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Athlitiki Enosi Lemesou () is a Cyprus sports club based in the city of Limassol, most famous for its football team.
AEL Limassol also maintains a men's and women's basketball teams, a women's volleyball team and a (newly established in 1976) Futsal team, a women's handball team as well as a cricket team. AEL Limassol is one of the oldest and most decorated football clubs on the island and the most successful club in Limassol with 17 official football trophies consisting of 6 first division championships, 7 cups and 4 super cups. The sponsor of the club is Meridian Sport.
AEL Limassol celebrated its first official title success in 1941, defeating APOEL FC 4–3 in a two-legged championship play-off. AEL fans had to wait 12 years until tasting title success again, as the club finally became champions of Cyprus again in 1953. AEL would twice repeat this success, winning back-to-back league championships in 1955 and 1956.
The club won its last major trophy in 1989 – before the title success of 2012 – when it defeated city rivals Aris Limassol 3–2 after extra time in final of the Cypriot Cup.
In 2011, after disappointingly finishing in seventh-place in the previous campaign, AEL hired Pambos Christodoulou, who had a reputation of steering "modest sides away from relegation", to start the club's rebuilding process. AEL Limassol secured the Cypriot league title for the first time since 1968 on 5 May 2012, ending a 44-year drought without a Cypriot first division title.
Christodoulou had a dream-like first season at the helm AEL, as his side was unbeaten and had not conceded any goals through the first five games. At the end of the second round, AEL finished top of the table, three points clear of the second placed team and had only conceded seven goals, the best defensive record of all the league teams. In the play-off round, AEL battled with the top four teams for the championship, winning it with one game to spare and conceding only nine goals. As Christodoulou has managed to bring AEL the championship crown, he was nicknamed by fans "Pambourinho", a combination of his name and of esteemed manager José Mourinho.
AEL received the championship trophy during a spectacular "fiesta" evening at the Tsirio Stadium on the evening of Saturday 12 May 2012. They followed this with an open-top bus parade through Limassol. Up to 12,000 AEL fans packed the stadium to watch the fiesta and trophy presentation.
The club then turned their attention to the Cup Final of 16 May against AC Omonia and the chance to be crowned double winners for the first time in club history; the club, however, lost 1–0 in the final. The following year, AEL made it to the group stage of a UEFA tournament for the first time, finishing last and picking up four points in their UEFA Europa League group.
On 22 October 2013, Angolan manager Lito Vidigal was sacked after just over three months in charge. Bulgarian Ivaylo Petev was appointed as AEL's manager on 25 October, having previously guided Ludogorets Razgrad to promotion to the A Group as well as two A Group titles, a Bulgarian Cup win as well as a triumph in the Bulgarian Super Cup. Petev signed an initial deal to stay at AEL until the end of the 2014–15 season.
At the end of the 2013–14 season, AEL finished in first place in the initial phase of the competition. Going into the championship match against APOEL on 17 May 2014, AEL needed only a draw to secure their second league title in three years. The match, however, was abandoned (at 0–0) after 52 minutes when firecrackers thrown by AEL fans struck APOEL player Kaká. The match was replayed behind closed doors at a neutral stadium on 31 May 2014, and APOEL achieved to win their second consecutive league title after beating AEL 1–0, courtesy of a Cillian Sheridan goal. On 6 June 2014, the Cyprus Football Association's (CFA) disciplinary committee – acting as an appeals board – unanimously cancelled on the CFA council's decision to repeat the 17 May championship final, awarding the match to APOEL with a 0–3 score. AEL Left winger Jorge Monteiro finished the season as joint-top scorer in the league with 18 goals, and the former FC Porto academy product was voted player of the year by the CFA. AEL finished in the 4th place of the championship of 2016–2017 and as a result the team won a place in the first qualifying round of Europa League. Furthermore, AEL achieved to go up to third qualifying round from a not fair play game from the referee Artyom Kuchin and the players of Austria Wien. The referee had shown the white dot of the penalty for a ghost foul outside of the box of AEL and a red card for AEL defender Marco Airosa in the twenty second minute. AEL had fight for the win for the whole game to achieve two goals that send her in the play-offs but the score finished 1–2.
