Greece men's national water polo team

Greece

FINA code	GRE
Nickname(s)	Galanolefki (The Blue-white) Ethniki (The National)
Association	Hellenic Swimming Federation
Confederation	LEN (Europe)
Head coach	Thodoris Vlachos
Asst coach	Anastasios Schizas Emmanuel Vassiliades
Captain	Konstantinos Genidounias
Top scorer(s)	Ioannis Fountoulis
FINA ranking (since 2008)
Current	4 (as of 24 July 2025)
Highest	1 (2021–2022)
Lowest	16 (2011)
Olympic Games  (team statistics)
Appearances	17 (first in 1920 )
Best result	(2020)
5-time Olympian(s)	George Mavrotas (1984–2000) Georgios Afroudakis (1996–2012)
Top scorer(s)	Kyriakos Giannopoulos (44 goals, in Olympic Games, 1980–1992)
World Championship
Appearances	19 (first in 1973 )
Best result	(2023)
World Cup
Appearances	10 (first in 1985 )
Best result	(1997, 2025)
World League
Appearances	7 (first in 2002 )
Best result	(2004, 2006, 2016, 2020)
European Championship
Appearances	19 (first in 1970 )
Best result	4th place (1999, 2016)
Mediterranean Games
Appearances	8 (first in 1951)
Best result	(2018)
Media
Website	koe.org.gr (in Greek)
Medal record Olympic Games 2020 Tokyo Team World Championship 2023 Fukuoka Team 2005 Montreal Team 2015 Kazan Team 2022 Budapest Team 2025 Singapore Team World Cup 1997 Athens 2025 Podgorica World League 2004 Long Beach 2006 Athens 2016 Huizhou 2020 Tbilisi Mediterranean Games 2018 Tarragona Team 1951 Alexandria Team 1991 Athens Team 1993 Languedoc-Roussillon Team 2013 Tarragona Team
Last updated: 8 August 2021

The Greece men's national water polo team represents Greece in international men's water polo competitions and it is organized and run by the Hellenic Swimming Federation.

Greece has a long tradition of strong presence at international level, with their major successes being the silver medal at the 2020 Olympic Games and three bronze medals won at the World Championship in 2005, 2015 and 2022. The Greeks have also won a silver medal at the World Cup in 1997, three bronze medals at the World League in 2004, 2006 and 2016, as well as one silver (2018) and four bronze medals (1951, 1991, 1993, 2013) at the Mediterranean Games.

Moreover, they have closely missed a medal in the 2016 European Championship, the 2004 Olympic Games, the 2003 World Championship and the 1999 European Championship, ending up in the 4th place in all four of them. Greece is one of only nine national teams in the world to have won (at least) a medal in the World Championship, currently occupying the eighth place on the medal table, one above Germany. They have qualified at least for the quarter-finals in all their World Championship participations since 1994, winning the two aforementioned bronze medals and never finishing below the 6th place from 2001 and on.

Honours

Competition				Total
Olympic Games	–	1	–	1
World Championship	–	1	4	5
World Cup	–	2	–	2
World League	–	–	4	4
European Championship	–	–	–	–
Mediterranean Games	–	1	4	5
Total	–	5	12	17

Olympic Games

• Silver medal:
  • 2020

World Championship

• Silver medal:
  • 2023
• Bronze medals:
  • 2005, 2015, 2022, 2025

World Cup

• Silver medal:
  • 1997, 2025

World League

• Bronze medals:
  • 2004, 2006, 2016, 2020

Mediterranean Games

• Silver medal:
  • 2018
• Bronze medals:
  • 1951, 1991, 1993, 2013

Competitive record

Olympic Games

Main article: Greece men's Olympic water polo team records and statistics

Greece has participated 16 times at the Olympic Games, always present in the tournament since 1980. Their best result is the 2nd place at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, after losing 13–10 to Serbia in the gold medal game. The Greeks have secured a quarter-finals' presence in six occasions. ^[1]

Year	Position
1920	8th
1924	13th
1948	15th
1968	14th
1972	14th
1980	10th
1984	8th
1988	9th
1992	10th
1996	6th
2000	10th
2004	4th
2008	7th
2012	9th
2016	6th
2020
2024	5th
Total	17/28

World Championship

Greece has a strong presence at the World Aquatics Championships, where they have been placed third in the world in two occasions. ^[1] The first was in 2005 in Montreal, after their 11–10 victory over Croatia in the bronze medal game, with Georgios Afroudakis scoring the winning goal, with a spectacular backhand shot, with only 11 seconds left in the overtime. ^[2] The second one was in 2015 in Kazan, after their penalty shootout win over Italy in the bronze medal game. Greece has qualified at least for the quarter-finals in all their tournament participations since 1994, with a 7th place being their lowest position from 2001 and on when the team qualified.

