Here are the most famous football clubs in history. Which do you think among them is the best team in the sport?
Juventus FC
As one of the oldest football clubs there ever was, they became one of the most compelling symbols of Italy due to their tradition of success, some of which have had a significant impact on Italian society, especially in the 1930s and the first post-war decade. This is a determiner that their players are true warriors in a sporty sense. According to the all-time ranking published in 2009 by International Federation of Football History and Statistics, Juventus is Italy’s best club and second in Europe of the 20th century.
FC Bayern
Aside from its famous football team, the club has other departments for other games that include chess, basketball, gymnastics, bowling and table tennis. This club is so vast that it has over 270,000 members. This doesn’t diminish their playing capabilities however because Bayern is historically the most successful team in German football. The club is one of the only four clubs to have won all three major European competitions and also the last club to have won the European Cup three times in a row, entitling them to wear a multiple-winner badge during Champions League matches.
Liverpool FC
Founded at a time of dispute between the club president and of the landowner of their current game field, Liverpool FC as a popular sports club was one racked by popularity and tragedy. The most notable of which was the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, where 96 of the audience died as they were crushed by a perimeter fencing. This slowed down the club a bit, but it didn’t stop them from garnering further success. They have earned more top-flight wins and points than any other English team, and attained the highest average league finishing position for the past 50 years.
SL Benfica B
The club has an array of awards and recognitions that make it worthy to be among the list of the best. It is by far, the most successful Portuguese football club in terms of both domestic and overall titles including the Latin Cup, and is the only one to have won all national competitions. They also hold the European record for the most consecutive wins in domestic league. In addition, Benfica is ranked sixth in the current UEFA club coefficient rankings– the best position that a Portuguese club has ever attained. In terms of participation in the European Cup, they rank 2nd next to Real Madrid.
AFC Ajax
“Sons of the Gods” – that is the nickname that they were given, which they have proven so efficiently in a span of many decades. Like any other sports teams, Ajax also went through intense rivalries which forged their strength even more. Their match-ups against PSV and Feyenoord are the most prominent of all. As the most successful in the Netherlands, the club is one of the five teams that have earned the right to keep the European Cup, giving them the authority to wear a multiple-winner badge – a paraphernalia that only the best football players can ever get to wear.
Now, about some of the best players of the game. Who among these kickers and stompers is the greatest football player of all?
Souleymane Mamam
The intense game of football is known as a game for full-grown men, but such a notion didn’t stop this fella from breaking that stereotyping. Just 2 months short of his 14th birthday, this wee lad is recorded as the youngest football player ever to play internationally.
He debuted during the Togo’s World Cup qualifier match against Zambia in 2001. Although some sources claim that he was actually 16 when he made his worldwide breakthrough, Mamam remains an outstanding record holder in the perspective of the all-knowing FIFA institution.
Lev Yashin
If you are assigned as a “keeper” for your team, you belong to the underappreciated lane by default. But if you get to know Mr. Yashin, you might think again because he is one of the few who eventually proved that being a keeper can be the most important player on the field. Dubbed as the “Black Spider” because of his fondness for black outfits, he helped revolutionize the position in the sense that he was one of the first players to command the entire 18-yard perimeter.
This Moscow native became a global star for his fascinating reflexes and is believed to have saved more than 150 penalty kicks in a career that spanned for 22 years. For this achievement, he was awarded as European Player in 1963, and was the only player to win such a title.
Zinedine Zidane
Great expense often stem from high expectations. In the case of Mr. Zidane, he was in fact transferred from Juventus to Real Madrid for 46 million euros, which makes him the object of the most expensive football transfer fee ever spent. So was he worth every price of the penny? He was.
He led Real Madrid to their 9th UEFA Champions League crown in 2002 and the La Liga title in 2013. Zidane might be remembered most for his infamous head-butt on Italian Marco Materazzi, but he deserves to be more recognized as one of the best football players, notwithstanding the fact that he is one of the most expensive.
Jaime Moreno
A master of the checkered ball with his visage, passing methods, and pace-changes, he is the lone guy that you can’t afford to give any ample room. A 3-time Best XI selection, he reached a record of 112 goals which led his team DC United into the 2008 season with an all-tops record.
After recovering from a back injury that nearly put his career to an end, Moreno played a major influence behind his team’s first 3 championships, and rediscovered his best stance, leading DC United to their fourth title in 2004. His 112-goal remains unparalleled as the greatest number ever recorded in the history of the football league.
David Beckham
Any sports league need to have a “face personality,” and if boxing has Muhammad Ali, baseball has Babe Ruth and basketball has Michael Jordan, David Beckham is definitely the one for football. He is the first English player to win league titles in four countries: England, Spain, the United States, and France. He was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 200 which makes him more than worthy to be a global ambassador for the sport and for being declared as a British cultural icon.
Being excellent in his craft has consistently ranked him among the highest earners in football, and in 2013 he was listed as the highest-paid player in the world. In that same year, he announced his retirement after a 20-year career in which he won 19 trophies along with plenty of other recognitions.
