AEK announced Hadjinikolou

On Tuesday, Despina Hatzinikolaou became an AEK footballer. The Amateur Union announced the signing of the 24-year-old international midfielder for next year, with the Greek ace having spent the last four years playing in Italy for Napoli and Lazio.

In detail, the announcement:

“AEK is pleased to announce the start of its collaboration with Despina Hatzinikolaou. The 24-year-old (21/10/1999) international midfielder joins the club’s women’s football team.

Despina Hatzinikolaou is one of the top female soccer players that our country has produced. He started playing football at the Vouliagmeni Academy at the age of 5. At the age of 13, she went to AE Glyfada and immediately became a key player in the A’ National team and from a young age she had a knack for scoring, where she scored 5 goals in the first matches. Then, she played for two years in the Amazons of Drama, finishing fourth, scoring 18 goals.

In 2018, she wore the jersey of Aris Thessaloniki, while in the 2019-20 season she made the big leap in her career, transferring to the Italian Napoli, where she was a key member of the team in Serie A. In the summer of 2022, she wore the jersey of Lazio.

After the agreement was formalized, Despina Hatzinikolaou said to aek.gr: “I feel very good to be returning to Greece on behalf of AEK. I believe that we will do very well in the First National League. It takes patience and a lot of work. My personal goal is to return to normal competitive action after the surgery I had and to be healthy.

Collectively, our aim is firstly to become a cohesive team and then, why not win the title as well. I hope we have a lot of support from the world. Support is very important for all female athletes and we are waiting for them all with us”.

Despina, welcome to the AEK family!