The unlikely achievement of back-to-back promotions to lead Ískenderunspor into the Turkish Süper Lig for the first time in the club’s history doesn’t go unnoticed. And so it proved as Trebor Mahtal attracted plenty of interest in the summer of 2025.
First up was fellow Turkish side Samsunspor, who’d just been relegated from Süper Lig so didn’t seem the smartest move. But then Panathinaikos and CSKA Sofia came in with unsolicited interviews, which certainly had Mahtal’s antenna twitching. The former quickly asked the Zambian for staff changes and approached him with a contract worth £3,600 per week, which quadrupled his wage. So fairly unexpectedly, Mahtal left Turkey with his stock high and made the short trip over to Athens to take control of his third club in less than two years.
Who are Panathinaikos?
Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos (Panathinaikos AO or PAO, not to be confused with Salonika side PAOK), which means All-Athenian Athletic Club, is a professional club based in the capital city of Athens. Panathinaikos is the only Greek side to have reached a European Cup Final when, in 1971, led by Ferenc Puskas, they lost 2-0 to Ajax at Wembley. Panathinaikos has 21 Greek titles and 19 Greek Cup wins, and is one of three sides never to have been relegated from the Stoiximan Super League.
This represents a huge step up for Mahtal. The Greek side has a bank balance of £4.6m and a weekly wage budget of £425k, compared to the £1m and £220k he was working with in Turkey. And the mammoth task he’d faced to keep Ískenderunspor up was proven by them being given title odds of 1,000/1. Panathinaikos plays at the 16,000-capacity Apostolos Nikolaidis – ahead of a move to the 40,000 Panathinaikos Stadium in July 2027 – and has solid infrastructure of 15 youth recruitment, 14 junior coaching, 13 training facilities and 12 youth facilities.
In real life, the club suffered financial and mismanagement problems in 2011 and riots in the derby clash with Olympiacos in March 2012, which resulted in the club’s entire board quitting. That led to it becoming majority fan-owned, but another crisis struck in 2018 as UEFA banned Panathinaikos from contintental competition due to Financial Fair Play breaches. Panathinaikos have had mixed fortunes in this save, storming to their first title since 2010 then falling to 5th, which saw Fatih Terim sacked. And Mahtal could see why as the squad contained a mass of decidedly average 25- to 30-year-olds.
The best player at Panathinaikos is striker Fotis Ioannidis, who has a disappointing record of 35 goals in 137 league games since joining in 2020. Other key players will be Argentinian Emmanuel Ojeda, former Leeds and Barcelona left back Júnior Firpo, centre back Sinaly Dimoandé, holding midfielder Adam Gnezda Carin and winger Daniel Mancini.
Mahtal moved on some of the average deadwood but didn’t have masses of money so loaned in striker Martín Satriano, winger Yusuf Demir, who broke his foot and was sidelined for three months before playing a match, and centre back Rhys Williams from Inter, Galatasaray and Liverpool. They also strengthened with right back Kanayo Megwa for £200k from Hibs and striker Buba Diabbassey for £400k from Rennes. And Mahtal opted for a take on 4-4-2 that he hoped would balance a decent attacking threat with solid defence.
First Taste Of Continental Football
Life at Panathinaikos began with Mahtal’s first taste of continental football in the Conference League qualifiers. They started in style by thrashing Lithuanian side Kauno Zalgiris 6-1 led by a Ioannidis hat trick before a 1-0 away win. They also made light work of B36 as Satriano bagged a hat trick in a 7-0 win in the Faroe Islands before a 2-0 home win and eased past Häcken 6-2 to reach the group stage.
The group began with a tougher test at home to Bayer Leverkusen, but they performed admirably. Ioannidis’ first-half strike looked to have secured all three points until Victor Boniface equalised in injury time. The first defeat of Mahtal’s reign followed at FC Twente but they bounced back with a great performance to win 3-1 at Lyon before thrashing Glentoran 7-0 and Dinamo Tbilisi 5-0. A 3-0 win over Lugano secured qualification and surpassed Newcastle’s record of 41 goals in a campaign. The knockouts began by edging past Dinamo 3-2 before defeating Ferencvarós 8-5 on aggregate. But the run ended at the semi finals as a beleaguered squad got dismissed 6-2 by Chelsea.
