Players who won Champions League, Ballon d’Or, and World Cup

Only nine players in the history of football have won the biggest team trophies – the World Cup and the Champions League, as well as the biggest individual one –the Ballon d’Or for the best footballer of the year.

The Brazilian Ronaldo has never won the Champions League, and neither have legends such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Francesco Totti, Gabriel Batistuta, or Gianluigi Buffon… so who are the players who have won all three major football awards?

Namely, only nine players in history have won the World Cup, the Champions League, and the Ballon d’Or, which is the highest individual award. All the names on the list are legendary – Bobby Charlton, Gerd Muller, Franz Beckenbauer, Paolo Rossi, Zinedine Zidane, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka, and the latest, Lionel Messi.

SIR Bobby

The world title that Sir Bobby Charlton won with England in 1966 paved the way for him to win the award for the best player in the world that same year.

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At the World Cup, Charlton was the top scorer in the group against Mexico and scored two goals against Portugal in the semi-finals. He led Albion to the final, where Germany fell at Wembley. Two years later, Charlton conquered Europe with Manchester United, and that after scoring twice in Benfica’s net in the final.

Gerd Muller

Gerd Müller was part of the most famous generations of Bayern Munich and the German national team; he is one of the best strikers in the history of this sport. Next to his name, it is written that he was European champion three times with the Bavarians (1974, 1975, and 1976), as well as the title of world champion with the national team (1974). The popular Bomber won the Ballon d’Or in 1970, ahead of Bobby Moore and Gigi Riva.

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Franz Beckenbauer

Beckenbauer, one of the best defenders ever, won the Champions Cup three times with Bayern Munich and conquered the world with the German national team in 1974. He won the Golden Ball twice (’72, ’76).

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Paolo Rossi

The national team made him famous, Italy will never forget him because of the world crown he brought to it in 1982 in Spain. Paolo Rossi scored a hat-trick against Brazil in the quarter-finals and justified coach Enco Bearzot’s trust then scored twice in the duel with Poland and scored once against the Germans in the final. Due to a betting scandal, he missed Euro 1980, but that didn’t stop him from winning the World Cup and Ballon d’Or two years later. In 1985, he also conquered Europe in the club competition and became champion with Juventus after the final against Liverpool, which is remembered for the fan tragedy at Heysel.

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Zinedine Zidane

The French master shone at the World Cup in 1998 – Zidane was the hero of France in the final over Brazil and scored twice in the 3:0 victory. In the same year, he also won the Golden Ball, when there was no dilemma in the competition between Davor Suker and Ronaldo.

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Three years later he strengthened Real Madrid, and in 2002 he became the author of one of the most famous goals in the UCL finals – for the victory against Bayer Leverkusen in Glasgow.

Brazilian magic

A Brazilian trio with completely different personalities. Rivaldo won the Ballon d’Or in 1999, and he had to wait until the 21^st century for the two biggest team trophies in football. First, in 2002 in South Korea, he became the world champion with Brazil, and a year later he also celebrated in the Champions League in the Milan jersey.

Ronaldinho was also part of the “carioca” when they won the World Cup title, but in 2003, in the Barcelona jersey, where he arrived from Paris Saint-Germain, he became the best soccer player on the planet.

It was in 2005 when he won the Ballon d’Or. A year later, the Champions League title arrived with “Blaugrana”.

Another member of the champion generation of 2002 marked a period of football history. Milan then took revenge on Liverpool in Athens in 2007 for the defeat in the final of the Champions League in Istanbul, so Kaka was awarded the Ballon d’Or that year in December, which was later won by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo repeatedly, until 2018, when the streak was stopped by Luka Modric…

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Lionel Messi

LIONEL MESSI fulfilled his biggest dream, and Argentina won the world championship title after a penalty shootout against France in a crazy game. At his last WC, he won the title of world champion. The great Argentine played a wonderful tournament and deservedly led Argentina to the end. In his career, Messi has won everything, and more than once. Leo won everything he played. Apart from the world championship title, until this year. Messi won 36 trophies at the club level, and with the national team, he won World Cup in Qatar, the Olympic gold in 2008, and last year’s Copa America. He is also the player with the most Ballon d’Or awards – 7. Now all debates about the GOAT must be over because Messi, after a series of broken records and winning individual and team awards, also took the most important trophy in the world of football.

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