Over 60 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The Best Euro Cup Champions Of All Time
Voting Rules
Vote up the best Championship teams in UEFA European Football Championship history.
Who is the best Euro Cup Champion of all time? Every four years, the continent of Europe comes together for the ultimate soccer showdown featuring many of the best soccer countries in the world. Since the tournament began in 1960, there have been 16 champions from all across Europe. Over the course of one month, the best football team in Europe is decided in the Euros finals. Both Germany and Spain have won the cup three times, but which individual squad was the greatest European Championship team ever?
Juggernaut Spain won the European Championship title in back-to-back tournaments in 2008 and 2012, while the technically perfect German national team always seems to be in the hunt. In 2021, Italy captured their second Euro Cup title by defeating the oft-competitive England in the final. With so much talent in European football, the tournament often features many of the greatest soccer players of all time.
Vote up the best Euro Cup teams of all time, or maybe just your favorite team to watch, and help decide who are the greatest UEFA European Championship winners of all time.
Led by the ultratalismanic midlfield duo Iniesta and Xavi, Spain's golden generation outclassed the field by a wide margin and drubbed a hapless Italy in the finals 4-0, becoming the only team ever to win back-to-back European Championships. Added to the fact, Spain sandwiched the feat with a 2010 World Cup, making the 2012 La Furia Roja squad perhaps the greatest team of all time.
STARTING XI: GK 1 Iker Casillas (c)
RB 17 Álvaro Arbeloa
CB 3 Gerard Piqué
CB 15 Sergio Ramos
LB 18 Jordi Alba
CM 8 Xavi
CM 16 Sergio Busquets
CM 14 Xabi Alonso
AM 10 Cesc Fàbregas
CF 21 David Silva
CF 6 Andrés Iniesta
Substitutions:
FW 7 Pedro
FW 9 Fernando Torres
MF 13 Juan Mata
Manager:
Vicente del Bosque
The inception of the Espana golden generation's run of dominance began in 2008, when Luis Aragonés team shocked a talent-stacked Germany lineup 1-0 in the finals. Led by Fernando Torres 33rd minute strike, Spain dominated the match and became the first team since Germany in 1996 to win the tournament undefeated.
STARTING XI:
GK 1 Iker Casillas (c)
RB 15 Sergio Ramos
CB 4 Carlos Marchena
CB 5 Carles Puyol
LB 11 Joan Capdevila
DM 19 Marcos Senna
RM 6 Andrés Iniesta
CM 8 Xavi
CM 10 Cesc Fàbregas
LM 21 David Silva
CF 9 Fernando Torres
Substitutions:
MF 14 Xabi Alonso
MF 12 Santi Cazorla
FW 17 Dani Güiza
Manager:
Luis Aragonés
In a match which was contested by the Soviet Union, playing in what would turn out to be the USSR's last European Championship, the Netherlands simply outclassed the Red Army at the Olympiastadion in Munich. Helmed by captain Ruud Gullit and striker Marco van Basten, The Flying Dutchmen were untouchable in a 2-0 drubbing of the Soviet Union.
STARTING XI:
GK 1 Hans van Breukelen
RB 6 Berry van Aerle
CB 17 Frank Rijkaard
CB 4 Ronald Koeman
LB 2 Adri van Tiggelen
RM 7 Gerald Vanenburg
CM 20 Jan Wouters
CM 8 Arnold Mühren
LM 13 Erwin Koeman
CF 10 Ruud Gullit (c)
CF 12 Marco van Basten
Manager:
Rinus Michels
A stacked 2000 France squad led by Zidane, Henry, and Deschamps willed Les Bleus to the finals, but it was the deep roster which scored France the victory when 86th minute sub Robert Pires cut the ball back from the left for 76th minute sub David Trezeguet to fire the golden goal into the roof of the net with his left foot and win the tournament for France.
STARTING XI:
GK 16 Fabien Barthez
RB 15 Lilian Thuram
CB 8 Marcel Desailly
CB 5 Laurent Blanc
LB 3 Bixente Lizarazu
CM 4 Patrick Vieira
CM 7 Didier Deschamps (c)
RW 6 Youri Djorkaeff
AM 10 Zinedine Zidane
LW 12 Thierry Henry
CF 21 Christophe Dugarry
Substitutions:
FW 13 Sylvain Wiltord
FW 20 David Trezeguet
MF 11 Robert Pires
Manager:
Roger Lemerre
Photo: user uploaded image
5
29 votes
West Germany (1972)
German football legends Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Muller dominated the Soviet Union in a 3-0 rout during the fourth iteration of the European Championship in Brussels. As the old football saying goes, "If you beat a team 5-0, they're bad. If you beat a team 3-0, you're good."
STARTING XI:
GK 1 Sepp Maier
SW 5 Franz Beckenbauer (c)
RB 2 Horst-Dieter Höttges
CB 4 Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck
LB 3 Paul Breitner
DM 6 Herbert Wimmer
CM 8 Uli Hoeneß
CM 10 Günter Netzer
RW 9 Jupp Heynckes
LW 11 Erwin Kremers
CF 13 Gerd Müller
Manager:
Helmut Schön
Photo: user uploaded image
6
19 votes
France (1984)
The match featured tournament hosts, France, who went in as favourites and arguably the best team in Europe at the time. France midfielder Michel Platini opened the scoring in the 57th minute with his ninth goal of the tournament, a low free-kick which spilled through the hands of the diving Spanish keeper Luis Arconada and over the goal line. Bruno Bellone doubled France's lead in the final minute with a left footed clip over the advancing goalkeeper to give them a 2–0 victory.
STARTING XI:
GK 1 Joël Bats
RB 5 Patrick Battiston
CB 4 Maxime Bossis
CB 15 Yvon Le Roux
LB 3 Jean-François Domergue
DM 6 Luis Fernández
CM 12 Alain Giresse
CM 14 Jean Tigana
AM 10 Michel Platini (c)
CF 17 Bernard Lacombe
CF 11 Bruno Bellone
Substitutions:
DF 2 Manuel Amoros
FW 9 Bernard Genghini
Manager:
Michel Hidalgo
