When we look back over football history, or indeed our own history with the game, it’s never truly the realities of matches or seasons that we remember. It’s the individual moments. The last-minute winners. The touches of transcendent quality. The shock incidents.

They energise us, excite us and – of course – move us. In truth, such moments are what we follow football for. As Nick Hornby writes in Fever Pitch, real life doesn’t usually provide last-minute winners.

Clearly, some moments are more important than others in the context of a match or season. Some mean more in the long-term. Some are more spectacular. Some more surprising. Some more symbolic. And then some are just unique.
So, in attempting to determine the greatest and most historic moments in football history, we looked to distil these qualities.

First of all, it must be said, we tried to give a global a spread as possible, to genuinely cover all of football history as opposed to just those in the western world or traditional power bases. However, since importance and effect on history was such a big consideration, it is only natural that many of the moments will come from the highest stages.

In order to get as great a variety as possible, too, we canvassed both readers and a series of respected football writers.

As regards defining a moment, also, we attempted to pin as many back to as pure and isolated an incident as possible. The ultimate example is probably a penalty kick. However, since some performances – or indeed six-minute periods – are hard to break up or differentiate, a few conformed to a more liberal interpretation of the word “moment”.

So, from a list of over 400 moments, then, we tried to sort them by applying the following general – and, it should be admitted, somewhat subjective – formula.

Initially, all of the moments were ranked out of five in each of the following five categories:

Importance – how significant the moment was in either the match or competition it took place in. For example, a winning goal or equaliser to play a key part in directing the destination of a trophy would score highly here. Michael Thomas’s goal against Liverpool in May 1989 is a particular example in this case.

Effect on history – this is similar to importance but in a much broader sense. For example, if a goal or win leads to a period of dominance for either a specific team or a new tactical philosophy, then it will score high. In that sense, Hungary’s win over England in 1953 would do well here.

Quality – this is in order to properly acknowledge the kind of benchmark and pioneering moments. For example, Marco Van Basten’s volley against USSR, Pele’s dummy against Uruguay or Barcelona’s 5-0 win over Real Madrid in 2010.

Nature – this is something of a catch-all title in that it attempts to evaluate the unique or spectacular nature of moments. For example, a particularly unlikely comeback or shock announcement or result would score highly here. Likewise something like Don Revie’s televised face-off with Brian Clough in 1974.

Symbolism – a slightly more esoteric category but one that attempts to evaluate how much a moment seemed to wrap up a few key strands from history. And sometimes, in effect, closed off a period of history. For example, Munich survivor Bobby Charlton’s goals in the 1968 European Cup final to win the title 10 years after the tragedy would score highly here. Likewise moments that seemed to encapsulate the essence or key qualities of a particularly important player, team, manager or competition.

We readily admit that such an approach is far from perfect. But it does just attempt to provide a starting point. As this website hopefully grows we hope to refine and improve such lists. So, if you don’t agree or just have a suggestion, make sure to email us at footballpantheon[at]gmail[dot]com or leave a comment below. We look forward to hearing from you and hope you enjoy the list.

Contents

• Introduction
• Moments 100-91
• Moments 90-81
• Moments 80-71
• Moments 70-61
• Moments 60-51
• Moments 50-41
• Moments 40-31
• Moments 30-21
• Moments 20-11
• Moments 10-6
• Moments 5-1
• Breakdown
• The full list
• Acknowledgements

The post The 100 greatest football moments of all time appeared first on Football Pantheon.

Who is will finish on top, Diego Maradona or Pele? Our list will attempt to find out.

In a team sport, it can often seem obscene – even absurd – to reward a single player ahead of the collective.

But, equally, every match is no more than an accumulation of individual moments that is why more an more players practice. Games are secured by unlikely saves, defined by timely tackles, unlocked with visionary passes and settled by important strikes.

Some players undoubtedly perform these specific tasks with greater consistency and to a higher quality than others. So, as difficult as it is for any player to perform in isolation, some are clearly more important to glories than their teammates.

