Panathinaikos V.C.
Greek volleyball club
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Panathinaikos V.C. (Greek: ΤΑΑ Παναθηναϊκός Α.Ο.), also known simply as Panathinaikos, or with its full name Panathinaikos A.O. (Greek: Παναθηναϊκός Αθλητικός Όμιλος, transliterated "Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos", Panathenaic Athletic Club) is the professional volleyball team of the major Athens based multi-sport club Panathinaikos A.O. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest and most successful volleyball clubs in Greece. They have won 21 Greek Championships finishing 6 times undefeated (1962–63, 1965–66, 1966–67, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1974–75), 7 Greek Cups, 3 Greek League Cups and 2 Greek Super Cups. They have reached also twice the CEV Cup final (1979–80, 2008–09).
The Greens
(Capacity: 1,200)
| Nickname | The Trifolium The Greens | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1919 | ||
| Ground | Mets Indoor Hall (Capacity: 1,200) | ||
| Chairman | Dimitris Vranopoulos | ||
| Manager | Dimitris Andreopoulos | ||
| Captain | Athanasios Protopsaltis | ||
| League | Greek Volleyleague | ||
| 2024–25 | 1st (Champions) | ||
| Website | Club home page | ||
| Championships | 21 | ||
| Uniforms | |||
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Notable Greek player have played for the team, while foreign world-class players that have played with the club include Dante Amaral, Marcelo Elgarten, André Nascimento, Frank Depestele, Liberman Agamez, Peter Pláteník, Jakub Novotný, Plamen Konstantinov, Boyan Yordanov, Björn Andrae, Andrija Gerić, Clayton Stanley, Ernardo Gómez, Renaud Herpe, Guillaume Samica, Dawid Murek, Paweł Zagumny and Łukasz Żygadło.
History
The volleyball department of Panathinaikos was founded in 1919 and is one of the first in Greece. With the participation of Giorgos Kalafatis in the Inter-Allied Games of Paris in 1919, and the informations he collected, the sport became more known in Greece. The same year the officials of the club decided the creation of a volleyball team.
The first dynamic presence of the team is dated back in the years 1927–29 with many popular players of the time such as the founder Giorgos Kalafatis, the historical member of the board Apostolos Nikolaidis, as well as players such as Athanasios Aravositas, Goumas, Arg. Nikolaidis, Papageorgiou and Papastefanou. In the following years the interest for volleyball became less until before World War II when Panathinaikos presented a powerful team with leader players such as Lambrou, Vallidis, Momferatos, Tzoumanis, Proselentis, Lykouris, Kakridis and more.
During the 60’s and 70’s, Panathinaikos' volleyball club won many titles and honors due to the fact that the team roster has always included some of the leading volleyball players and coaches in Greece. The first and most popular generation of players of 60’s was Andreas and Nikos Bergeles, as well as Iliopoulos, Leloudas, Chasapis, Emmanouil, Perros and Fotiou who opened the road for the next generations. Notable coaches of this era was the leading figure of the department Gerasimos Theodoratos, the Yugoslavian Sava Grozdanović and later the ex-player of the team Andreas Bergeles.
The most important achievement of the team was the participation in the final of the European Cup in 1980 with Grozdanović as coach and players such as Georgantis, Agrapidakis, Iliopoulos, Papadopoulos, Malousaris, Gountakos, Astras, Kokkinaras and Koliopoulos. In the following years, Panathinaikos team continued to dominate the Greek championship with Janusz Badora as coach and players such as Kazazis, Tentzeris, Gontikas, Galakos, Dimitriadis, Margaronis, Karamaroudis and Andreopoulos.
Two of the most successful periods have been 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons, when Panathinaikos won 2 consecutive championships with Stelios Prosalikas as head coach and Andreopoulos, Triantafillidis, Filippov, Spanos, Hatziantoniou, Ouzounov, A. Kovacev, S. Kovacev, Karamaroudis, Mavrakis, Konstantinidis, Zakynthinos, Koutouleas, Tonev as players.
In 2001 the department became professional under the presidency and financial support of Vlassis Stathokostopoulos and later Thanasis Giannakopoulos.
