Ethnikos Piraeus Water Polo Club is the professional water polo team of Ethnikos OFPF (meaning: National Club of Fans of Piraeus and Phalerum, in Greek: Εθνικός Όμιλος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς Φαλήρου).
Ethnikos is one of the most successful and traditional water polo clubs in Greece. They have won a record 38 Greek water polo championships and 12 Greek water polo cups (eight of them are consecutive, which is a record) with 9 Doubles. Ethnikos has the record of 9 unbeaten doubles as well as the record for consecutive unbeaten doubles with 8. They hold the unique record of winning 18 championships in a row (from 1953 to 1970) and the second most with 14 in a row (from 1972 to 1985). Ethnikos holds the unique record for the most unbeaten championships with 29 (from which 11 are consecutive, which is also a record) and the record for consecutive years staying unbeaten in a match (13 years, from 1951 to 1964). Also, the club holds the record for most championships won exclusively with wins (19, 10 of which are consecutive, also a record).
The dominance of Ethnikos along with his longstanding records led to his given nickname, the “Emperor”.
The men's team was the first Greek club to reach the eight (1966) and four (1980) best teams in Europe. The team has been in the top-8 teams in Europe another eight times (1970, 1972, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1995).
The women's team won the LEN Trophy in 2010 and repeated its triumph in 2022 to become the Greek team with the most LEN Trophies.
Many great players have played for Ethnikos throughout the years. The Greece men's national water polo team for many years consisted of Ethnikos players that have participated in the Olympics. The greatest personality in the history of the club is Andreas Garifallos, player, coach and president. In the Kastella neighborhood of Piraeus, the swimming pool bears his name in honour of his contribution to Piraeus and Greece water polo. Other great players that have played for Ethnikos are Ioannis Garifallos, Giannis Karalogos, Thomas Karalogos, Nondas Samartzidis, Kyriakos Iosifidis, Markellos Sitarenios, Sotirios Stathakis, Evangelos Patras, Konstantinos Kokkinakis, Filippos Kaiafas, Theodoros Kalakonas, Dimitrios Mazis, Christos Afroudakis, Antonios Aronis, Dimitrios Konstas, Dimitrios Kougevetopoulos, Antonios Vlontakis, Gerasimos Voltirakis, Anastasios Schizas, Chris Humbert, Wolf Wigo, Ashleigh Johnson, Iefke van Belkum, Stephania Haralabidis, Ioanna Haralabidis, Maria Tsouri, Aikaterini Oikonomopoulou, Sofia Iosifidou, Marina Canetti
Men's team
Summary
Ethnikos dominated in Greek Water Polo championship for many years. Since 1957, it has won the most Greek championships. It has won 38 championships and 12 cups. During last years its power has been limited, and it has been relegated to the second division (A2 Ethniki) twice. Out of the 91 seasons from 1928 until now, Ethnikos has 88 appearances. The team has three absences in 1935, 2010 and 2013. In 1980, Ethnikos became the first Greek team to reach the Final-4 of LEN Champions League (the elite European club competition). Besides that, Ethnikos has reached the final-8 nine times. In 2003 the team took the third place in LEN Trophy (second tier European club competition). The club has an eternal rivalry with Olympiacos, the other club from Piraeus. The match between the two is dubbed as the “Piraeus derby”. Ethnikos had won six consecutive Greek cups (four of them against Olympiacos in the final) before the competition had a hiatus of 25 years that stopped Ethnikos from winning many more trophies and achieving more doubles. Ethnikos lost ten games to Olympiacos in 41 years. Olympiacos surpassed Ethnikos in head-to-head wins in 2015. Another big rival of Ethnikos in the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s was NO Patras.
1925–1940 (Pre WWII years) Ethnikos water polo team was founded shortly after the foundation of parent club Ethnikos OFPF which was founded in 1923. The team won its first Greek championship in 1926 without defeat in four games. In 1927 and 1929 the team finished second to Olympiacos and Aris respectively while the team finished third in 1928. In 1931, the team managed to dethrone Aris who had a three-peat of titles at the time and was the strongest in the country. In the next few years the team couldn't win another title despite reaching the final. In 1933 and 1934, Olympiacos won the championship in the final game against Ethnikos. Then, another team from Western Greece came into prospect, NC Patras. NC Patras won five championships in six years just before the start of WWII (1935–1940). Ethnikos was second in 1937 and third in 1938.