Panathinaikos V.C. (), also known simply as Panathinaikos, or with its full name Panathinaikos A.O. (, 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 22 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).
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: (22) 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1995, 1996, 2004, 2006, 2020, 2022, 2025, 2026 Greek Cup: (7) 1982, 1984, 1985, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2026 Greek League Cup: (4) 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024 Greek Super Cup: (2) 2006, 2022
Current men's volleyball squad Team roster – season 2026/2027 No.NameDate of birthPosition 1 Stavros Kasampalissetter 2 Giorgos Papalexioumiddle blocker 6 Patrick Gasmanmiddle blocker 7 Dmytro Yanchukoutside hitter 8 Rasmus Breuning Nielsenopposite 9 Timothée Carleoutside hitter 11 Anastasios Grillaslibero 12 Theodoros Voulkidismiddle blocker 13 Charalampos Andreopoulosoutside hitter 16 Nikolay Kolevmiddle blocker 19 Angelos Mandilarisopposite 31 Luca Spiritosetter 70 Aristeidis Chandrinoslibero 77 Athanasios Protopsaltis (c)outside hitter Head coach: Dimitris Andreopoulos
Technical and managerial staff StaffHead coach Dimitris AndreopoulosAssistant coach Pavlos KaramaroudisAssistant coach / Trainer Christos MpelosAssistant coach Antonis TheodoropoulosStatistician Alkiviadis MpelosPhysiotherapist Napoleon CharisisPhysiotherapist Panagiotis VlachasTeam manager Roulis AgrapidakisTeam manager Sotiris Choumos
Retired numbers Panathinaikos men's volleyball retired numbers N° PlayerPositionTenure 14 Sotiris Pantaleon Middle Blocker 1996–2012, 2014–2021
Selected former players
Albania Albano Qualiu Alvi Shurdhi Argentina José Luis González Belgium Frank Depestele Bram Van Den Dries 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 Liberman Agamez Croatia Danijel Galić Cuba Osniel Melgarejo Fernando Hernández Raydel Hierrezuelo Cyprus Thanasis Protopsaltis 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 Björn Andrae 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 Vojin Ćaćić 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 Sašo Štalekar 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 Hernando Gomez
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
SeasonTierLeaguePos. 1960–611 Panhellenic Championship 1961–621 Panhellenic Championship 1962–631 Panhellenic Championship 1963–641 Panhellenic Championship— 1964–651 Panhellenic Championship 1965–661 Panhellenic Championship 1966–671 Panhellenic Championship 1967–681 Panhellenic Championship 1968–691 A Ethniki 1969–701 A Ethniki 1970–711 A Ethniki 1971–721 A Ethniki 1972–731 A Ethniki 1973–741 A Ethniki 1974–751 A Ethniki 1975–761 A Ethniki 1976–771 A Ethniki 1977–781 A Ethniki 1978–791 A Ethniki 1979–801 A Ethniki 1980–811 A Ethniki 1981–821 A Ethniki 1982–831 A Ethniki 1983–841 A Ethniki 1984–851 A Ethniki
SeasonTierLeaguePos. 1985–861 A Ethniki 1986–871 A Ethniki 1987–881 A Ethniki 1988–891 A1 Ethniki 1989–901 A1 Ethniki 1990–911 A1 Ethniki 1991–921 A1 Ethniki 1992–931 A1 Ethniki5 1993–941 A1 Ethniki5 1994–951 A1 Ethniki 1995–961 A1 Ethniki 1996–971 A1 Ethniki4 1997–981 A1 Ethniki4 1998–991 A1 Ethniki7 1999–001 A1 Ethniki7 2000–011 A1 Ethniki 2001–021 A1 Ethniki 2002–031 A1 Ethniki 2003–041 A1 Ethniki 2004–051 A1 Ethniki 2005–061 A1 Ethniki 2006–071 A1 Ethniki 2007–081 A1 Ethniki 2008–091 A1 Ethniki 2009–101 A1 Ethniki
SeasonTierLeaguePos. 2010–111 Volley League 2011–121 Volley League10 2012–131 Volley League10 2013–141 Volley League10 2014–151 Volley League4 2015–161 Volley League5 2016–171 Volley League 2017–181 Volley League11 2018–191 Volley League5 2019–201 Volley League 2020–211 Volley League 2021–221 Volley League 2022–231 Volley League 2023–241 Volley League 2024–251 Volley League 2025–261 Volley League
Sponsorships + Period Kit manufacturer Shirt main sponsor2000–2001 Asics Warsteiner2001–2002 Nike —2002–2004 Caan EVGA2004–2008 Adidas Subaru2009–2012 Asics —2012–2015 Fila —2015–2017Erreà Counterpain2017–2018 —2018–2019 Athlos SportPame Stoixima2019–2023 Macron2024–2026 Adidas
Arenas Arena Capacity YearsLeoforos Indoor Hall 1,500 1960s–2004Glyfada Indoor Hall 2,270 2004–20092010–2011 Mets Indoor Hall 1,200 2009–20102011–20132023–presentPanellinios Indoor Hall 1,100 2013–2019Maroussi 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
See also Panathinaikos women's volleyball
References
External links Official website