Indeed, depending on their position and style, certain players form the building-blocks of great teams, others provide the spine and an elite minority complete teams – lifting them to greater levels.

There can be no denying, for example, that Pele and Garrincha’s irreverent excellence removed a half-century of fear from Brazilian football in 1958. Or that Argentina would not have won the 1986 World Cup without Diego Maradona.

Yet the counterpoint to that, of course, is that the otherwise fixed Argentine formation was specifically designed to maximise his contribution.

It’s the eternal debate in football, really, when it comes to assessing the exact abilities of any player. We see it raging today about Cristiano Ronaldo, Leo Messi and Xavi.

Does the system make the players or do the players make the system?

The answer, naturally, depends on the individual situations but can still usually be found somewhere in between.

Certainly, some very good players were fortunate enough to play almost all of their careers in systems that perfectly suited them. Other, potentially better players were equally unfortunate to spend their best years in teams that didn’t make best use of their talents.

And, on that issue, Gabrielle Marcotti has posited an interesting question. What if Johan Cruyff’s family had moved to Aldershot rather than Amsterdam?

Would he have been as influential – or even had his natural technique so ably enhanced – had he grown up in a footballing culture that wasn’t as ripe for innovation as Holland in the ’60s?

As such, when it comes to deciding the greatest players of all time, there is always a caveat. Individuals can only ever be products of their time and place.

Even in a tournament where one player imposed his personal will like no other in history, the outcome was still hostage to fortune. In 1986, Maradona was lucky to be in his prime in the kind of exhausting conditions that favoured attacking football. It could even be said that previous failures had only sharpened his resolve and thereby enhanced his performance.

For once, the stars aligned. Almost literally, given the weather conditions.
Would Maradona have been as effective had Carlos Bilardo persisted with 4-4-2? Would the exceptional Duncan Edwards have gone on to dominate international football had he survived Munich? Would Vava have scored so many high-profile goals had he been born Bolivian instead of Brazilian?

The answer to all of these questions is open to debate. With some of the arguments possessing more persuasive evidence than others.

But then that’s also the point. In a debate like this, we can only go on the evidence we have.

And, despite so many conditions in his favour in 1986, there was still pressure on Maradona to perform. But the fact is that he did perform. Supremely.

So, in order to determine the 100 greatest players of all time, we’ve attempted the following approach. First, we tried to isolate every player’s basic ability. Secondly, and most importantly, we attempted to examine how extensively he actually applied it within the parameters of his career.

As such, application of ability is key.

Because of that, there is a natural weighting towards the top teams and competitions. After all, the biggest measure of whether a player is maximising his ability comes in his battles against the very best of his time.

A consequence of this, too, is that there’s greater concentration of post-war footballers. Because of the absence of fully-formed, top-level competitions in the first half of the 20th century, it was simply harder to determine how good players really were. The ‘bar’ for those eras, so to speak, was more difficult to define.

But this list still accounts for truly exceptional achievement in any era, environment or location. If a pre-war player was even considered the most influential of his time – for example – then his career had to be measured. If a top team bottled a big game but one player maintained his level of performance, then that quality had to be considered favourably.

And, finally, if one player drove a lesser team to Champions League qualification or a World Cup, then it had to be examined whether that feat was the equal of an international star forcing an already-competitive team over the line.

But the important question, then, is whether that player was capable of stepping up to the star’s level. Could he apply his ability on an elevated field?

The best players in history constantly did.

The purpose of this list is to, at least, create debate; at best, point that debate in a relatively informed direction. As such, it is highly unlikely any one reader will agree with a significant minority of the list – let alone a majority or all of it.

Before we invite opprobrium or rage at the placing of specific players or outright omission of others, please consider one caveat.

The so-called short-list to this entry ran to almost 500. As such many exceptional players were necessarily left out. And, in many cases, the margins were so tight that even the slightest tweak in interpretation of the formula would have caused drastic changes.

In saying all of that, however, we have attempted to be as honest as possible.