In 2004 the team won the Championship with the ex-player Stelios Kazazis as coach. With the Brazilian star-player Dante Amaral and Marcelo Elgarten, they made a strong team and finished again first in 2006, while they reached again the final of the European Cup in 2009.
Honours
Domestic
- Greek Championship: (21)[1]
- 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1995, 1996, 2004, 2006, 2020, 2022, 2025
- Greek Cup:[2] (7)
- 1982, 1984, 1985, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2026
- Greek League Cup: (4)
- 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024
- Greek Super Cup:[3] (2)
- 2006, 2022
Current men's volleyball squad
Team roster – season 2025/2026[4]
| No. | Name | Date of birth | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Stavros Kasampalis | June 1, 1995 | setter |
| 2 | Giorgos Papalexiou | August 28, 1999 | middle blocker |
| 5 | Spyros Bakodimos | September 8, 2004 | outside hitter |
| 6 |  Patrick Gasman | January 2, 1997 | middle blocker |
| 7 |  Dmytro Yanchuk | May 19, 1999 | outside hitter |
| 8 |  Rasmus Breuning Nielsen | May 22, 1994 | opposite |
| 12 | Theodoros Voulkidis | March 30, 1996 | middle blocker |
| 13 | Charalampos Andreopoulos | January 23, 2001 | outside hitter |
| 18 | Grigoris Kontostathis | December 22, 1994 | libero |
| 19 | Angelos Mandilaris | November 7, 1998 | opposite |
| 20 |  Filip Savovski | August 4, 2002 | middle blocker |
| 31 |  Luca Spirito | October 30, 1993 | setter |
| 70 | Aristeidis Chandrinos | November 20, 2002 | libero |
| 77 | Athanasios Protopsaltis (c) | September 12, 1993 | outside hitter |
Technical and managerial staff
| Staff | |
|---|---|
| Head coach | Dimitris Andreopoulos |
| Assistant coach | Pavlos Karamaroudis |
| Assistant coach / Trainer | Christos Mpelos |
| Statistician | Alkiviadis Mpelos |
| Physiotherapist | Napoleon Charisis |
| Physiotherapist | Panagiotis Vlachas |
| Kit assistant | Alexandros Makos |
| Team manager | Roulis Agrapidakis |
Retired numbers
| Panathinaikos men's volleyball retired numbers | ||||
| N° | Nat. | Player | Position | Tenure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | | Sotiris Pantaleon | Middle Blocker | 1996–2012, 2014–2021 |
Selected former players
Renaud Herpe
Gianluca Saraceni
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- Albania
Albano Qualiu- Alvi Shurdhi
- Argentina
- Belgium
- Bosnia-Herzegovina
Milorad Kovać
- Brazil
Dante Amaral- Eduardo Arruda
- Hugo de Leon Bozo
- Marcelo Elgarten
- Windson Ferreira
Roberto Minuzzi- Carlos Alexandre Moreira
- Andre Nascimento
- Marcelo Mendes Sacchi
- Cleber De Oliveira
- Lucas Victor Rangel
- Vinicius Raguzzoni
- Bulgaria
Theodoros Baev- Plamen Konstantinov
- Petar Ouzounov
- Dimo Tonev
- Aleksandar Simeonov
- Boyan Yordanov
- Ivan Kovlev
- Antonis Kovachev
- Canada
Keith Sanheim- Michael Amoroso
- Derrick Epp
- Cameron Kern
- Maxwell Elgert
- Colombia
- Croatia
Danijel Galić
- Cuba
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
Jakub Novotný- Petr Pešl
- Peter Pláteník
- Dalibor Polak
- Petr Zapletal
- Denmark
Axel Jacobsen- Rasmus Breuning Nielsen
- Egypt
Ionas Rezk
- France
Fabrice Bry- Ludovic Castard
- Renaud Herpe
- Guillaume Samica
- Germany
- Greece
- Roulis Agrapidakis
- Asimakis Alexiou
- Andreas Andreadis
