Best Champions League XI Team Of All Time

The Cham­pi­ons League is the lat­est incar­na­tion of the UEFA-organised cup com­pe­ti­tion for the top Euro­pean sides. It was pre­vi­ously known (from 1955 to 1992) as the Euro­pean Cup and remains Europe‘s most pres­ti­gious club tournament.

THE TOP XI

GOALKEEPER

Oliver Kahn
Ger­man ‘keeper Oliver Kahn earns his place in the top XI cour­tesy of his for­mi­da­ble shot-stopping abil­ity. A record sign­ing for Bay­ern Munich in 1994, he helped his side to the 1999 final, where they were denied by 2 injury-time goals from Man­ches­ter United. How­ever, Cham­pi­ons League glory was only delayed, with Kahn being named “Man of the Match” in Bayern‘s 2001 Cham­pi­ons League suc­cess over Valen­cia, where he made cru­cial saves in the penalty shootout.
DEFENDERS

Mar­cel Desailly
Of Ghana­ian descent, but a nat­u­ralised French­man, ver­sa­tile defender Desailly joined Olympique Mar­seille in 1992, and was influ­en­tial in their suc­cess in the inau­gural Cham­pi­ons League tour­na­ment in 1993. He was a mem­ber of the win­ning side again in 1994, with AC Milan, becom­ing the first player to win con­sec­u­tive Cham­pi­ons League titles with dif­fer­ent sides.

Fer­nando Hierro
Hierro, another ver­sa­tile per­former, won 3 Cham­pi­ons League titles with Real Madrid in 1998, 2000 and 2002. A com­bi­na­tion of solid defen­sive per­for­mances, pre­cise pass­ing and goalscor­ing abil­ity make him well wor­thy of inclusion.

Paolo Mal­dini
Ital­ian left-back Mal­dini is widely viewed as one of the great­est defend­ers of all time. He is renowned for his elec­tri­fy­ing pace, pre­ci­sion tack­ling and lead­er­ship qual­i­ties. He has lifted the tro­phy five times, the lat­est com­ing in AC Milan‘s 2–1 vic­tory over Liv­er­pool in the 2007 Athens final.

Ricardo Car­valho

Por­tuguese centre-back Car­valho, now with Chelsea, is renowned for his strength, dura­bil­ity and an excep­tional abil­ity to win the ball in the air. He came to promi­nence in 2003-04, with his excep­tional per­for­mances con­tribut­ing to FC Porto‘s Cham­pi­ons League suc­cess. He was voted the best Cham­pi­ons League defender for that season.

MIDFIELDERS

Steven Ger­rard
Steven Ger­rard is a right-sided mid­fielder who has skip­pered Liv­er­pool since 2003 and has become one of the first names on the Eng­land team sheet in recent sea­sons. Return­ing from injury, he scored what he con­sid­ers his most impor­tant goal in a 2005 group match against Olympiakos, secur­ing the Reds‘ pro­gres­sion to the knock­out phase. He was also on tar­get in the final against AC Milan (in which he was named “Man of the Match”) as Liv­er­pool recov­ered for a win on penal­ties, hav­ing trailed 3–0 at half-time.

Zine­dine Zidane
An attack­ing mid­fielder, Zidane was a los­ing final­ist with Juven­tus in 1997 and 1998. How­ever hav­ing joined Real Madrid in 2001, he scored the win­ning goal in the 2002 final, in a 2–1 vic­tory over Bayer Lev­erkusen. With great cre­ativ­ity and excep­tion­ally skil­ful, Zidane was voted FIFA “Player of the Year” on 3 occasions.

David Beck­ham
Cen­tral mid­fielder Beck­ham made his first-team debut for Man­ches­ter United in 1992. His cre­ativ­ity on the ball and pre­cise cross­ing was influ­en­tial in United‘s 6 Pre­mier­ship title suc­cesses and a Cham­pi­ons League vic­tory in 1999. United trailed 1–0 against Bay­ern Munich in the 1999 final, but scored twice in injury-time, both goals com­ing from Beck­ham cor­ners. He was runner-up in both the Euro­pean “Foot­baller of the Year” and FIFA “World Player of the Year” in that season.