Contents

• Introduction
• How it works
• Players 100-91
• Players 90-81
• Players 80-71
• Players 70-61
• Players 60-51
• Players 50-41
• Players 40-31
• Players 30-21
• Players 20-11
• Players 10-1
• Best team of all time
• Numbers breakdown
• The players who missed out and why
• The full list

The post The 100 greatest players of all time appeared first on Football Pantheon.

Contents

• Introduction
• How it works
• Players 50-41
• Players 40-31
• Players 30-21
• Players 20-11
• Players 10-1
• Best team in the world today
• Numbers breakdown: the best represented nationalities, clubs, competitions and player positions
• The players who missed out and why
• The full list

Leo Messi and Xavi get the better of Cristiano Ronaldo: will it be the same in our list?

Welcome to the very first of what we hope is a regular feature on Football Pantheon. At the end of every season and calendar year, we’ll be attempting to sort the reality from the reputation in order to determine the world’s greatest player of the day.

Although this is something of a change for the website, given that this list is based on the present rather than the past, we feel it is in keeping with the overall style. For a start, the players who are viewed as the best in the world at any one time generally enter football’s pantheon themselves. Secondly, we’ll be attempting to sharpen that view by using methods that are objective and as relevant as possible.

On that note, there are a few caveats to this list. This isn’t merely a ranking of the most talented players of the day. There is little doubt, after all, that – for the moment – Steven Gerrard is a higher-quality midfielder than Eden Hazard. However, there is little point in having Diego Maradona’s ability if you cannot actually apply it regularly or maximise it. A player must have used his quality to a certain effect and to lift the overall performance of his team over an extended period of time.

As such, this list attempts to ascertain the extent of a player’s ability and how well he actually applied it. Application is key.

Because of that, there is a natural weighting towards the top teams and competitions. After all, the biggest measure of whether a player is maximising his talent comes in his battles against the rest of the very best players.

On a similar note, it’s less use taking your team to a certain level only to then wilt when the pressure increases. But that’s not to say the ranking excludes those from lesser regarded teams and leagues. Whatever the level, extraordinary achievement demands extraordinary recognition. And if a player was instrumental, say, in lifting a lower-tier side to the Champions League places – for example – then he must be duly recognized.

Because of the nature of this list, it is necessarily more subjective than previous entries on Football Pantheon. But we have still attempted to base it on stats as much as possible.

The post The golden laurel summer 2011: the 50 greatest players in the world appeared first on Football Pantheon.

Contents

• Introduction
• Managers 50-41
• Managers 40-31
• Managers 30-21
• Managers 20-11
• Managers 10-1
• How it works
• Numbers breakdown: the best represented countries and decades
• The managers who missed out and why
• The full list

Helenio Herrera shows where a manager makes his money

Alex Ferguson looked on, realising a big lesson was needed here. He had been sitting in the Carrington canteen, chatting away to an old friend but keeping a vigilant eye on the Manchester United youngsters lining up for lunch.

As underage forward Robbie Brady opened his mouth to order, he was suddenly cut off by someone cutting in. Cristiano Ronaldo, just in the door and having just received the 2008 Ballon D’Or, presumed the place in the queue to go with his new prize.

He presumed correctly. Brady stood off.

As the hungry lad walked off, tray in his hands a few moments later than he expected, Ferguson called the young Irishman over.

“Why did you let him in there?”
“Well, you know… it’s Ronaldo boss.”

“You’re here to try take his place son. Don’t let me see you do that again.”

It’s only a little vignette but still one that tells a whole lot about why Ferguson has won what he’s won.

Interestingly, the solitary manager in history who can claim a better record than Ferguson in continental football would have advocated a different approach. He would have nodded approvingly.

Bob Paisley, the only coach to have won three European Cups, once explained of his attitude to the up-and-coming: “The sort of lad I’m looking for here is a kid who’ll try to nutmeg Kevin Keegan in a training match, but then step aside in the corridor.”

