Typically, players from Olympiacos make up the majority of the Greek national team during major competitions.
Head coach Theodoros Vlachos announced the list of players he has selected to participate in the World Championships in Singapore. Seven players of the most successful Greek team are on the 15-player roster.
However, some key players from Olympiacos are missing from the lineup. Goalkeeper Emmanouil Zerdevas, along with Ioannis Fountoulis and Alexandros Papanastasiou, won’t travel to Singapore. The 37-year-old Fountoulis didn’t participate in this year’s national team’s preparations and competitions, while Papanastasiou has been struggling with an injury for a few months and missed the World Cup F8 in Podgorica. Neither of them was called up for this summer’s preparations.
Zerdevas, who has played at five World Championships and the last two editions of the Olympic Games, was among the 18 players who prepared for Singapore. Still, he did not pass the final selection.
But, the team is almost the same as the squad that won silver in the World Cup in Podgorica a few months ago. There have been only two changes. Zerdevas has been replaced by his teammate Panagiotis Tzortzatos, while Aristedos Chalyvopoulos is on the roster instead of Nikolaos Giannatos.
In total, four players who competed at the 2024 Olympic Games aren’t on the roster. Besides the trio from Olympiacos, Angelos Vlachopoulos also won’t participate in the World Championships. The former Novi Beograd player, who recently joined Radnicki, didn’t play in the World Cup and didn’t participate in preparations, like Fountoulis. He is taking a pause and playing for Sliema in the Summer Maltese League.
Greece’s 2025 World Championships roster
Goalkeepers: Panagiotis Tzortzatos (Olympiacos), Emmanouil Andreadis (Vouliagmeni); Field players: Konstaninos Genidounias (Olympiacos), Dimitrios Skoumpakis (Panathinaikos), Konstantinos Gkiouvetsis (Panionios), Stylianos Argyropoulos (Ferencvaros), Aristides Chalyvopoulos (Vouliagmeni), Nikolaos Gkillas (Olympiacos), Efstathios Kalogeropoulos (Marseille), Ioannis Alafragkis (Olympiacos), Konstantinos Kakaris (Olympiacos), Dimitrios Nikolaidis (Olympiacos), Nikolaos Papanikolaou (Panathinaikos), Evangelos Pouros (Olympiacos), Nikolaos Gardikas (Apollon Smyrnis).
Greece will play in a very strong Group D at the World Championships, against Croatia, Montenegro and China.
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