Deco
Ander­son Luis de Souza, com­monly known as Deco was born in Brazil, but is nat­u­ralised Por­tuguese. He led FC Porto to the 2004 Cham­pi­ons League final, scor­ing the 2nd goal in a 3–0 suc­cess over Monaco, being named “Man of the Match.” He was also voted UEFA “Most Valu­able Player” and “Best Mid­fielder” in the 2004 tour­na­ment. Deco tasted suc­cess again, with Barcelona in 2006.
STRIKERS

Samuel Eto‘o
Cameroon inter­na­tional striker Eto‘o has been a prodi­gious goalscorer for Barcelona, with 105 goals from 139 appear­ances. He con­tributed 6 suc­cess­ful strikes in Barca‘s 2006 Cham­pi­ons League cam­paign, includ­ing the equaliser in the final. Barcelona went on to beat Arse­nal 2–1 and Eto‘o was awarded with the UEFA “Best For­ward of the Year” award for his accomplishments.

Raul Gon­za­lez
All-time lead­ing goalscorer (64 goals) and 3-times Cham­pi­ons League win­ner with Real Madrid, sec­ond striker Raul is a must for inclu­sion in the start­ing XI.
SUBSTITUTES

Peter Schme­ichel
Voted “World‘s Best Goal­keeper” in 1992 and 1993, Schme­ichel skip­pered Man­ches­ter United to Cham­pi­ons League suc­cess in 1999.

Rio Fer­di­nand
Fer­di­nand, who skip­pered Man­ches­ter United to Cham­pi­ons League suc­cess in 2008, is a com­posed centre-back, offer­ing great phys­i­cal presence.

Jur­gen Kohler
For­mer Ger­man inter­na­tional defender Kohler tasted Cham­pi­ons League suc­cess with Borus­sia Dort­mund in 1997. Famed for his defen­sive per­cep­tion, phys­i­cal strength and prowess in the air, he rates a place in the squad.

Ryan Giggs
For­mer Welsh inter­na­tional Giggs made his 800th appear­ance for Man­ches­ter United in April 2009. At his peak, he was a left winger with dev­as­tat­ing pace and well worth his place in the 18.

Ste­fan Effen­berg
Con­tro­ver­sial, for­mer Ger­man inter­na­tional mid­fielder Ste­fan Effen­berg led Bay­ern Munich to 2001 Cham­pi­ons League suc­cess. A par­tic­u­larly ele­gant player, with pre­cise pass­ing abil­ity and a fierce shot he was the guid­ing light to Bayern‘s success.

Fer­nando Mori­entes
A 3-times Cham­pi­ons League win­ner with Real Madrid, for­mer Span­ish inter­na­tional striker Mori­entes pos­sesses excel­lent aer­ial abil­ity and has a good goalscor­ing strike rate.

Alessan­dro Del Piero
Juven­tus‘ sec­ond striker Del Piero is a cre­ative, attack­ing player renowned for his free kick and penalty tak­ing. Influ­en­tial in Juven­tus‘ 1996 suc­cess and top Cham­pi­ons League goalscorer in reach­ing the 1997 final, Del Piero just misses out to Raul in the start­ing line-up.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE BETTING TIPS
In weigh­ing up Cham­pi­ons League odds, the advice to pun­ters is to focus on the teams, and, in par­tic­u­lar, nations, that have been most suc­cess­ful in the Cham­pi­ons League since the inau­gural tour­na­ment of 1992–93. Although Italy had no teams pro­gress­ing fur­ther than the quarter-final stage in 2008-09, Ital­ian clubs have con­tested 9 of the 16 finals played, with 3 wins for AC Milan and 1 for Juven­tus. Spain have 4 wins (3 for Real Madrid and 1 for Barcelona) and Ger­many 2 (Borus­sia Dort­mund in 1997 and Bay­ern Munich in 2001). Eng­lish clubs have been resur­gent in recent sea­sons, with wins for Man­ches­ter United in 1999, Liv­er­pool in 2005 and the first all-English final, in which United beat Chelsea on penal­ties, in 2008.