The Greatest Champions League Team of All Time

As we approach the climax of the one of football’s greatest tournaments, Joshua King considers which players would earn a place in the greatest Champions league team of all time. Each of these individuals has sat at Europe’s top table throughout their distinguished careers, and each has been chosen for the impact they have had on this inimitable competition. Their passion, flair, commitment and success have defined European club football since the competition’s inception in 1992.

Substitutes: Oliver Kahn, Fernando Hierro, Cafu, Ronaldinho, Messi, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Andriy Shevchenko

Manager - Carlo Ancelotti
Ancelotti is neck and neck with Sir Alex Ferguson for the managerial role, both having won the competition twice and reached the final a third time as runner-up, but edges it because he won back to back European trophies (albeit two years before the format changed to the current Champions League) as a player in 1988-1989, 1989-1990).


Goalkeeper – Iker Casillas
Casillas is the most capped goalkeeper in Champions League history and has won it on two occasions (1999-2000, 2001-2002). He was only nineteen years of age when he made his first appearance in the final, and not yet thirty he potentially has another decade of European football ahead of him. A commanding presence in the box and captain of his club, Casillas has already staked a claim as the greatest goalkeeper of his generation, and certainly the most talented ever to appear in this competition.

Left Back – Roberto Carlos
Carlos made his name in Europe at the continent’s most successful club – Real Madrid. One of only fifteen players to have made more than one hundred appearances in the competition, Carlos is known for his pace and his powerful free kicks. He has also lifted the trophy on three occasions (1997-1998, 1999-2000, 2001-2002).

Centre Back – Paulo Maldini
There is little left to say about "Il Capitano" that has not already been said a thousand times. He was a player who could read the game like no other. In a career spanning twenty-five years, all of it spent with his boyhood club AC Milan, Maldini established himself as the best defender in the world, capable of playing both on the left and in the centre. He won the Champions League a record-breaking five times (1988–89, 1989–90, 1993–94, 2002–03, 2006–07), appearing in a further three as a runner-up. In 2003, he lifted the European Cup/Champions League as club captain exactly 40 years after his father Cesare accomplished the same feat, the only father-son pair to accomplish this.



Centre Back – Carlos Puyol
Never silent on the pitch and always tireless in his effort, Puyol is the very definition of a committed defender. As Barcelona’s captain Puyol has won the trophy twice (2005-2006, 2008-2009) and although not as technically gifted as his Catalan peers, he embodies the passion of a team rightly lauded as one of the greatest in history.

Right Back – Gary Neville
Perhaps a controversial choice, there is not too much light between Neville and the Champions League’s other great right back, the Brazilian Cafu. Both have won the trophy only once, but Neville appeared for Manchester United over one hundred times and captained his club for five years. He was also an integral part of the 1999 treble-winning team that produced the most electrifying two minutes of European football ever.

Left Wing – Ryan Giggs
Giggs is the consummate professional and the most decorated player in English football history. Although he is now used primarily as a deep-lying playmaker for his boyhood club Manchester United, Giggs made his name both home and in Europe as a flying winger. He has won the Champions League twice (1998–99, 2007–08) and also has a runners-up medal hidden in his trophy cabinet. Giggs was another key figure in the 1999 Man Utd. treble winning team, and has the inimitable honour of being the first player to score in eleven consecutive Champions League competitions.

Central Midfield – Clarence Seedorf
A four times winner of the Champions League, more than one hundred appearances in the competition and the only player to have won the trophy with three different clubs (Ajax in 1995, Real Madrid in 1998 and Milan in 2003 and 2007) – the statistics say it all when it comes to Seedorf. The Dutchman has been a fixture of continental football for nearly two decades and at the ripe age of 35 looks as fit as ever.

Central Midfield – Zinedine Zidane
Elegant and technically brilliant, ‘Zizou’ epitomised all that is great about the beautiful game. He did not win the trophy many times (only once in fact – 2001-2002), nor did he has make a record number of appearances or notch up a remarkable tally of goals. No – the Frenchman guaranteed his place in this, the Greatest Champions League Team of All Time, because when THAT anthem booms out in stadia across Europe it is players of his calibre that fans yearn to see. Unquestionably the greatest footballer of the last quarter century, he is also quite possibly the greatest of all time. Oh, and let’s not forget his incredible volleyed goal at Hampden in 2002 that secured Real Madrid their ninth European title. Sublime.

Right Wing – Luis Figo
Forget that young pretender Christiano Ronaldo, Luis Figo was the original flying Portuguese winger. Competent on either flank, the suave Figo was rightly awarded the 2000 European Footballer of the Year and the 2001 FIFA World Player of the Year. He won the competition with the Real Madrid team that has featured some much of the talent discussed in 2002 and appeared more than one hundred times for Madrid and two of Europe’s other giants, Barcelona and Inter Milan. On his day, Figo was unplayable.

Striker – Raul
‘Mr. Champions League.’ In 142 competitive appearances the iconic Raul scored 71 goals making him not only the leading Champions League goal-scorer but also the most capped. A Champions League winner on three occasions with Real Madrid (1997–98, 1999–00, 2001–02), he is an incredible ambassador for his club(s), the competition and the game as a whole. He can score, he can create, he can lead and drive his team forward. Currently plying his trade with Shalke 04 in Germany he will however be forever remembered for his years at the Santiago Bernabeu. His record is unimpeachable - Raul is a player of utter class.

Striker – Filippo Inzaghi
The perfect partner for Raul’s creativity, Inzaghi is the definitive goal poacher. Forever tormenting the last men of the opposition defence, Sir Alex Ferguson once suggested that Filippo had been ‘born offside’. He is one of only two players to have scored three hatricks in the Champions League (the other being the mercurial Michael Owen), and on 3 November 2010 in a match against Real Madrid the AC Milan star became the oldest player to score in the competition, aged 37 years and 85 days. Inzaghi, twice a Champions League winner with Milan (2002–03, 2006–07), has turned putting the ball into the back of the net from six yards into a zen-like art form.

There are quite literally dozens of other players who nearly made the cut, but this is THE definitive Champions League XI.