are the clubs that we and our children, now third generation, still support.
In Lee’s AEK residency, he played in a match against the Senior Women’s Team. This was a great thing. The ability to promote respect for women begins in what once were mainly male domains like football clubs. The owner, Melissanidis is proud of AEK’s social and cultural transformation
AEK, the managers, coaches, and other participants, made Lee and I feel welcome and supported. We became part of that football family. My son and I will treasure this time forever.
Bill Papastergiadis is the President of the Greek Community of Melbourne, Victoria and the chairperson of the South Melbourne Football Club.