The 10 greatest football teams of all time: Where do Pep Guardiola's Barcelona and the 1970 Brazil side rank?

A debate that has gone on forever, and will continue to so, is the one regarding the greatest football team of all time.

Across almost a century of professional football all over the world, countless legendary sides have come and gone, leaving behind legacies and memories that will live on forever, both to adoring supporters and neutrals who were brought joy witnessing moments of magic.

Comparing club and national teams is difficult, given that they play in different competitions, and success is much more infrequent in international football, but that only adds fuel to the debate - such as were Spain better than Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona side?

That is the task we are undertaking here at Sports Mole, as we have had a shot at the devilishly difficult challenge of ranking the 10 greatest football teams of all time, including both club and international sides.

10: Liverpool 1976-84

Arguably the most sustained period of dominance ever enjoyed by an English club, Liverpool’s squad from the mid-70s to the mid-80s were relentless in their sweeping up of major honours both at home and abroad.

The Reds, under the guidance of Bob Paisley, and Joe Fagan in 1983-84, won four European Cups, seven league titles, and four successive League Cups, during a hugely successful decade that cemented their place as the nation’s most illustrious club.

Even when Paisley retired in 1983, Fagan used the groundwork that was already in place to win all three of those trophies in the same season in his first in charge, crowning off the era with a European Cup win over Roma in 1984.

9: West Germany 1972-76

Even with the country split down the middle, West Germany were a formidable force during the mid-1970s, despite parts of Berlin and the East essentially being cordoned off.

A Gerd Muller-inspired Die Mannschaft claimed Euro glory in 1972, beating the Soviet Union 3-0 in the final, before clinching the World Cup on home soil two years later, beating the famous Netherlands squad, that had introduced the world to Total Football, in the final, after winning every game at the tournament apart from a dead rubber in the first group stage against their Eastern counterparts.

In 1976, they also almost became the first nation to win back-to-back Euros either side of a World Cup, coming from 2-0 down against hosts Yugoslavia to advance to the final, where they came back from the same scoreline to force penalties against Czechoslovakia, but they fell short in the shootout that birthed the famous Panenka penalty.

8: Ajax 1970-73

Without the Ajax side of the early 1970s, there would not have been the famous Oranje side that won the hearts of millions at the 1974 World Cup.

The Amsterdam club, led by future Dutch manager Rinus Michels, collated a team of world-class talents all over the pitch, such as Johnny Rep, Johan Neeskens, and most famously, Johan Cruyff, as they completed a remarkable threepeat of European Cup crowns between 1971 and 1973.

Even when Michels left in 1971, Stefan Kovacs took over, and guided the Dutch giants to wins over Inter Milan and Juventus to claim two European Cups, and in that period, Ajax also won back-to-back titles and the KNVB Beker in successive seasons, using their brand of eye-catching football, which became famously known as Total Football.

7: Real Madrid 2013-18

Dominance rarely seen in the modern era came Real Madrid's way in the mid-2010s, as Los Blancos had a near-monopoly on the Champions League, winning the trophy four times in five seasons.

Carlo Ancelotti led the club to La Decima in 2014, before Zinedine Zidane took the reins and won three in a row between 2016 and 2018, with the legendary front three of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale having a huge hand, along with the supporting cast including Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Sergio Ramos.

Real also won all four Club World Cup titles to go along with their Champions League wins, and even though they only lifted La Liga once during this period, it is one that will forever be looked back on with great fondness, and disdain from rival clubs, who could not get near European glory.

6: Real Madrid 1955-60

An era that marked the making of one of the world’s biggest football clubs, Real Madrid owe much of their modern-day standing in the game to the team from the late-1950s, that blew every team in Europe away.

Five consecutive league titles, as well as glory in the first five editions of the newly-formed European Cup, means this side will forever go down in history, thanks to some of their leading lights, which included Ferenc Puskas, Alfredo Di Stefano, Paco Gento and Raymond Kopa.

