Panathinaikos V.C.

Panathinaikos V.C. (ΤΑΑ Παναθηναϊκός Α.Ο.), also known simply as Panathinaikos, or with its full name Panathinaikos A.O. (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 20 Greek Championships finishing 6 times undefeated (1962–63, 1965–66, 1966–67, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1974–75), 6 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.

Domestic

 * Greek Championship: (20)
 * 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1995, 1996, 2004, 2006, 2020, 2022
 * Greek Cup: (6)
 * 1982, 1984, 1985, 2007, 2008, 2010
 * Greek League Cup: (4)
 * 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024
 * Greek Super Cup: (2)
 * 2006, 2022

European

 * Shield of the European Union.svg CEV Cup
 * Runners-up (2): 1980, 2009

Current men's volleyball squad
Team roster – season 2024/2025 

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
 * 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
 * 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
 * Italy
 * 🇮🇹 Gianluca Saraceni
 * 🇮🇹🇨🇿 Jiří Kovář
 * Montenegro
 * 🇲🇪 Vojin Ćaćić
 * Netherlands
 * 🇳🇱 Jairo Hooi
 * 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
 * United States
 * 🇺🇸 Brian Cook
 * 🇺🇸 Jared Moore
 * 🇺🇸 Jeff Nygaard
 * 🇺🇸 Brenden Sander
 * 🇺🇸 Clayton Stanley
 * 🇺🇸🇩🇪 Nick Vogel
 * 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

Sponsorships

 * Official Sport Clothing Manufacturer: Macron
 * Great Shirt Sponsor: OPAP / Pame Stoixima
 * Official Sponsors: Viva Fresh, Batteries.gr, Hygeia Medical Center, Avance Car Rental, Biosteel, CIEL, Civitel, Myo Cel, Boukia kai syhorio, Bolossis, Art & Fantasy
 * Official Broadcaster: PAO TV

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– : Panagiotis Malakates