Footballers aren’t in for the money. No, no – they’re all there to taste the glory of winning, the joy of lifting shiny trophies at the end of a season of toil and trauma. But some outstanding players never tasted the tang of Champions League Trophy, and here are some of them:
1. Ronaldo
image: YouTube
Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima or commonly known as Ronaldo or O Fenômeno (“The Phenomenon”). He is widely considered to be one of the greatest football players of all time. Ronaldo won the FIFA World Player of the Year three times, in 1996, 1997 and 2002, and the Ballon d’Or twice, in 1997 and 2002, as well as the UEFA Club Footballer of the Year in 1998.
He was La Liga Best Foreign Player in 1997 when he also won the European Golden Boot after scoring 34 goals in La Liga, and he was named Serie A Footballer of the Year in 1998. One of the most marketable sportsmen in the world, the first Nike Mercurial boots–R9–were commissioned for Ronaldo in 1998. He was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the greatest living players compiled in 2004 by Pelé, and was inducted into the Brazilian Football Museum Hall of Fame and the Italian Football Hall of Fame.
Unlike his namesake Cristiano, who has four winner’s medals already, but Brazilian Ronaldo never won the Champions League despite playing for some of the most illustrious clubs in Europe. PSV, Inter, Barcelona, Madrid, and Milan are among the forward’s former teams, but the man who was named the best player in the world in 1997 and 2002 was never able to scoop European club football’s top prize.
2. Fabio Cannavaro
image: Goal.com
Cannavaro is considered to be one of the greatest defenders of all time. He spent the majority of his career in Italy. He started his career at Napoli before spending seven years at Parma, with whom he won two Coppa Italia titles, the 1999 Supercoppa Italiana, and the 1999 UEFA Cup. After spells at Internazionale and Juventus, he transferred (along with manager Fabio Capello) from Juventus to Real Madrid in 2006, with whom he won consecutive La Liga titles in 2007 and 2008. After returning to Juventus for one season in 2009–10, he joined Al-Ahli in Dubai, where he retired from football in 2011 after an injury-troubled season.
One of Italy’s all-time greats, Cannavaro and his haul of 138 international caps is second only to another name on this list, and he also won the Ballon d’Or in 2006. Yet despite playing for Parma during the peak of their European powers in the late 1990s, as well as Inter, Juventus and Real Madrid subsequently, a Champions League medal is missing from the World Cup winner’s collection.
3. Cesc Fabregas
image: Brila
With almost 40 honors that he achieved, not helping him to win a single Champions League title. Fabregas has made over 100 appearances in the competition, but the Spaniard was a runner-up with Arsenal in 2006, before earning his dream move back to boyhood club Barcelona five years later – just after they had won their fourth Champions League in its current format. He left for Stamford Bridge in 2014, the summer before the Catalans’ fifth and most recent success. Cesc would not have been amused.
4. Hernan Crespo
image: These Football Times
A prolific striker, he has scored over 300 goals in a career spanning 19 years. At the international level, Crespo scored 35 goals and is Argentina’s third highest goalscorer behind only Gabriel Batistuta and Lionel Messi. He played in three FIFA World Cups: 1998, 2002, 2006. At club level, Crespo was the world’s most expensive player, when he was bought by Lazio from Parma in 2000 for €56 million (£35.5 million). He was top scorer in the 2000–01 Serie A with 26 goals, playing for Lazio.
Part of the same Parma team as Cannavaro, the Argentine played for some of Europe’s best clubs and even scored two goals in a Champions League final. Unfortunately for Crespo that brace came in 2005 when Liverpool famously came back from 3-0 down to beat Milan on penalties. The luckless striker later left Inter a year before they claimed the trophy under Jose Mourinho.
5. Pavel Nedved
image: Pandit Football
Winning the Ballon d’Or as European Footballer of the Year in 2003, Nedved was the second Czech player to receive the honor and the first since the breakup of Czechoslovakia. During his career, Nedved received some other individual awards, including the second Golden Foot award in 2004, Czech Footballer of the Year (four times) and the Golden Ball (six times).
He was also named by Pelé as one of the FIFA 100 and was placed in the UEFA Team of the Year in 2003, 2004, and 2005. He retired following the 2008–09 season, after a 19-year professional career. Nedved played 501 league matches at club level (scoring 110 goals) and was capped 91 times for the Czech Republic (scoring 18 times).
