Greatest football teams of all-time

The best of the best

The greatest teams in football comprise both clubs and countries. Normally, for obvious reasons, they are rated separately. We have FIFA ranks for nations and UEFA or equivalent ones for clubs.

Having said that, the game is still the same. With that in mind, can there be a way to create a unified list of the greatest teams of all-time?

Methodology

There is of course no objective way to compare clubs with nations. Therefore, some criteria must be developed.

As readers of this publication will know, greatness is a multi-dimensional construct. While tangible achievements matter, the intangible also has, or is supposed to have, a say, into any holistic evaluation.

Criteria

I’ve devised 2-step criteria:

• Influence: refers to the game-changing paradigms that a team presented to football; a measure of how much they changed the game.
• Trophies: is a count of major trophies. This includes World Cup, European Championship, Copa America, European Cup, UEFA Cup, UCL and UEL. Other trophies are not counted (no “Super Cups” etc.).

Calculation

Influence scores are ranked.

For trophies, a weighted score is assigned (and ranked). This is because World Cup happens every 4 years and is that hardest and biggest prize in football overall. Confederation championships happen 2 or 4 years while club competitions are yearly.

We need to “adjust” for timing and difficulty. World Cup has high weight, European Cup — medium, and others have unitary weight.

A composite score is then used to prepare the list.

Pool

The selection pool comprises teams who have won the most trophies and/or have advanced football thought the most.

Brazil, Germany, Italy and Real Madrid make obvious candidates for the former. The 6 teams that changed football: Netherlands, Hungary, AC Milan, Inter, Ajax and Barcelona, are candidates for the latter. From these, since Hungary has no international trophy, it can be removed. Also Ajax/Netherlands are a double-up for totaalvoetbal, so they can also be trimmed to give a representative selection pool.

Ranking

8. INTER

Grande Inter in the 60s revolutionized football with Helenio Herrera’s catenaccio. The influence of this system would last for decades, especially in Italian football, where club and country alike would become synonymous with defensive master-classes.

Counter-attacking football represents the polar opposite of possession-based football. By representing a diametric “pole” of football, and winning with that philosophy, Inter start off our ranking.

7. GERMANY

The ranking recognizes teams with most trophies and influence. The Germans place here on the strength of their 4 World Cups and 3 European Championship victories. Germany has a rather unique reputation that each of their 4 World Cup wins has come against a team whose talisman was at the time the world’s best player (Puskas, Cruyff, Maradona, Messi).

6. ITALY

The Azzurri have a distinguished themselves with 4 World Cups and 2 European Championship victories, and though double-World Cup winning manager Vittorio Pozzo’s innovative metodo have also contributed with an important tactical advancement.

5. NETHERLANDS

The best team to never win the World Cup is next in ranking. With just a European Championship triumph to its name, its inclusion is powered primarily by totaalvoetbal developed by their Ajax Amsterdam core, and presented to universal amazement in 1974.

4. REAL MADRID

Real Madrid, FIFA Centennial Order of Merit holders, are club royalty. Their 14 European Cup / UCL titles will never be matched. It might be a minor miracle for any club to cross even half of that mark.

Real Madrid FC are synonymous with trophies. Acing that criterion catapults them in the top-half of this list.

3. BARCELONA

Barcelona place adjacent to their rivals. Despite a lower trophy count, Barcelona gave the world the mesmerizing system of tiki-taka, which became synonymous with beautiful football. Built by a progressive refinement of Cruyff and later Guardiola’s ideas (and ideals), tiki-taka represents a zenith of footballing aesthetics and excellence. They also do reasonably well on trophy count, with 9.

2. AC MILAN

Just pipping Barcelona are Sacchi’s imperious AC Milan side that showcased a perfect footballing “system” that combined astounding results with breathtaking quality. In addition to that, Milan in the 1960s had found their maiden European success using Nereo Rocco’s version of catenaccio. Trophies, influence and paradigms, AC Milan have a hand in it all.

1. BRAZIL

With 5 World Cups and 9 Copa America, Brazil make this list on the strength (and weight) of their trophies.

Brazil is synonymous with football. The “second-favourite” team for everyone (except Brazilians, and maybe Argentines?), A Selecao have a captivating magic, courtesy of legends like Pele, Jairzinho, Zico et.al.

While the team has tapered off in this century, their past exploits have garnered enough credit to make them even today the greatest football team of all-time. Indeed, a World Soccer poll, conducted across club and country, also reached the same conclusion.

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