Helenio Herrera never illustrated such an encouragement of promising youth. Possibly because he never stuck around at a club long enough to take advantage. Probably because of the fear that he might eventually be upstaged.

This, after all, was the man who attempted to suggest a degree of divinity in his own origin.

“My father was a carpenter. Like Jesus. My mother illiterate, but with extraordinary intelligence.”

Intelligence that she passed on to him… was the unsaid inference.

Also unlike Ferguson and Paisley, who for all their own differing flaws always shared a degree of modesty about their management, Herrera expounded an arrogance that would have made Jose Mourinho raise his eyebrows. If no-one else was going to say it, he was.
“I hate it when they ask about being fortunate, I don’t believe in good luck. When someone has won so much, can it be fortunate? I’ve won more than any other manager in the world. My case is unprecedented.”

And unethical? Far less frivolous stories reveal the dark side which ultimately allowed Herrera’s genius see light. The worst example was the player he effectively trained to death. At Roma in 1969, Herrera knew the forward Giuliano Taccola had a heart murmur after an extended stay in hospital.

Still, on a windswept morning in Cagliari, the authoritarian Herrera insisted Taccola prepare on a beach with the rest of the squad. The player collapsed and then died hours later.

Ernst Happel, the first manager to win two European Cups at two different clubs, at least showed a similar disregard for his own health. At Hamburg in 1986, he opened a letter from his doctor. On distractedly scanning it until he got to the word ‘cancer’, Happel crumpled up the letter and threw it away to get back to team affairs. When a concerned journalist later asked him about it, the always irritable Happel immediately interrupted.

“Ah get lost! If I’ve got cancer, well then I’ve got cancer. What the hell?”

What the hell indeed.

The point of all these anecdotes, however, is that they reveal wildly different personalities. Wildly different personalities with often wildly different approaches to winning football matches.

Because personality, essentially, is what football management is all about. Imposing it. Adapting it. And ultimately using it to persuade, provoke or push a squad of players to be better than they previously were.

In effect, it’s about using your will to get the very best from the resources you’ve been given. Individual over the collective.

There is no right or wrong way to it. Merely what works at a specific time and place. Whatever this sample few did certainly worked – and in Ferguson’s case continues to work. But, despite their different ethics and approaches to football, they all share one common claim. To be among the greatest of all time.

How, then, to separate them?

Because, basically, it’s impossible to measure Ferguson’s man-management. Likewise Herrera’s psychology; Brian Clough’s alchemy; Guus Hiddink’s organisation; Tele Santana’s aesthetics and Rinus Michels’s tactical influence. All of those abilities are unquantifiable.
In that sense, too, this list is most certainly not a measurement of the most influential coaches. After all, what good is influence if another manager comes along and adapts your innovation to beat you with it and win more football matches? (And, in any case, Football Pantheon will be finalising a list of the most influential football figures later this year.)

Because, ultimately, winning is highly quantifiable. The most elementary indicator of great management is rather easy to add up: trophies. The greatest have all racked them up and in the top-ranking competitions. This formed the first main strand of our formula.

Nevertheless, trophies barely tell the full tale. There are many examples, even from this list, of coaches who merely facilitated victories at well-placed clubs rather than fire them. Take, from someone outside our 50, the curious case of Dettmar Cramer. With two European Cups on his Bayern Munich CV, you would presume his place on the pantheon would surpass even Stein’s.

Rather, Cramer never reproduced such records, effectively proving he lived off the work of Udo Lattek and Zlatko Cajkovski at Munich. He may have secured the competition’s last three-in-a-row and become one of just nine managers to retain the competition but, as one Bayern player allegedly said of his reign, “with our squad, any fool could have”.

All of which illustrates that the most prestigious trophies are really elevators to greatness rather than indicators of it. Just as important, then, is the work that managers have done beforehand, the work that got them there. Improvement. This, however, is also quantifiable since it is also all about numbers: league positions. It’s easy to compare where a club tended to finish in the time before a manager took over and where they finished under him. With points attributed to positions, this formed the second main strand of our formula.