With all those achievements, Nedved couldn’t help his club to win the Champions League. Nedved, like Crespo, was part of a team that reached the Champions League final – but Juventus were edged out by Milan in 2003. The Czech played no role in the dour Old Trafford showpiece, though, as suspension prevented him from playing. That was the closest he ever came to winning the tournament.
6. Lilian Thuram
image: Goal.com
Thuram was an incredibly dominant, consistent, athletic and attentive footballer, who was considered by pundits to be one of the best defenders in the world in his prime.
Just like Nedved, Thuram was also a runner-up in 2003, although the Frenchman did actually play for Juve in that game. The right-back did his job, keeping Milan at bay for 120 minutes in a 0-0 draw, but misses from David Trezeguet, Marcelo Zalayeta and Paolo Montero in the shootout led to the Old Lady losing on penalties. Thuram was also a member of the Parma as mentioned earlier team that lifted the UEFA Cup in 1999, while he later joined Barcelona just after they won the Champions League in 2006.
7. Michael Ballack
image: leballonrond.fr
Ballack is among the top goal scorers in the history of the German national team. He was selected by Pelé as one of FIFA’s 125 Greatest Living Players, and as the UEFA Club Midfielder of the Year in 2002. He won the German Footballer of the Year award three times – in 2002, 2003 and 2005.
Finishing runner-up with one team is bad enough, but to do it with two must be galling. That’s the fate that befell Ballack: first in 2002 with Bayer Leverkusen, then six years later with Chelsea. The midfielder was on the wrong side of one of the competition’s most significant ever goals in his first final defeat, as Zinedine Zidane converted with a magnificent volley. In 2008 he was forced to watch on as John Terry and Nicolas Anelka’s missed spot-kicks handed the trophy to Manchester United. The German at least scored his own penalty that night (because obviously).
8. Patrick Vieira
image: sky sports
Considered one of the best players of his generation, Vieira began his career at Cannes in 1994, where several standout performances in his debut season garnered him a move to Serie A club Milan a year later.
Vieira is another midfielder who played plenty of times in the Champions League – 76 in total – for three different clubs in Arsenal, Juventus, and Inter. The former France international was a near man, though, leaving the Gunners 12 months before they reached 2006 final and then departing the January before Inter won it in 2010. He wasn’t eligible for a medal.
9. Ruud Van Nistelrooy
image: The Telegraph
A former striker, he is the fourth-highest goalscorer in UEFA Champions League history with 56 goals. He is a three-time Champions League top scorer, as well as a top scorer in three different European domestic leagues.
With that 56 Champions League goals to his name, Van Nistelrooy is the highest-scoring player never to have won the tournament. The striker joined Manchester United two years after their historic 1999 treble and left two years before their next European win. He also failed to achieve any continental glory during his four years with Real Madrid. To make matters worse, the Dutchman has been the top scorer in the tournament on three different occasions, while his return of 56 strikes in 73 appearances gives him a better goals-per-game rate than Cristiano Ronaldo. Where’s the justice?
10. Zlatan Ibrahimovic
image: Sportsnet
Primarily a striker, he is a prolific goalscorer, who is best known for his technique, creativity, strength, ability in the air, and his powerful and accurate striking ability. He is currently the third-most decorated active footballer in the world, having won 32 trophies in his career, but no Champions League title.
Ibrahimović is one of ten players to have made 100 or more appearances for the Swedish national team, over a 15-year international career. He is the country’s all-time leading goalscorer with 62 goals. He represented Sweden at the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups, as well as 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 UEFA European Championships. He has been awarded Guldbollen (the Golden Ball), given to the Swedish player of the year, a record 11 times, including 10 consecutive times from 2007 to 2016.
The ex-Manchester United striker holds the unwanted record of making the most Champions League appearances (120) without ever lifting the trophy. Now 36 and playing for LA Galaxy in Major League Soccer, we’re going to go out on a limb and say he’s played his last game in Europe’s elite club competition. Ibrahimovic, then, is another near man: he left Inter a year before they won it in 2010, before doing exactly the same thing at Barcelona the following summer. He also represented Ajax, Juventus, Milan, PSG and Manchester United to no avail.