UEFA Champions League's 5 greatest footballers in last 25 years

UEFA Champions League is one of the most prestigious tournaments in world football. It was previously known as the European Cup, and was revamped as the Champions League in the 1992-93 season. Olympique Marseille won the inaugural edition of the tournament, beating AC Milan 1-0 in the final.

Real Madrid are the most successful team in the history of the competition, having won 6 titles in the last 20 years. Barcelona and AC Milan have managed to win 4 and 3 titles since the inception of the Champions League.

Quite naturally, the finest footballers in the world have performed to the best of their abilities in the Champions League. Therefore, it is not easy to come up with a list of 5 footballers, who have been the best players in the tournament in the last 25 years.

Still, we have managed to form the list somehow and here it goes:

#5 Iker Casillas

Real Madrid’s “Mr.Cool”, Iker Casillas is still active as a player and remains one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time. Casillas came through the youth ranks of Real Madrid, and went on to play for the “Los Blancos” for more than 15 years. He also won 3 Champions League titles with them, besides earning 725 caps for the club overall.

Casillas was a great shot-stopper in his prime, and very good in the air too. At 6 feet 1 inch, he is not very tall for a goalkeeper, but used to compensate for his lack of extra height with his intuition, reflex and cool demeanor. He had a very calm influence on his defenders, and a commanding presence inside the penalty box.

Casillas performed brilliantly in Real’s 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen in the final of 2001-02 Chamipons League. He also won the elusive title in 1999-2000 and 2013-14. It was quite befitting that Casillas was the goalie of Real Madrid, when the latter won the elusive “La Decima”, their 10th European crown, in 2014.

#4 Xavi

Xavi mastered the concept of space and time in football, and remains one of the greatest central midfielders of all time. He is also one of the most successful footballers of all time and has managed to win all the major titles. He is also one of the finest Champions League footballers of all time, and won 4 titles in his distinguished career.

Xavi played for Barcelona for almost two decades, and won his first Champions League title in 2005-06. He then became an intrinsic part of Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering team and won 2 Champions League titles in 3 years from 2009 to 2011. He signed off by winning his 4th and last Champions League title with Barca in 2015. He played in a whopping 767 matches for Barca and scored 85 goals.

Xavi is one of the finest players when it comes to passing, that the game has ever seen. He also acted as the engine of the dominantCatalan side of 2000s and 2010s. He is still active as a player, and would go down as one of the best in the history of the game.

#3 Paolo Maldini

The incomparable Maldini played for his beloved AC Milan for more than two decades, and also collected quite a few trophies in the process. He won the European Cup 5 times, and finished runner-up on two more occasions. Maldini won the revamped Champions League thrice, and finished as a runner-up twice. He was part of the great Milan side of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and was a talisman for them in the early to mid 2000s.

Maldini’s longevity as a footballer is enviable undoubtedly, and there are very few who can match him in terms of success in club football. Maldini played in 902 matches for Milan overall, and scored 33 goals. He was also quite possibly the finest left-back in the history of the game, and also played as a central defender in the twilight of his career.

Maldini was also quite good with his overlaps, and his crossing was quite effective. He also a good aerial presence and remained one of the cleanest tacklers in the game. He stopped many great forwards with his anticipation and positional sense. He won the Champions League with Milan in 1993-94, 2002-03 and 2006-07.

#2 Lionel Messi

Much has been written about Lionel Messi and his genius, and it’s obvious that a great player like him would be successful on a big occasion, like the Champions League. Messi is unquestionably the greatest Barcelona player of all time, and contributed immensely towards their 4 Champions League triumphs from 2006 to 2015.

Messi scored against Manchester United in both the finals of 2009 and 2011, and also set up one in the victory over Juventus in 2015. He has the knack of keeping his best for the most important matches, and consistently delivered for Barca in the last 15 years.

Messi has scored 112 goals in Champions League till date, and remains the second highest goal-scorer of the competition. He had played a very important part in making Barca one of the most dominant forces in world football in the past decade and a half. His dribbling, passing and shooting are of the highest standard, and he continues to dazzle the football lovers with the lustre of his genius.

#1 Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the most successful footballers in the history of Champions League, and has scored the highest number goals in its history with 126 from 162 matches. He has also won 5 Champions League titles and finished runner-up once. He was the talisman of the Real Madrid side that went on to win three successive Champions League titles from 2016 to 2018.

Ronaldo won his first Champions League title with Manchester United in the 2007-08 season. He also won the title with Real Madrid in 2013-14. Additionally, he managed to score in the finals of 2013-14 and 2017-18 editions of the tournament.

Ronaldo is a big match player, and keeps troubling the opposition footballers with his speed, strength and guile. He is also a natural goal-scorer, and can inspire his teammates to play better. He moved to Juventus in 2018, and is expected to stay in Italy for a few more seasons.

Edited by Shaurya Vineet