The construction of the Alphamega Stadium replaced Tsirio Stadium as the home ground of AEL Limassol. The first match on the new Stadium was ΑΕL vs Olympiakos, with a score of 2–0 on 23 December 2022. The capacity of the new stadium is 10,700 seats.
| General Football Director | Ivan Trickovski |
| Team Manager | Angelos Perikleous |
| Head Coach | Paolo Tramezzani |
| Assistant Coach | Mauro Ardizzone |
| Goalkeeping Coach | Mario Capece |
| Fitness Coach | Vincenzo Chine |
| Match Analyst | Georgios Eleftheriou |
| Rehabilitation Fitness Coach | Giannis Vasilopoulos |
| Head Scouter | Giannis Theodorou |
| Scouter | Nikolas Englezou |
| Video Scouter | Michalis Eleftheriadis |
| Head Doctor | Dr. Theodoros Philippou |
| Chiropractor | Dr. Nikos Poullis |
| Nutrionist | Kostas Nikolaou |
| Head Physiotherapist | Polys Achilleos |
| Physiotherapists | Demos Paliosofitis |
| Savvas Kleonikou | |
| Kit Assistant | Kyriakos Kyriakou |
| Host Assistant | Zoe Efthymiou |
| Eleni Stephanou | |
| Head Caregiver | Andreas Kakoullis |
| Caregivers | Nicolas Vitorović |
| Christian Martínez | |
| Akama Ghislain Nso | |
| Domestic ! scope=col | Cypriot First Division | 6 | 1940–41, 1952–53, 1954–55, 1955–56, 1967–68, 2011–12 |
| 5.000 |
| 4.757 |
| 4.757 |
| 4.500 |
| 4.500 |
Last update: 26 July 2025
Source: [1]
| 1968–69 | European Cup | 1R | Real Madrid | 0–6 | 0–6 | 0–12 | |
| 1985–86 | European Cup Winners' Cup | 1R | Dukla Prague | 2–2 | 0–4 | 2–6 | |
| 1987–88 | European Cup Winners' Cup | PR | DAC Dunajská Streda | 0–1 | 1–5 | 1–6 | |
| 1989–90 | European Cup Winners' Cup | 1R | Admira Wacker | 0–3 | 1–0 | 1–3 | |
| 2002–03 | UEFA Cup | QR | Ferencváros | 0–4 | 2–1 | 2–5 | |
| UEFA Champions League | 2Q | Linfield | 3–0 | 0–0 | 3–0 | ||
| 3Q | FK Partizan | 1–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | |||
| PO | Anderlecht | 2–1 | 0–2 | 2–3 | |||
| UEFA Europa League | Group C | Marseille | 1–5 | 3–0 | 4th place | ||
| Fenerbahçe | 0–1 | 0–2 | |||||
| Borussia Mönchengladbach | 0–0 | 0–2 | |||||
| UEFA Champions League | 3Q | Zenit | 1–0 | 0–3 | 1–3 | ||
| UEFA Europa League | PO | Tottenham Hotspur | 1–2 | 0–3 | 1–5 | ||
| 2017–18 | UEFA Europa League | 1Q | St Joseph's | 4–0 | 6–0 | 10–0 | |
| 2Q | Progrès Niederkorn | 1–0 | 2–1 | 3–1 | |||
| 3Q | Austria Wien | 0–0 | 1–2 | 1–2 | |||
| 2019–20 | UEFA Europa League | 2Q | Aris | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | |
| 2021–22 | UEFA Europa Conference League | 2Q | Vllaznia | 1–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | |
| 3Q | Qarabağ | 1–1 | 0–1 | 1–2 |
| 1. | Stavros Pittas | 1930 | 1932 | 2yrs |
| 2. | Kriton Tornaritis | 1932 | 1934 | 2yrs |
| 3. | Yiangos Limanititis | 1934 | 1953 | 19yrs |
| 4. | Nikos Solomonides | 1953 | 1971 | 18yrs |
| 5. | Nikos Kountas | 1971 | 1976 | 5yrs |
| 6. | Georgios Tornaritis | 1976 | 1982 | 6yrs |
| 7. | Loris Lysiotis | 1982 | 1996 | 14yrs |
| 8. | Dimitris Solomonides | 1996 | 2002 | 6yrs |
| 9. | Giorgos Frantzis | 2002 | 2003 | 1yrs |
| 10. | Akis Ellinas | 2003 | 2005 | 2yrs |
| 11. | Agis Agapiou | 2005 | 2006 | 1yrs |
| 12. | Marios Herodotou | 2006 | 2007 | 1yrs |
| 13. | Zacharias Koundouros | 2007 | 2008 | 1yrs |
| 14. | Andreas Sofocleous | 2008 | 2022 | 14yrs |
| 15. | Costas Christodoulou | 2018 | 2022 | 4yrs |
| 16. | Nicos Christodoulides | 2022 | 2024 | 2yrs |
| 17. | Konstantinos Konstantinou | 2024 | Present | |
Since the 2022–23 season, both the men's and women's teams currently operate under the same administration and are both referred to for sponsorship reasons as PAYABL EKA AEL. The men's team won the 2002–03 FIBA Europe Regional Challenge Cup, thereby making AEL the only Cypriot sports club to have won a European title.
