Which club has had the most EURO winners?
Sunday, July 14, 2024
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Spain and Germany have dominated the EURO as nations, but which club sides boast the most victorious players?
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While Spain are now out on their own as the most successful nation in UEFA European Championship history with four titles, one more than Germany, the pair's dominance extends beyond their seven triumphs combined. The two countries also hold sway at the top of another table, with their heavyweight clubs having boasted a long list of EURO winners at the time of their trophy success.
Pride of place belongs to Bayern, who picked up their 19th champion when Renato Sanches helped Portugal win UEFA EURO 2016, Real Madrid, who went level with Bayern as Dani Carvajal, Nacho and Joselu all featured in Spain's EURO 2024 triumph, and Barcelona, who provided four members of Spain's victorious 2024 squad – Lamine Yamal, Pedri, Ferran Torres and Fermín López.
EURO winners by club (all finals squad members)
19: Barcelona, Bayern München, Real Madrid
10: Juventus
9: Bordeaux, Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Inter Milan, Valencia
8: Chelsea, AC Milan, Monaco
7: Athletic Club, Slovan Bratislava
6: Köln, Panathinaikos, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Zaragoza
5: AEK Athens, Ajax, Arsenal, Atlético de Madrid, Liverpool, Napoli, PSV Eindhoven, Real Sociedad, Werder Bremen
4: Brøndby, Fiorentina, Hamburg, Lyngby, Olympiacos, Roma, Sevilla, Sporting CP, Stuttgart, Torino, Villarreal
3: Dinamo Moskva, Dinamo Tbilisi, Dukla Praha, Inter Bratislava, Sassuolo, Slavia Praha, Real Betis, Spartak Moskva
2: Atalanta, Auxerre, Benfica, Beşiktaş, Bologna, Cagliari, Duisburg, Dynamo Kyiv, Eintracht Frankfurt, Feyenoord, Kaiserslautern, Košice, Lazio, Lokomotiv Moskva, Mallorca, Manchester City, Manchester United, Schalke, Toulouse
1: Aarhus, Al Nassr, Anderlecht, B 1903, Bohemians Praha, Bolton Wanderers, Braga, CSKA Moskva, Den Bosch, Dinamo Zagreb, Fortuna Düsseldorf, Fortuna Sittard, Freiburg, Getafe, Hansa Rostock, Karlsruhe, Leicester City, Leipzig, Leverkusen, LOSC Lille, Lokomotiva Košice, Lyon, Málaga, Marseille, Mechelen, Mulhouse, Nantes, Odense, Parma, Porto, Roda, Silkeborg, Spartak Trnava, Sochaux, Southampton, Teplice, Torpedo Moskva, SKA Rostov, Trabzonspor, Udinese, Varese, Vejle, Wolfsburg
Bayern's place level at the top of the standings can be largely explained by two tournaments. Eight of the club's players – including Oliver Kahn, Jürgen Klinsmann, Thomas Helmer and Mario Basler – were part of Germany's triumphant EURO '96 squad, while six more featured in the West Germany delegation that won in 1972.
Joint-fifth, Bordeaux owe their elevated position to having contributed five members of France's squad in 1984 – not least Alain Giresse and Jean Tigana – plus four more in 2000. As for Slovan Bratislava, they owe their lofty spot entirely to Czechoslovakia's 1976 triumph.
The most-represented clubs whose home nation has never lifted the trophy is Chelsea. Didier Deschamps, Marcel Desailly and Frank Lebœuf were Blues players when they won with France in 2000, while Fernando Torres and Juan Mata clinched UEFA EURO 2012 with Spain. Winners with Italy at EURO 2020, Jorginho and Emerson Palmeiri moved their total on to seven.
Curiously, Manchester United have had just two EURO winners, both of them goalkeepers: Peter Schmeichel with Denmark in 1992, and Fabien Barthez with France in 2000.
Every team that has won the UEFA Champions League also has at least one EURO winner. However, European Cup-era winners Celtic, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Steaua Bucureşti and Crvena zvezda have none.