Vranjes to miss one month after more controversy
AEK centre-back Ognjen Vranjes, who is no stranger to controversy, has reportedly been told by the club that he will miss all matches scheduled for the next month as a punishment for his recent actions.
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Vranjes is constantly in the headlines for the wrong reasons. Following the 2-0 Super League loss to Olympiacos in Piraeus on Sunday evening, the 30-year-old defender uploaded this following image to his Instagram account:
The message was in response to the Olympiacos supporters who displayed a banner mocking Vranjes for his previous sex scandal with Serbian singer, Jelena Karleusa:
Vranjes has close ties with the Original 21 organisation, even sporting a tattoo of the AEK fan movement on his chest.
Before the match, Vranjes had uploaded several images to Instagram in anticipation of playing against Olympiacos, but the Bosnian defender subsequently performed poorly at the Karaiskakis Stadium as AEK conceded two cheap goals. It does now seem as though it was Vranjes’ last appearance for AEK until at least December.
AEK supremo, Dimitris Melissanidis, was infuriated by the Instagram post. Melissanidis has reportedly punished Vranjes by banning him from playing in any AEK games which will take place in November.
Melissanidis has also fined five AEK players - Vranjes and Marko Livaja included - 5,000 euros for their antics at the Bosnian’s birthday party during the week which went viral on the internet.
The 68-year-old made this speech to the team at the AEK training centre in Spata:
“I can tolerate defeats and bad days. Results stay within football itself, even if we lost in a poor manner. However, I cannot tolerate things which go against the values of this club. This is a big team, it has high principles, it has shown you love and you must be worthy of representing it. You are role models for young children, and I cannot tolerate what is being posted on social media, it is unacceptable.”
The decision to ostracize Vranjes for a month means Nikos Kostenoglou only has Marios Oikonomou, Dmytro Chygrynskiy and Stratos Svarnas available as natural centre-backs. AEK will play against Atromitos, Panathinaikos, Aris and OFI in crucial matches in November.
Vranjes is currently on loan at AEK from Anderlecht. He was ostracized from the Anderlecht and Bosnia teams last season as a result of more controversy.