Ultimately, the very job description – manager – indicates that the profession is all about efficient use of resources. How best you maximise what you’re given. As such, all of the trophies and league positions were offset against the money spent, or resources available, in that given year. This formed the third main strand of our formula.

It is hoped that by combining these strands we have struck a balance between the various types of manager too. Because different cultures bring distinct definitions. Broadly, there are three:

The first is the team-builder: a mostly British phenomenon derived from the amount of power a new breed of manager wrested from club directors from the ’30s on. The most obvious are Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Don Revie and to a lesser extent Jock Stein and Valeri Lobanovskiy. In lifting clubs to lasting heights, these ‘football men’ – as they grandly became known – also shared qualities with the second type…

The overachievers. These are managers who took the earthiest of teams and temporarily lifted them to the stratosphere. By translating their talents between different teams across different times, however, the likes of Clough weren’t too far removed – either – from the Fabio Capellos.

These are the nomads who imitated the overachievers to a more acute degree. They stayed a team for no more than a few years and transformed them from mere challengers to champions. The innovative Bela Guttman was the original. Jose Mourino the latest. And, in encapsulating what made them so effective, Guttman explained “a coach is like a lion tamer. He dominates the animals, in whose cage he performs his show, as long as he deals with them with self-confidence and without fear. But the moment the first hint of fear appears in his eyes, he is lost.”

Really, not losing it is the key. The managers who stayed truly effective for the most sustained period of time in their careers – whether at a single team or several – are the highest in this list.

As ever, we don’t claim it ends any debates. Instead, we want to start them. But the very best managers have never tended to wait in line – either for their say or their fill.

The post The 50 greatest managers of all time appeared first on Football Pantheon.

Contents

• Introduction
• Teams 30-26
• Teams 25-21
• Teams 20-16
• Teams 15-11
• Teams 10-6
• Teams 5-1
• How it works
• Numbers breakdown: the best represented countries and decades
• The teams who missed out and why
• The full list

A moment of mutual respect between Pelé and Bobby Moore at Mexico 1970

It’s astonishing how close the world came to being denied perfection. Not to mention how fragile the conditions are that foster it in international football.

Three months before Mexico 1970, Brazil gave no indication they were about to produce the most sumptuous tournament performance ever seen. Indeed, they had just been beaten at home by non-qualifiers Argentina after a display that led defender Roberto Perfumo to describe them as “the poorest Brazil I have played against”.

So scared was then coach Joao Saldanha that he dramatically scaled back the team’s attacking approach and publicly admitted he might drop Pele. The actual response, however, was to sack Saldanha and instate Mario Zagallo. The rest, well, made history.

By imposing a loose system designed to let “great, intelligent players play” and “seeing where it takes us”, Zagallo facilitated a wondrous World Cup that transcended the sport itself. Individuals as uniquely talented as Carlos Alberto, Clodoaldo, Gerson, Rivelino, Jairzinho, Tostao and Pele were all integrated in an ideal formation at the very peak of their powers.

Coincidentally, it was another inspired – yet entirely improvised – movement of Zagallo that allowed Brazil the freedom to lift their next most legendary World Cup.

Indeed, it’s inconceivable to imagine now how unsure the 1958 team must have been as they approached their crucial final group game against the USSR requiring a win. Not only did they have the pressure of progression but also that from 28 barren years without the trophy they craved most. As a result, they also approached the game without any of the terror subsequent World Cup wins have placed in the opposition.

Instead, it was Brazil who were intimidated here. Caution had dictated Garrincha and Pele were dropped from the opening two games until coach Vicente Feola realised putting the responsible Zagallo on the left would balance the brilliance of the two virtuosos.

Not that Feola was completely convinced yet. Fearing USSR physicality, the coach decided the only way to victory was to frighten the Soviets with sheer ability early on.

“Remember”, he reminded Didi, “the first pass goes to Garrincha.”