Christos Afroudakis (left) and Manolis Mylonakis (right) are the two players who have won both the 2005 and the 2015 bronze medals of Greece at the World Championship.

Year	Position
1973	12th
1978	12th
1982	12th
1986	11th
1991	10th
1994	7th
1998	8th
2001	6th
2003	4th
2005
2007	6th
2013	6th
2015
2017	4th
2019	7th
2022
2023
2024	5th
2025
Total	19/22

World Cup

Greece had qualified for the FINA Water Polo World Cup in all but two occasions between 1985 and 2006, winning the silver medal in 1997 in Athens, losing 5–8 to the United States in the final. ^[1]

Year	Position
1985	8th
1987	8th
1993	7th
1995	6th
1997
1999	7th
2002	5th
2006	7th
2023	5th
2025
Total	10/18

World League

Greece had a regular presence at the FINA Water Polo World League during the first years of the competition, starting from 2002. They have won four bronze medals so far in 2004, 2006, 2016 and 2020. ^[1]

Year	Position
2002	4th
2003	5th
2004
2005	5th
2006
2008	8th
2016
2020
Total	8/20

European Championship

As one of the most competitive European nations in water polo, Greece is a regular contestant at the European Water Polo Championship since 1989, although they have yet to win a medal, with their best results being the 4th place in 1999 in Florence and in 2016 in Belgrade.

Year	Position
1970	10th
1985	8th
1989	11th
1991	6th
1993	7th
1995	9th
1997	7th
1999	4th
2001	7th
2003	8th
2006	6th
2008	11th
2010	9th
2012	6th
2014	6th
2016	4th
2018	5th
2020	7th
2022	5th
2024	5th
2026	Qualified
Total	21/37

LEN Europa Cup

Year	Position
2018	7th
2019	7th

Mediterranean Games

Year	Position
1951
1967	4th
1971	4th
1975	4th
1979	4th
1983	5th
1987	4th
1991
1993
2001	7th
2005	5th
2009	7th
2013
2018
2022	5th

Team

Current squad

Roster for the 2025 World Aquatics Championships.

GR – Greece (as of 3 July 2025) ^[3]

No.	Player	Pos.	L/R	Height	Weight	Date of birth (age)	Club
1	Panagiotis Tzortzatos	10GK	4B	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)	85 kg (187 lb)	(1992-05-11)11 May 1992 (aged 33)	Olympiacos
2	Konstantinos Genidounias (C)	50D	2R	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)	91 kg (201 lb)	(1993-03-03)3 March 1993 (aged 32)	Olympiacos
3	Dimitrios Skoumpakis	20CB	2R	2.03 m (6 ft 8 in)	119 kg (262 lb)	(1998-12-18)18 December 1998 (aged 26)	Panathinaikos
4	Konstantinos Gkiouvetsis	50D	2R	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)	90 kg (198 lb)	(1999-11-19)19 November 1999 (aged 25)	Panathinaikos
5	Stylianos Argyropoulos	50D	4B	1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)	105 kg (231 lb)	(1996-08-02)2 August 1996 (aged 28)	Ferencvárosi
6	Aristeidis Chalyvopoulos	55W	2R			(2002-05-20)20 May 2002 (aged 23)	Panathinaikos
7	Nikos Gillas	55W	2R	1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)	79 kg (174 lb)	(2003-06-21)21 June 2003 (aged 22)	Olympiacos
8	Efstathios Kalogeropoulos	55W	2R	1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)	88 kg (194 lb)	(2001-06-28)28 June 2001 (aged 24)	CN Marseille
9	Ioannis Alafragkis	20CB	2R	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)	100 kg (220 lb)	(1999-06-23)23 June 1999 (aged 26)	Olympiacos
10	Kostas Kakaris	40CF	2R	1.98 m (6 ft 6 in)	115 kg (254 lb)	(1999-07-02)2 July 1999 (aged 26)	Olympiacos
11	Dimitris Nikolaidis	40CF	2R	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)	88 kg (194 lb)	(1999-06-10)10 June 1999 (aged 26)	Olympiacos
12	Nikos Papanikolaou	40CF	2R	1.92 m (6 ft 4 in)	110 kg (243 lb)	(2000-03-29)29 March 2000 (aged 25)	Panathinaikos
13	Emmanouil Andreadis	10GK	4B			(2002-06-12)12 June 2002 (aged 23)	NC Vouliagmeni
14	Evangelos Pouros	50D	2R			(2003-08-27)27 August 2003 (aged 21)	Olympiacos
15	Nikolaos Gardikas	50D	2R	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)		(1998-08-20)20 August 1998 (aged 26)	GS Apollon Smyrnis

