ENERGEIA

A little Soccer / Football trivia. Yes I am a soccer nerd. Here is the list that (I believe!) comprises all the players to have won the European Cup / Champions League AND the World Cup in their careers. It is European-centric because I don’t know this same data about players who have won the World Cup and the Copa Libertadores, like Pelé.

The European Cup started in 1955-56. The 1954 World Cup was won by a team of German amateurs, and the 1950 World Cup was won by Uruguayans. These players did not win a European Cup. The World Cup winners in 1958 and 1962 were from Brazil. Based on my research, the World Cup winning players from 1958 and 1962 did not win a European Cup. But in 1966 it started to change.

1966 World Cup winners: England
There were 2 players on the 1966 world cup winning side won the European Cup with Manchester United in 1968.
Nobby Stiles
Bobby Charlton

1970 World Cup Winners: Brazil
These players were still plying their trade in South America and might have helped their club teams win the Copa Libertadores, but not the European Cup yet.

1974 World Cup Winners: Germany
There were 7 players on the 1974 world cup winning side that won the European Cup / Champions League. All of these players won the European Cup in 1974, 1975, and 1976 with Bayern Munich.
Franz Beckenbauer
Sepp Maier
Georg Schwarzenbeck
Paul Breitner
Gerd Meuller
Uli Hoeness
Jupp Keppellmann

1982 World Cup Winners: Italy
There were 6 players on the 1982 world cup winning side that won the European Cup / Champions League.
Four of them played on the Juventus side that won the European Cup in 1985.
Gaetano Scirea
Antonio Cabrini
Marco Tardelli
Paolo Rossi

And two of them played for the great AC Milan side that was the last to repeat as European Cup / Champions League winners in 1989 – 1990.
Giovanni Galli
Franco Baresi

1986 World Cup Winners: Argentina
Try as I might, I can’t find a single player on the 1986 world cup winning team that won the European Cup during the 80’s or 90’s. Maradona came the closest, but he did not achieve it despite playing 11 years in Europe.

1990 World Cup Winners: Germany
There were 5 players on West Germany’s team in 1990 that also won the European Cup / Champions League. They are:
Rudi Voeller — Marseilles 1993
Bodo Illgner — Real Madrid 1998

And 3 players won the European Cup / Champions League with Dortmund in 1997
Karl-Heinz Reidle
Andreas Moeller
Jürgen Kohler

1994 World Cup Winners: Brazil
There were only 2 players on the 1994 world cup winning side that won the European Cup / Champions League, and they are among the most decorated players in soccer history. Both players also won the world cup with Brazil in 2002.
Roberto Carlos — Real Madrid in 1998, 2000, and 2002. This is the ONLY player I have found that has won multiple World Cups and has won the European Cup / Champions League multiple times.
Cafu — AC Milan in 2007.

1998 World Cup Winners: France
There were 7 players on the 1998 world cup winning side that won the European Cup / Champions League. They are:
Didier Deschamps – Marseilles 1993, Juventus 1996
Marcel Desailly – Marseilles 1993, AC Milan 1994 **
Fabian Barthez – Marseilles 1993

Christian Karembeu — Real Madrid 1998
Zinedine Zidane — Real Madrid 2002

Bixente Lizarazu — Bayern Munich 2001
Thierry Henry — Barcelona 2009

2002 World Cup Winners: Brazil
This Brazilian team had 10 players that have won the European Cup. Five of them won it with AC Milan:
Roque Junior — AC Milan 2003
Kaká — AC Milan 2007
Dida — AC Milan 2003, 2007
Rivaldo — AC Milan 2003
Cafu — AC Milan 2007

Three players won the European Cup with Barcelona in 2006:
Edmilson
Belletti
Ronaldinho

Roberto Carlos — Real Madrid 1998, 2000, 2002
Lucio — Internazionale 2010

2006 World Cup Winners: Italy
There were 8 players on the 2006 world cup winning team that won the European Cup / Champions League. They are:
Alessandro Del Piero –Juventus 1996
Nesta — AC Milan 2003, 2007
Gattuso — AC Milan 2003, 2007
Pirlo — AC Milan 2003, 2007
Inzaghi — AC Milan 2003, 2007
Gilardino — AC Milan 2007
Massimo Oddo — AC Milan 2007
Marco Materazzi — Internazionale 2010

2010 World Cup Winners: Spain
There were 9 players on the 2010 world cup winning team that have won the European Cup / Champions League. They are:
Iker Casillas — Real Madrid 2000, 2002
Carles Puyol — Barcelona 2006, 2009
Andres Iniesta — Barcelona 2006, 2009
Xavier Hernandez (Xavi) –– Barcelona 2006, 2009
Victor Valdez — Barcelona 2006, 2009
Xabi Alonso — Liverpool 2005
Gerard Pique — Barcelona 2009
Sergio Busquets — Barcelona 2009
Pedro Rodriguez — Barcelona 2009

Miscellaneous:
**  Desailly (93 Marseilles, 94 Milan) and Paulo Sousa (96 Juventus, 97 Dortmund) were the only players to have won the European Cup / Champs League two years in a row with two different teams until Samuel Eto’o did in 2009 with Barcelona and 2010 with Internazionale. Now if Eto’o could only get that pesky World Cup trophy to Cameroon. Maybe if he left his homeland and went to play for a different country he could do it. Desailly was actually born in Accra, Ghana and is Ghanian.

World Cup winning team that had the most European Cup winners on it: 2002 Brazil (10 players have won the European Cup / Champs League)

Notable players not on this list:

Diego Maradona Despite playing 11 years in Europe and being best in the world in the late 80’s, he never won a European Cup

Johann Cruyff Despite winning the European Cup 3 years in a row with Ajax (71, 72, 73), and making it to a World Cup Final (1974), he never won them both.

Lothar Matthaeus Despite winning the World Cup in 1990, and playing in two Champions League finals, his team lost both European Cup finals late in the games after having a lead for most of the game. This happened in 1987 (FC Porto over Bayern Munich) and in 1999 (Manchester United over Bayern Munich.) Bayern Munich won it in 2001, the year after Matthaeus left the club.

Michel Platini Despite being considered the best player in Europe for a good part of the 80’s, and leading Juventus to the European Cup in 1985, France lost in the Semi-Finals of the World Cup in 1982 and 1986, both times to Germany.

Ronaldo Despite playing 14 years in Europe and being the best in the world in the late 90’s, he never won the Champions League. He came closest in 2007. He was on the AC Milan team that won in 2007, but since he had played in the early rounds with Real Madrid, he was “cup tied” and couldn’t play in the Champions League games with his new team.

Paolo Maldini Despite winning the European Cup / Champions League 5 times with AC Milan (89, 90, 94, 03, 07), he lost in the World Cup Finals in 1994 and the World Cup Semi-Finals in 1990.

See someone missing? Let me know by commenting on this post or contact me at ericmerten @ hotmail d o t c o m