'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
There is no greater prize in European club football than the UEFA Champions League. Every year, the biggest and best clubs on the continent battle it out for the right to be named Europe’s best, and we have seen some extraordinary football played in the competition.
In recent years, we have seen Real Madrid dominate the competition, becoming the first team in the modern era to win it three times in a row. Last year they beat Liverpool in the final, in a game that will be remembered for a sensational overhead kick scored by Gareth Bale.
It won’t be four in a row however for Real, after they were shocked by Ajax in the round of 16, before the Dutch giants went on to knock out Juventus in the quarter finals, setting up a semi-final date with Tottenham, who progressed with an extraordinary win over Manchester City. In the other semi-final, Barcelona will play Liverpool.
We have also seen some very special players in the Champions League. Most recently, it has been Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, two of the greatest players ever to play the game. The pair are the only two men in the competition’s history to have scored over 100 goals, and they have won five Champions League titles between them.
But not everyone has matched the achievements of those two. Here are ten of the greatest players never to have won the Champions League.
#1 Gianluigi Buffon
It has been the case of so near, yet so far, on a couple of occasions for Gianluigi Buffon. The Italian is without a doubt one of the finest goalkeepers we have seen in the Champions League, yet he has never been able to win it. Buffon has had a brilliant career. He has won ten domestic league titles with Juventus and PSG, and was part of Italy’s World Cup winning squad in 2006, when he was also named in the Team of the Tournament.
However, he is yet to achieve success in the Champions League, though he has come close. In 2003, Juventus were beaten in the final on penalties by AC Milan, despite Buffon saving two spot kicks in the shootout. In 2015 they reached the final again, but were outclassed by Barcelona. Two years later they got another go, again facing Spanish opposition in the final, this time in the shape of Real Madrid. Again, they were beaten, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring twice. He is now at PSG, but it looks unlikely he will ever claim Europe’s biggest prize.
#2 Fabio Cannavaro
Another legendary Italian footballer. There is no doubting that Cannavaro is one of the best defenders we have seen since the turn of the century. The centre back captained Italy to World Cup glory in 2006, and was in the process named as the winner of the Ballon d’Or, a prize no defender had won since 1976 when Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer won it. He also won FIFA World Player of the Year, and was named as the second best player at that World Cup behind Zinedine Zidane.
Yet when it came to club football and the Champions League, things never really worked out for Cannavaro. As a player, despite spending time with Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Juventus, he won only two league titles, both of them coming in his time in Madrid. In the Champions League, his record was pretty poor. While at Inter Milan, he was part of the side who reached the semi-finals in the 2002/03 season, but it never got any better than that.
#3 Patrick Vieira
Patrick Vieira was yet another man who enjoyed regular success at both club and international level, but when it came to the Champions League, things just didn’t work out as he would have liked. At international level, he won all there was to be won. He won the World Cup with France in 1998, and they continued their success to win the European Championships in 2000.
At Arsenal, he was part of one of the finest club sides English football has seen, winning three Premier League titles, including the 2003/04 title, when Vieira captained the famous Invincibles. In the Champions League, it was the case that teams did better once Vieira had left. Arsenal reached the final in the 2005/06 season, a year after Vieira had left, where they were beaten 2-1 by Barcelona. In January 2010, he left Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan to join Manchester City. Five months later, Inter won the Champions League in Madrid.
#4 Michael Ballack
However great a player Ballack was, there were a lot of nearly moments in his career. The German is regarded as one of the finest midfielders of his generation, and this is something shown by his goalscoring record at international level, 42 goals in 98 games, impressive numbers for a midfielder. He was also named UEFA Club Midfielder of the Year in 2002, after his third and final season with Bayer Leverkusen.
He won four league titles in his career, three in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich, and once in the Premier League with Chelsea. When it came to the Champions League though, it was a story of missing out. He was a runner-up in the 2001/02 season with Bayer Leverkusen, as they were beaten by Real Madrid, with Zinedine Zidane scoring that famous volley.
In 2008, he was part of the Chelsea side beaten by Manchester United in the final on penalties. He came close again a year later, as the Blues were knocked out in the semi-finals by Barcelona in controversial style, with Ballack one of many players furious with the referee’s decision to not award Chelsea a penalty.
#5 Hernan Crespo
In terms of players coming close to winning the Champions League, very few can have come as close as Crespo and failed to take home Europe’s biggest prize. As a striker, Crespo is one of the better ones that we have seen come to European football from South America over the years. He is the fourth highest goalscorer for the Argentina national side, and won the Serie A Golden Boot in the 2000/01 season with Lazio. In 2000, he became the most expensive player in football history when Lazio paid Parma £35.5 million for his signature.
