A summer of two clubs under one badge
Panathinaikos enters the new season in two very different places depending on which sport you follow. The football side is quietly building, unbeaten in pre-season and adding the physical profile Nistrup demanded. The basketball side starts the year with a points deduction and its best guard suspended for the first derby. One project looks coherent. The other looks like it is still paying for April.
Nistrup's blueprint is already visible on the pitch
Three friendlies, three wins. The 3–0 result against Grasshopper made it a clean sweep (2), and the goals came from three different players: Giagkousits, Zarouri, and Tamporda. That spread matters. A new coach wants options, not dependency on one source of goals.
Branco Boudio flies into Athens on Tuesday for his medical. He fits the profile Nistrup has been clear about from the start: height, physicality, presence. The pursuit of Kotsorashvili, with PAOK also in the race, underlines the same theme. This is a manager who knows exactly what his squad lacked last season and is fixing it position by position. Giannis Kotsiras returning to Asteras AKTOR closes one chapter quietly, but the direction of travel is unmistakable. Panathinaikos are getting bigger and harder to play against.
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The pre-season results are only friendlies, and Grasshopper are not exactly Bayern Munich. But a new coach installing a clear identity in July is worth more than the scorelines. Nistrup has done that.
The basketball team starts in a hole
The Sports Judge handed down a two-point deduction for the league season and a two-game suspension for Kendrick Nunn. That means Nunn misses the Super Cup derby against Olympiacos. Tyriek Jones of Olympiacos got seven games. The numbers are what they are, but they land harder on Panathinaikos. Losing your lead guard for the first high-stakes match of the season is a competitive wound, not just a disciplinary footnote.
Starting a championship at minus two points sets a tone the club did not need. The incidents in the fifth final are still shaping the present. The basketball project has talent, depth, and a European pedigree, but it now has a handicap attached before a ball is bounced.
What to watch
Boudio's medical on Tuesday is the next concrete milestone for the football side. Once the ink dries, attention shifts to the Kotsorashvili race with PAOK. A Georgian international choosing between the two Athens rivals would tell fans plenty about which project feels more compelling right now.
On the basketball side, the Super Cup derby without Nunn is the first test of how deep this roster really is. Starting the league at minus two means every early fixture carries extra weight. The club president called this a new era in both sports. One half of it is already on the back foot.
