I have seen so many silly top 10s on the Internet regarding this topic, including one made with AI, and some of them are absolutely ridiculous, putting even PSG or City over teams like Milan and Inter for example.
There are nine clubs that are sacred for the sport and should not ever be left out of any historic top 10, regardless of the order in which you put them and those are Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, AC Milan, Manchester United, Juventus, Inter Milan and Ajax. And no other team in Europe(and frankly, the world), is bigger than any of them.
After those 9, put whatever club you want, put a Portuguese one, or Arsenal, or Chelsea, or whatever. But those 9 are non negotiable and leaving them out honestly makes any top 10 look either ignorant or made by a really young person.
Edit: And I mean big as in overall trophies, status, prestige, players, ballon d ors, history, fans, etc. Not just followers on social media and revenue.
I know bro was putting them clubs in his own order from best to worst even though he said “regardless of the order” 💀🙏🏽
No lies detected
Are you sure those lists that include PSG and Man City are supposed to be “the historic top 10”?
Accrington Stanley need to be added.
i think you forgot Glasgow Rangers if you are talking trophies, fans support, history, etc.
Glasgow celtic
Benfica bigger than all these small clubs
Why man united?
Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Manchester United, AC Milan and Juventus are all locked in that’s obvious which leaves spots for two more.
I’d certainly say Ajax should be in the Top 9 given their three-peat in the Champions League. Inter Milan are certainly smaller than AC Milan and Juventus but they’re still comfortably the 3rd biggest team in Italy. Benfica and Porto are also a very good shouts given both clubs have won the European Cup twice along with massive success domestically in Portugal
Arsenal are a big club but no history in Europe unlike every other club mentioned combined with no little success in nearly two decades makes it very difficult to justify their inclusion in a Top 9 list. Same goes for Atletico Madrid as well. Dortmund have European silverware and as much as I personally like them as a football club, I don’t exactly consider them European royalty compared to the other teams either
Man City, Chelsea, PSG etc weren’t considered relevant until very recently and shouldn’t even be considered on this list
Also the list should start:
Real, AC, Liverpool
After that the order is trickier but it’s with Barca, Bayern, Man U and Ajax.
Then Benfica, Juve, Inter
For the most part I agree. I am wondering how everyone else is deciding who’d make the list, it seems purely on champions league/European cup wins. If that’s the case this is the top 9 of a 22 team list. Also considering, relatively recent, charges of match fixing et al, do these go against the clubs’ ranking at all or is their history big enough to negate it
I don’t care about this sort of list but what’s funny is that the newer batch of the “red” club fans who think bandwagoning these historic clubs give them a moral superiority over those who chose “blue” clubs for whatever reason. At the end of the day they’re just fellow glory hunters who do not even live in the same continent as the clubs they’re supporting. Ironic.
Arsenal fall into a weird spot where they are ahead of clubs like Chelsea, Forest, City in terms of long term domestic history and domestic cultural relevance, but simply fall short on the European stage behind clubs like Inter and Benfica who many in the UK would see as less relevant, let alone City and Chelsea.
Arsenal are tied to a revolution in the professional game through Wenger in England, and I think even one, or two CL victories would immediately plant them amongst those European giants.
As it is, they just fall short
I only disagree when you say “and frankly in the world”. If you are gonna put global football in this, South America must be in the talk, with the likes of Boca Juniors, Flamengo and 3x world club champion São Paulo (beating Barcelona, Milan and Liverpool on your list).
This is the internet so I disagree even though you’re right!
On a more serious note, I believe Benfica should be the 10th team on the list.