UEFA Champions League
Champions League Winners: History, Records, and Notable Teams
Competitive football has returned to our screens and with qualifying rounds of the Champions League set to be played out this week ahead of the first round of group stage fixtures on September 19th.
With this in mind, we have looked into the history of the prestigious tournament.
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What is the UEFA Champions League?
The UEFA Champions League, also known as the UCL, is an annual club competition that sees the best of European football clash.
Alongside the intense drama that brings fans into stadiums each and every time, the crowned champions receive a €20 million payout for winning, with the runners up collecting €15.5 million and the semifinalists picking up €12.5 million.
History of the UEFA Champions League
The competition was founded in 1955 as the European Cup, a 16-team tournament with one club from a selected nation invited to take part.
With the likes of Hibernian, AC Milan, and Anderlecht taking part, it was the white shirt of Read Madrid that etched their names into the history books as they won the inaugural championship. They would also go on to win the next four.
In 1992, the competition was rebranded as the UEFA Champions League and, as it is this year, includes 32 teams with the best 16 teams from the group stage heading through to the knockout stage.
After each round of the knockout stage, there is a randomized draw to see which qualified teams will clash head-to-head over two legs, both home and away. The aggregate score following both games determines who wins, and if that score after 90 minutes (plus stoppage time) is level, extra time and potentially penalties are used to decide who progresses through the tournament.
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List of UEFA Champions League winners
From Los Blancos to the Blaugrana, the Red Devils to the Rossoneri, the Champions League is steeped in legacy from year one to the present day.
Here are how the biggest teams in the sport have previously done.
Early Years (1955-1992)
As previously mentioned, Real Madrid won the first five renewals of the then European Cup before adding a sixth title to the trophy cabinet in 1966.
In comparison, fellow Spanish rivals Barcelona won their first in 1992, the final year of the competition before the rebrand.
Both Liverpool and AC Milan won the second-highest number of European Cups at four each, though the Reds were not the only English team to succeed during this period as Manchester United (1968), Nottingham Forrest (1977, 1978) and Aston Villa (1982) were victorious.
This makes England the nation that produced the greatest number of winning teams in the history of the European Cup.
Modern Era (1993-present)
The first successful team in the new UEFA Champions League era was Marseille as they beat AC Milan 1-0 at the Olympiastadion in Munich, Germany.
Like they did in the first period of the competition, Real Madrid have run riot over the last 30 years, collecting eight further titles, most recently in 2022 when defeating Liverpool.
However, they have not been the only Spanish team to dominate Europe since the rebrand as bitter rivals Barcelona won the competition four times between 2006 and 2015 thanks to the brilliance of Lionel Messi, Ronaldinho, and David Villa in the famous striped jersey.
Notable successes have been secured by AC Milan (1994, 2003, and 2010), Ajax (1995), and Bayern Munich (2001 and 2013), but it is the city of Manchester that has been fruitful for European success in recent years, firstly with the red half in 1999 and 2008 while the blue half finally got their hands on the trophy in 2023.
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Record and Statistics
Most Successful Clubs in Champions League History
The team that has won the competition the most is Real Madrid with a massive 14 titles to their name.
Individual Records
The player with the most goals and assists in the history of the championship is Cristiano Ronaldo with 140 and 42 respectively, while he is also the player with the most appearances at 183.
Memorable Moments
Exciting, edge of your seat moments are a familiar occurrence in the UEFA Champions League, something that makes the competition extra special.
But one that has to be remembered for its pure level of skill is Ronaldo’s bicycle kick against Juventus in the quarter-final of the 2018 competition.
Although the game was always in the favour of Los Blancos, this one moment of brilliance saw the home fans of the Italian side stop their singing and begin that famous applause for CR7’s magical display of technical ability.
Football is a sport were diehard fans of teams’ clash for 90 minutes on a regular basis, but when one single second of talent is witnessed in front of their eyes, all people can do sometimes is watch in awe, and that is what the Portuguese legend created that night in Turin.