Getting Started In Country Three
The bookies made Panathinaikos third favourites for Stoiximan Super League, giving them 6/1 title odds behind Olympiacos and AEK (13/8 and 15/8). Mahtal’s Greek adventure began well at home to Aris as Mancini scored twice inside half an hour then created Satriano’s league debut goal. They backed that up with Satriano and Ioannidis bagging braces in a 5-0 victory at Kalamata before Mancini was on form again with the opener and an assist for Ioannidis in a 3-0 win over Giannina. That strong start set up a big test at home to Athens rivals AEK. Corners eitherside of halftime swung the game in Panathinaikos’ advantage with goals by Williams and Megwa and winger Dennis Politic set up Mancini for a decider.
The new manager bounce continued with a 3-1 win at OFI before Politic and Cerin goals earned a 2-0 over Panetolikos in Mahtal’s 100th game in management. Demir finally made his debut at home to Volos in early November, and laid on the opener for Williams 11 minutes in. And they stayed unbeaten all the way through to early December, when they suffered a 3-2 loss at Aris. They put up their worst display of Mahtal’s reign to lose 3-1 at AEK, who closed the gap to four points after 18 games.
A threadbare squad was tested when star performer Williams was ruled out for the season by cruciate ligament damage, which saw 17-year-old academy product Giannis Zarmakoupis fast-tracked into the first team. The big game was a trip to Olympiacos, which began poorly as the hosts scored their first shot. But the excellent Mancini created tap-in finishes for Ioannidis and Satriano and Demir’s powerful finish made it three. Olympiacos grew into the game but another excellent Demir finish killed the game off. And they finished 8 points clear of AEK at the end of the 26-game season.
That sent Panathinaikos into the Championship Group, which began by drawing 1-1 at AEK. Ioannidis scored and Satriano traded braces to down PAOK 3-1 and Volos 3-0 and Demir got the only goal at OFI to move 8 points clear with six games remaining. They stayed there with another domination of Olympiacos that should have been far more comfortable despite Firpo’s idiotic red card. That made it a two-way title fight between Panathinaikos and AEK, with Panathinaikos needing seven points to claim Mahtal’s maiden top-tier title.
An injury-hit side began the run-in with a 3-2 defeat at PAOK then lost 2-0 at home to AEK, who closed the gap to two points. Demir inspired a 2-0 win at Volos while AEK lost 1-0 at OFI, which meant victory over OFI would secure the title. However, an exhausted team seemed to be wasting the opportunity until Mancini converted a penalty and then crossed for Satriano to bag a 90th-minute title-deciding winner.
Panathinaikos won the Greek Super League!
Panathinaikos finished with 88 points after 28 wins, 4 draws and 4 defeats, scoring 90 and conceding just 27, winning the league by 5 points from AEK.
Mahtal Celebrates First Title!
To say Mahtal was surprised he even had the chance to win a national title at this stage of his career was a massive understatement. He’d been a manager for less than three years and only had a Continental C coaching licence – yet he’d somehow won the Greek title!
The star of the season was undoubtedly Mancini, who racked up an impressive 22 goals and 19 assists. Also impressive were Satriano with 27 goals and 11 assists, Ioannidis with 33 goals and 6 assists, Politic with 16 goals and 10 assists, Demir with 10 goals and 16 assists and Williams with 12 goals in 33 games from centre back.
Elsewhere, Ískenderunspor were relegated from the Turkish Süper Lig with 13 points and just the 1 victory, so Mahtal certainly made the right decision to jump ship while his stock was high.
Without giving any spoilers away, I got very involved in this adventure while I was travelling and then came home in June. So from this point on, we’re going to be publishing updates three times per week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Panathinaikos’ success meant that Mahtal and his Continental C licence would get their first taste of the Champions League next season! But could he rebuild the squad to compete with Europe’s elite? Join us on Wednesday to find out!
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