Both the men's and women's basketball team are considered to be the most successful teams in Cyprus in terms of trophies won and therefore both teams are referred to by Basketball fans and enthusiasts as " The Queen " (Greek: " Η Βασίλισσα").
In 2022–23, the team won its first Cypriot Futsal Championship. In the same season, the team also had the chance to win what would be the domestic futsal treble (Championship, Cup and Super Cup), by reaching the Cypriot Futsal Cup final, however AEL was defeated in the final. The club did however manage to win the 2023 Cypriot Futsal Super Cup, defeating APOEL Futsal 8–2 in the final.
As 2023 Cypriot Futsal Champions, AEL participated in the 2023–24 UEFA Futsal Champions League, reaching the last 32 stage of the competition, which is a Cypriot first.
In 2023–24 AEL won its second Futsal championship by defeating Omonoia Nicosia 9–1.
| Cypriot Futsal Championship | 3 | (2023, 2024, 2025) |
| Cypriot Futsal Cup | 2 | (2017, 2024) |
| Cypriot Futsal Super Cup | 2 | (2023, 2024) |
| Robomarkets ΑΕΛ |
| Βασίλισσα (Greek) Queen (English) |
| 1976 |
| Yellow With Blue |
| Nicos Solomonides |
| Το κλουβί (Greek) The Cage (English) |
| 3,000 |
| Championship titles: | 30 | (1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2021) |
| Cup titles: | 28 | (1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2011) |
| Super Cup titles: | 13 | (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011) |
| Championship titles: | 11 | (1987, 1988, 1991, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010) |
| Cup titles: | 5 | (2000, 2002, 2004, 2009, 2010) |
| Championship titles: | 11 | (1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009) |
| Cup titles: | 1 | (2000) |
A founding member of the Cyprus Volleyball Federation in 1976, AEL's women team has dominated in the Cypriot volleyball. The team's achievements are phenomenal; Out of the 32 seasons played so far in Cyprus since the commencement of the women's volleyball league, the team won the Championship 27 times. Out of the 31 cups they won it 27 times, 24 consecutive times, from 1980 until 2003. Also they have won the Championship 15 consecutive times, from 1977 until 1991. They have also the amazing records of winning the Double 12 times from 1980 until 1991 and 9 times from 1993 until 2001. In the past the club had also a men's team for 10 years which participated in the Cypriot Championship.
| Player |
| Christos Krassas |
| Michalis Perikleous |
| Matthaios Armeftis |
| Niki Schiza |
| Kyriakos Hadjitofis |
| Stelios Potamitis |
| Christos Antoniou |
| Limassol Championship: | 5 | (2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2023) |
| Limassol Cup: | 5 | (2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009) |
The first match took place on October 4, 2010, away from home against the BREAK-TEAM team and AEL won with a score of 4–1. A symbolic date because it coincides with the founding of our beloved club in 1930! With a great start, 6 wins in 6 matches this season, AEL finished in 3rd place, just 1 point from 2nd place leading to the all-Cypriot final-four. A point of reference is that from the first year it had victories over all its rival teams. AEL's HEADQUARTERS were located in the "DYNAMIC PoolHall". The first roster of AEL billiards club consisted of:
| Player |
| Stelios Avgousti (C) |
| Sotiris Neophytou |
| Friksos Gavriel |
| Marios Constantinou |
| Giannis Theocharous |
| Cyprus Pro-League | 1 | (2013–14) |
| Cypriot Championship (Eight-ball), | 1 | (2019) |
| Cypriot Championship (Ten-ball) | 1 | (2019) |
| General – Road cup: | 3 | (2004, 2005, 2006) |
| Men – Road cup: | 3 | (2004, 2005, 2006) |
| Masters 1 – Road cup: | 1 | (2006) |
| Masters 2 – Road cup: | 3 | (2004, 2005, 2006) |
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