World Championship medal-winning squads

The following are the medal-winning Greek rosters in the men's water polo tournaments of the Water polo at the World Aquatics Championships:

2005 World Championship Bronze Medalists   GREECE Georgios Reppas Anastasios Schizas Dimitrios Mazis Emmanouil Mylonakis Theodoros Chatzitheodorou Argyris Theodoropoulos Christos Afroudakis Georgios Ntoskas Georgios Afroudakis (c) Stefanos-Petros Santa Antonios Vlontakis Manthos Voulgarakis Nikolaos Deligiannis [4] Head coach Alessandro Campagna

2015 World Championship Bronze Medalists   GREECE Konstantinos Flegkas Emmanouil Mylonakis Georgios Dervisis Konstantinos Genidounias Ioannis Fountoulis Kyriakos Pontikeas Christos Afroudakis (c) Evangelos Delakas Konstantinos Mourikis Christodoulos Kolomvos Alexandros Gounas Angelos Vlachopoulos Stefanos Galanopoulos [5] Head coach Thodoris Vlachos

2022 World Championship Bronze Medalists   GREECE Manos Zerdevas Dinos Genidounias Dimitris Skoumpakis Stathis Kalogeropoulos Yiannis Fountoulis (c) Alexandros Papanastasiou Giorgos Dervisis Stelios Argyropoulos Costas Gouvis Costas Kakaris Dimitris Nikolaidis Angelos Vlachopoulos Panagiotis Tzortzatos [6] Head coach Thodoris Vlachos

2023 World Championship Silver Medalists   GREECE Manos Zerdevas Dinos Genidounias Dimitris Skoumpakis Stathis Kalogeropoulos Yiannis Fountoulis (c) Alexandros Papanastasiou Giorgos Dervisis Stelios Argyropoulos Dimitris Nikolaidis Costas Kakaris Ioannis Alafragkis Konstantinos Gkiouvetsis Panagiotis Tzortzatos Nikolaos Gkillas Aristeidis Chalyvopoulos [7] Head coach Thodoris Vlachos

Notable coaches

Alessandro Campagna

• Andreas Garyfallos
• Josep Brasco Cata
• Ivo Trumbić
• Kyriakos Iosifidis
• Mile Nakić
• Giannis Giannouris
• Alessandro Campagna
• Dragan Andrić
• Thodoris Vlachos

See also

• Greece men's Olympic water polo team records and statistics
• Greece women's national water polo team

References

1. "HistoFINA – Water polo medalists and statistics" (PDF). fina.org. FINA. September 2019. pp. 4, 14, 25, 40, 48. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
2. Το χάλκινο μετάλλιο της Εθνικής ομάδας πόλο των ανδρών στο Παγκόσμιο Πρωτάθλημα του 2005 στο Μόντρεαλ sport24.gr, 30 July 2014 (in Greek)
3. "Η 15άδα της Εθνικής ομάδας Ανδρών για τη Σιγκαπούρη". koe.org.gr.
4. Water polo at the 2005 World Aquatics Championships – Final Standings – Games – Rosters www.worldaquatics.com
5. "Water polo at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships – 3rd place match: Greece – Italy 11–9" (PDF). waterpolo.sportresult.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 November 2023.
6. "Water polo at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships – 3rd place match:: Greece – Croatia 9–7" (PDF). waterpolo.sportresult.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 June 2023. waterpolo.sportresult.com
7. "Water polo at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships – Final: Hungary – Greece 14–13 (pen.)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 March 2024. waterpolo.sportresult.com

External links

• Official website (in Greek)