Not only that, Los Blancos saw their Spanish record eight-year, 121-game unbeaten home run start in 1957, while their five European Cup campaigns in this period also saw them win all 17 home games, and score a whopping 112 goals, rounding off the glory era with a 7-3 win in the 1960 final against a strong Eintracht Frankfurt outfit.

5: Spain 2008-12

A four-year span of success never before seen by a European nation came Spain’s way between 2008 and 2012, and they dominated World and European football.

Firstly under Luis Aragones at Euro 2008, and with Vicente Del Bosque at the helm at the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012, Spain were unstoppable, using the foundations from the hugely successful Barcelona squad that was winning trophies galore at club level under Pep Guardiola.

It was not just their easy-on-the-eye, tiki-taka football that led La Roja to major honours though, because in the three knockout stages in 2008, 2010, and 2012, Spain did not concede a single goal in 10 games, and their crowning moment came in Kyiv, as they thrashed a beleaguered Italy 4-0 in the final of Euro 2012.

4: Hungary 1950-1956

Acting as trailblazers for the game as we know it today, the Hungarian ‘Golden Team’ will always remain one of the greatest and most tragic footballing sides of all time, led by Gusztav Sebes, who got rid of the old guard and brought in numerous exciting young players, overseeing a scarcely-believable transformation.

Hungary quickly became the strongest national team in world football, firmly putting their name on the map by beating England 6-3 in the Match of the Century in 1953, before thrashing them at home 7-1 a year later, ahead of the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland.

With Ferenc Puskas, Sandor Kocsis and Nandor Hidegkuti, among others, in their illustrious lineup, Hungary had already claimed Olympic Gold in 1952, and then beat Brazil and Uruguay to reach the 1954 World Cup final, but suffered defeat to West Germany in the ‘Miracle of Bern’ - their only defeat in 69 matches before the team was tragically ripped apart by the political uprising in the country in 1956.

3: AC Milan 1988-1994

Unquestionably the greatest side ever to come out of Italy, the AC Milan squad under Arrigo Sacchi between 1988 and 1991 and Fabio Capello until 1994 reached unprecedented levels, dominating the toughest league in world football, with some European glory thrown in for good measure.

With Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Costacurta at the back, and the Dutch trio of Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard, it is no surprise the Rossoneri enjoyed their greatest ever era during this period, winning back-to-back European Cups with Sacchi in 1989 and 1990, as well as the Scudetto in 1988.

When Capello took over, Milan continued to go from strength-to-strength, going on a 58-game unbeaten run in Serie A, winning three straight titles, including an unbeaten campaign in 91-92, and a season where they conceded just 15 goals in 34 games in 93-94, as well as reaching three consecutive Champions League finals, beating Barcelona 4-0 in the 1994 final.

2: Brazil 1970

While this squad was only together for around a month, the legacy they have left behind will probably never be matched at international level, as the Brazil 1970 side remains the benchmark that all elite teams since are measured against, and the one that most modern day football fans wish they could have witnessed live.

Executing their style of play commonly known as ‘Jogo Bonito’, the Selecao tore apart all six nations that stood in their way at the 1970 World Cup, scoring 19 goals on their way to lifting the Jules Rimet trophy for the third time in Mexico.

With players such as Pele, Jairzinho, Rivellino and Carlos Alberto in their ranks, their performance in the final against Italy remains one of the most famous of all time, as does the goal scored by the latter in that 4-1 win, which is widely regarded as the best in World Cup history.

1: Barcelona 2008-11

Perfection is impossible in football, but no team has ever come closer to finding it than Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona team, which redefined football, and left everybody in their wake in doing so.

Led by the talismanic Lionel Messi, Barcelona had world-class players in every position, with Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets making up one of the greatest midfields in football history, while David Villa, Samuel Eto’o, Thierry Henry and Pedro took turns flanking the star man in an always fearsome front three.

Despite winning three straight La Liga titles in this period, Barcelona are famed for their two Champions League success in 2009 and 2011, both against Manchester United, the latter of which is widely regarded as the greatest performance by a club team in the history of the game, as Guardiola’s men ripped Sir Alex Ferguson’s English champions apart in a 3-1 victory at Wembley.

Written by
Andrew Delaney