Within a minute, the winger had beaten Boris Kuznetsov four times, left Yuri Voinov on the ground and smashed the post. Sixty seconds later, Pele hit the bar before Vava scored from an exquisite Didi pass. Gabriel Hanot, the inventor of the European Cup, called them the greatest three minutes ever played.

Perhaps the fact those minutes were in newsreel black-and-white rather than newly vivid Technicolor ensures the 1970 side will always remain burned on the football public’s consciousness in the way the 1958 team never can be. That’s open to argument. What isn’t is the excellence of either victory.

Yet both evidently came close to evaporating before they even happened.

Such what-if moments emphasise how elusive and arguably illusory true achievement in international football really is. The infrequency of matches and necessarily random knock-out nature of the competitions have meant that teams such as Hungary 1954 and Holland 1978 have suddenly found four years of dominance made a memory on a single off-day. Whether that is down to bottle or just very bad luck is debatable and must be compared against past results. But, clearly, the very best keep their nerve over even the chaos of cup football.

That’s exactly what Spain did in the Soccer City final as they eventually added the efficiency of their 2010 World Cup to the euphoria of Euro 2008.

Indeed, unlike clubs, very few countries have even put together such commanding runs of trophies. But are such rallies really more convincing than one absolutely perfect campaign? Should a single unconvincing tournament conquest matter more than four years unbeaten?

In order to attempt to find out, the Football Pantheon has come up with a formula that hopes to balance all factors.

Just like with our list of the 50 greatest European club sides, the key figure was dominance. Once a side’s ‘span’ was determined – depending on characteristics such as defining individuals, core of players, philosophy or simple period of time when performances were at their peak – their success in actual tournaments was weighted and measured. So, as a most basic example, three victories in three successive tournaments were 100%… and 100 points.

It is acknowledged, however, that brilliance in international football need only be brief. A team may only be unbeatable for the month of a tournament that mattered and still thereby etch their name into history. The most obvious example is Argentina 1986, who had a dismal record leading up to the tournament. Since high performance in competitions is the effective currency of international football – as also continuously illustrated by generations of German teams – our second figure was impact.

In this instance, single-tournament performance was quantified. The more perfect a tournament, the more points a team won. So, the 19 points gleaned from six wins and a draw were taken as a percentage from the 21 available for a seven-game tournament. Bonuses were also awarded for particularly stand-out achievements such as best attack, best defences or 100% records.

Since such tournaments may still have been chance aberrations, it was decided to place them into the wider context of a team’s consistency. Much like with the tournament displays themselves, total wins and draws of a team’s spans were taken as a percentage of the number of games they played.

Finally, the figures were added together.

As ever, they are from perfect. But we hope they all add up to a thought-provoking read. And, once again, any comments or suggestions that will help us refine and eventually enhance our findings are always welcome. Otherwise, enjoy our second list.

The post The 30 greatest international teams of all time appeared first on Football Pantheon.

Contents

• Introduction
• Clubs 50-41
• Clubs 40-31
• Clubs 30-21
• Clubs 20-11
• Clubs 10-1
• How it works
• Numbers breakdown: the best represented clubs, countries and decades
• The teams who missed out and why
• Analysis
• The full list

Barcelona win 2011 Champions League final

Alex Ferguson was left in no doubt. “In my time as a manager I would say yes, this is the best team I’ve faced.”

But then, on a Saturday night at Wembley in 2011, the Manchester United manager wasn’t exactly analysing the issue with the most detached viewpoint. His team had just been utterly dismantled by Barcelona. And as he gets closer to the end of his career, it was a performance that will probably leave as deep an impression as that of Real Madrid at Hampden Park near the start of it in 1960.

When watching that landmark 7-3 win over Eintracht Frankfurt now though, it is remarkable just how removed the speed and style are from modern football. In fact, they’re almost incomparable. As such, with the debate about the exact position of Pep Guardiola’s team in history gaining increased relevance, many commentators have complained it’s a futile exercise to try and compare.