- Charalampos Andreopoulos
- Dimitris Andreopoulos
- Andreas Bergeles
- Nikos Bergeles
- Theodoros Chatziantoniou
- Kostas Christofidelis
- Dimitris Gontikas
- Christos Dimitrakopoulos
- Stathis Donas
- Pavlos Karamaroudis
- Nikos Karatzas
- Stelios Kazazis
- Michalis Koliopoulos
- Antonis Kovatsev
- Savvas Kovatsev
- Giannis Laios
- Giannis Lambrou
- Ilias Lappas
- Christos Papadopoulos
- Sotirios Pantaleon
- Panagiotis Pelekoudas
- Giorgos Petreas
- Spiros Protopsaltis
- Thanasis Psarras
- Alexandros Raptis
Nikos Samaras- Giorgos Spanos
- Georgios Stefanou
- Nikolaos Smaragdis
- Akis Sidiropoulos
- Gerasimos Theodoratos
- Michalis Triantafyllidis
- Giorgos Zakynthinos
- Dimitris Zisis
- Italy
- Gianluca Saraceni
- Jiří Kovář
- Luca Spirito
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
Jairo Hooi- Maarten van Garderen
- North Macedonia
Filip Savovski
- Norway
Jonas Kvalen
- Poland
Tomasz Józefacki- Michał Kamiński
- Dawid Murek
- Paweł Zagumny
- Łukasz Żygadło
- Russia
Sergey Orlenko
Gennady Cheremisov
- Serbia
Andrija Gerić- Saša Starović
- Miloš Stojković
- Željko Tanasković
- Slovenia
- Spain
Jordi Gens
- Ukraine
- Yuri Filippov
- Dmytro Yanchuk
- United States
Brian Cook- Jared Moore
- Jeff Nygaard
- Brenden Sander
- Clayton Stanley
- Nick Vogel
- Patrick Gasman
- Venezuela
Selected former coaches
- Gerasimos Theodoratos
- Sava Grozdanović
- Andreas Bergeles
- Nikos Bergeles
Aurel Constantinescu- Janusz Badora
- Stelios Prosalikas
- Carlos Xavier Weber
- Francisco dos Santos
- Mauro Berruto
- Alekos Leonis
- Stelios Kazazis
International record
| Season | Achievement | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CEV Champions League | |||
| 1982–83 | Quarter–final | ||
| 1995–96 | 7th place | ||
| 1996–97 | 5th place | ||
| 2007–08 | Play–off 6 | ||
| Cup Winners Cup | |||
| 1976–77 | Quarter–final | ||
| 1979–80 | Final | defeated by Panini Modena, 2–3 sets in Athens | |
| 1981–82 | Quarter–final | ||
| 1983–84 | Quarter–final | ||
| 1987–88 | Quarter–final | ||
| 1988–89 | Final four | 3rd place | |
| 1989–90 | Quarter–final | ||
| 1990–91 | Quarter–final | ||
| 1991–92 | Quarter–final | ||
| Top Teams Cup | |||
| 2005–06 | Final four | 3rd place | |
| CEV Cup | |||
| 2001–02 | Quarter–final | eliminated by Asystel Milano | |
| 2002–03 | Quarter–final | eliminated by Tourcoing Lille Metropole | |
| 2003–04 | Final four | 4th place | |
| 2008–09 | Final | 2nd place | |
| CEV Challenge Cup | |||
| 2021–22 | Semi–final | eliminated by Halkbank Ankara | |
| 2022–23 | Semi–final | eliminated by Olympiacos | |
Season by season
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Sponsorships
Arenas
| Arena | Capacity | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Leoforos Indoor Hall | 1,500 | 1960s–2004 |
| Glyfada Indoor Hall | 2,270 | 2004–2009 2010–2011 |
| Mets Indoor Hall | 1,200 | 2009–2010 2011–2013 2023–present |
| Panellinios Indoor Hall | 1,100 | 2013–2019 |
| Maroussi Saint Thomas Indoor Hall | 1,700 | 2019–2023 |
Presidents
- 2001–08: Vlassis Stathokostopoulos
- 2008–09: Thanasis Giannakopoulos
- 2009–11: Thodoris Liakopoulos
- 2011: Stratos Sopilis
- 2011–13: Chronis Akritidis
- 2013–16: Manolis Ladoukakis
- 2016–18: Dimitris Kassaris
- 2018–20: Alexandros Ellinas
- 2020–25: Panagiotis Malakates
- 2025–: Dimitris Vranopoulos