Crespo did enjoy success in European football, winning the UEFA Cup in 1999, scoring in their final victory over Marseille. He then made the semi-finals with Inter Milan in the 2002/03 season, but got even closer in 2005. Crespo was part of the AC Milan side who reached the final, and he scored twice before the break, as Milan took a 3-0 lead into half time. However, Liverpool produced a memorable comeback in the second period, and they would eventually win the trophy on penalties.
#6 Ruud van Nistelrooy
Van Nistelrooy is one of the finest players to have played in the Champions League, and with 56 goals in the competition to his name, he is the highest scorer to have never won the tournament. Overall, the Dutchman’s goal record is quite remarkable. At PSV, he scored 62 goals in 67 league games, before moving on to Manchester United, where he scored 95 goals in just 150 Premier League matches.
Domestically, he won five league titles in just nine years, two each coming in the Eredivisie and La Liga, with the other one coming in the Premier League. It happened individually in the Champions League, as he was the Golden Boot winner in the competition on three occasions, an achievement only bettered by Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gerd Muller. He never really came close to winning the competition however, with a 2002 semi-final defeat to Bayer Leverkusen the closest he came.
#7 Francesco Totti
At a time when football is dominated by money, and loyalty seems at an all time low, it’s almost refreshing seeing a player commit to their club for their whole career, regardless of levels of success, or the offers of a bigger contract elsewhere. That is certainly the case for Totti. He started his career at Roma, making his senior debut in 1993, before retiring in 2017. He is the clubs all time top appearance maker, playing 786 games in all competitions, and he is also their top scorer, with 307 goals to his name.
It’s almost a shame that he didn’t win more in his career. He won Serie A in the 2000/01 season, and the Coppa Italia in both 2007 and 2008. On the international stage, he was a World Cup winner, part of Italy’s squad at the tournament in Germany in 2006. However when it came to the Champions League, there was very little to write home about. His side reached a couple of quarter finals, but nothing more.
#8 Dennis Bergkamp
Another one of Arsenal’s Invincibles, Bergkamp is considered by Gunners fans as one of their greatest players. The Dutchman was one of many great players who came through the Ajax academy, and by the time he left the club in 1993, he had appeared 237 times in all competitions, scoring an impressive 122 goals. He was a UEFA Cup winner there, winning the 1991/92 competition. He moved to Inter Milan after his time in the Netherlands, but things didn’t work out well for him there, yet he was part of a UEFA Cup winning side in 1994, during which he was the competition’s joint-top scorer with eight goals.
He is best known for his time at Arsenal however, where he won three Premier League titles, and the FA Cup four times. He finished third for FIFA World Player of the Year twice, and was named PFA Player of the Year for the 1997/98 season. The closest he came to winning the Champions League came in his final season, the 2005/06 campaign, as he was left on the bench as Arsenal were beaten by Barcelona.
#9 Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Very few players have played for as many big clubs as Ibrahimovic, and it is almost unbelievable that he was never part of a Champions League winning squad. The Swedish forward’s list of honours is impressive to say the least. He won 11 league titles during his time in Europe, with a further seven domestic trophies. His goal record is also excellent. He reached double figures for league goals in 11 consecutive seasons with five different clubs.
Overall, during his time in Europe, Ibrahimovic scored 421 goals in 730 games, as well as netting 62 times in 116 games for Sweden. Sadly, as far as the Champions League was concerned, he was a bit of a nearly man. The year after he left Inter Milan, they became European champions, and a year later, the very same thing happened after he left Barcelona. He also had no luck at Ajax, Juventus, AC Milan and PSG.
#10 Ronaldo
Of all the players on this list, there are probably none as good as Ronaldo. The Brazilian is one of the greatest strikers that has played the game, and it’s almost sad that he never got the opportunity to lift the Champions League trophy, as it is the one major honour he missed out on. He was a two-time World Cup winner, and was the Golden Boot winner in 2002, scoring twice in the final against Germany. He also won the Ballon d’Or on two occasions.
In the Champions League, it never happened for him, and he never even reached the final during his illustrious career. The closest he got was the semi-final in the 2002/03 season, where they were beaten by Juventus, with Ronaldo crucially missing the second leg through injury. He had produced one of his finest individual performances in the quarter final against Manchester United, scoring a hat trick at Old Trafford, leading the home fans to give him a standing ovation.