And, to a degree, that’s correct. All teams can only ever be products of their own era. Tactical tricks that may have appeared revolutionary in one period may be routine in another. Certain combinations of players that ruled supreme at one stage may have well found themselves routed elsewhere. Indeed, Ferguson saw this with more immediacy than most. His fearsome midfield four of 1999 were rendered outdated by Fernando Redondo’s Real Madrid within less than a year.

As such, it is genuinely futile to try and argue whether one historic side would beat another. The rules, trends and even fitness techniques have all changed far too much.

But one thing never changes: how fully a team dominated their own era.

Since any individual side can only ever be the best in their own time, it is actually possible to compare and contrast how completely they dominated it.

For example, if a side won every competition they entered in their first season – as Barcelona did in 2008-09 – then that translates to 100% domination. Extrapolating that across a team’s ‘cycle’ – as Ferguson would put it – it is possible to put some sort of a number on whether a side was truly all-conquering. This formula formed the basis for our attempt to objectively determine the best club team of all time. How we worked it out can be seen here.

However, there are still different degrees to domination. Most obviously, some winners are more convincing than others. Some did genuinely sweep all opposition away, just like how your pointsbet first deposit bonus bought you your first gambling victory. To a certain extent, all of this is also quantifiable. For example, the manner in which Chelsea utterly asphyxiated the English league under Jose Mourinho came across in the highest points-per-game records in the history of the competition. Long before then, Real Madrid’s goal-laden Glasgow exhibition in 1960 was only the peak of an already prolific era. They enjoyed the most mesmerising goals-per-game rate in the competition, and that’s even taking into account the extremes of the time. Ajax’s Total Football, meanwhile, translates into some of the cleanest defensive records ever seen. Possession, as has been said about Barcelona a lot lately, evidently isn’t just an attacking tactic.

In order to get as complete a quantification of a team’s quality as possible, then, scaled bonus points were awarded for such feats.

It is acknowledged, however, that excellence isn’t just determined by sustained dominance but also dramatic achievements. As such, points were also awarded for special achievements such as three-in-a-rows and trebles.

Which brings us to another issue: how to separate the team’s cycles and accurately distinguish one era from the next? Where are the seams, for example, in Real Madrid’s almost unbroken period of prize-winning between 1953 and 1969?

Although it’s a little intangible, very often an iconic individual, a particular core of players or even a philosophy will be enough to define a dynasty. In some cases, it was all three.

That Real run, for example, can be split into three periods: (1) the ‘golden era’ of five European Cups brought by Alfredo Di Stefano’s transfer; (2) the period of transition as he and Ferenc Puskas played themselves out; (3) the eventual passing of the torch to the likes of Pirri and Amancio.

At Celtic between 1965 and 1975, it was all Jock Stein. At Bayern Munich of the ’70s, it was the nucleus of Franz Beckenbauer, Paul Breitner and Gerd Muller. At Benfica, the continental torch lit by Bela Gutmann was continued by Eusebio. At Ajax, all of Rinus Michels, Stefan Kovacs, Velibor Vasovic and – of course – Johan Cruyff set in motion and sustained Total Football.

Liverpool 1975-84 also spanned two managers. But, such was the organic nature in which the team evolved thanks to the Boot Room philosophy, a clean break was hard to find. That wasn’t the case at Manchester United where the abrupt breaks between Ferguson’s great sides have generally been easier to see: the summers of 1995, 1998, 2001 and 2009 being particularly noteworthy.

Perhaps the most contentious, however, is Milan of the late ’80s and early ’90s. Throughout this period, they did admittedly use many of the same players. Especially in defence. But such was the dramatic change in style from Arrigo Sacchi to Fabio Capello that it would have been disingenuous not to split them.

The only thing left then, is to split all of the great teams themselves. We hope you enjoy the list. And, keep in mind, it is one that is always evolving. This is an issue in which it is almost impossible to get an accurate answer. But any comment or suggestion that will help us refine and eventually enhance our findings are always welcome.

The post The 50 greatest European club sides appeared first on Football Pantheon.