For years, football fans have been vigorously arguing with each other, defending the honor of their favorite team. To the question: "Who is better?" The Clubelo website came up with an innovative approach: the creators began to use the Elo system to calculate sportsmanship.
Moreover, in the ranking of the best there are not clubs as such, but clubs in a certain time period. The fact is that in different years the composition and level of play of the same team can be very different. Here are the top ten statistically best football teams in the history of football.
10. Manchester United (2008)
Rank: 2026
The 2008 season turned out to be successful for the “Reds”: not only the crown of the Premier League (by the way, at that time already the tenth), but also the European Champions Cup, got into their piggy bank. The players were not without success with recognition, three of them were awarded inclusion in the "team of the year", and Cristiano Ronaldo received six prizes at once. Well, still, it's a sin not to reward a person who scored 31 goals in a season.
More than nine years have passed since then, but football fans still compare other football teams with Manchester United in 2008. And most often this parallel is flattering for the latter.
9. Chelsea (2008)
Rank: 2026
After Chelsea finished second after Manchester United once again, management decided to part ways with coach Avram Grant and replace him with Brazilian Luis Felipe Scolari.
He put Ashley Cole and recently arrived Jose Bosingwa as defenders, and the tactics paid off: Chelsea literally took the league by storm, leaving Liverpool far behind. True, by the middle of the season the team was exhausted, and Scolari had to be replaced by Guus Hiddink, who brought Chelsea into the top three in the Champions League.
8. MTK (1955)
Rank: 2037
It would seem an ancient history - more than sixty years have passed since the victories of the Hungarian football club. Most recently, World War II died down, during which the president of the club was killed by the Nazis, and the club itself was persecuted due to the presence of Jewish players in the squad.
However, after the war, MTK, like a phoenix, rose from the ashes. At its finest hour, many strong players played in it, including the great Ferenc Puskas; it is in his honor that the prize for the most beautiful goal according to FIFA is named.
7. Manchester City (2019)
Rank: 2047
Last year brought the Sky Blue four trophies: they virtually single-handedly took over the prizes from all football competitions in England and became the first team to receive a triple title.
It is worth adding (especially in our time, when the profitability of football teams is just as, if not more important, than their sporting success) that the income of Manchester City was the fifth highest among all football clubs in the world at 527.7 million euros.
6. Milan (1993)
Rank: 2052
The Italian club won three trophies in 1993, winning one in a tense 4-0 win over Barcelona in the Champions League final.
The team, which had been playing on the defensive all season, suddenly suddenly and rapidly exploded with a string of goals. Then Milan won Serie A with just 36 goals and scored in 34 games. And missed only 15.
On the defensive were such strong players as Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini, in the center of the field - Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit, and in front - the winners of the Ballon d'Or Marco van Basten and Jean-Pierre Papin.
5. Real Madrid (1961)
Rank: 2069
The fifties were a stellar time for Real Madrid, at the time the club won the European Cup five times in a row, including a glorious fight against Eintracht Frankfurt in 1960.
After five wins in a row, Real Madrid received an honorary prize - the cup itself on a permanent basis and also the right to wear the UEFA badge of honor. And in 1961, Real Madrid won the cup for the sixth time!
4. Liverpool (2020)
Rank: 2074
Liverpool fans will surely be ecstatic to learn that their favorite team has made it to the top 10 best football teams of all time according to Clubelo! And no wonder - out of 21 league matches, they won 20, which has never happened before.
And if we add the Champions League title, the FIFA Club World Cup, the UEFA Super Cup, it becomes clear why Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp has a big smile on his face.
3. Real Madrid (2014)
Rank: 2096
The 2013-2014 season turned out to be a jubilee for Real Madrid - the 110th in the history of the club (or 83 in the Spanish league, but this figure is not so pretty). Then the team fought for a record 33rd La Liga title and entered the UEFA Champions League, hoping to get a landmark tenth title.
And “Madrid” succeeded, they managed to defeat Atletico Madrid with a score of 4: 1. And let's add that Real Madrid are the only team to have won a double appearance in the Clubelo Top Football Teams Rankings, albeit more than half a century apart.
2. Bayern Munich (2014)
Rank: 2104
Bayern triumphantly passed the Bundesliga in the 2013-2014 season, and in February 2014 went to the club world championship, winning the champion title. The club has also participated in the DFL Super Cup and the UEFA Super Cup.
And although the Bavarians lost to DFL Borussia Dortmund, they won back at Chelsea in UEFA. In general, that year for the team is considered the most successful in its entire history, which is confirmed by five prizes.
1. Barcelona (2012)
Rank: 2107
The most statistically best football team in the world according to the Clubelo website is Barcelona 2012 version. Then she scored an astounding number of goals - 175, that is, about 3 for each game.
Both the number of wins and the number of goals scored are the best result in the Spanish league in a year. The top scorer then was (of course) Lionel Messi, who set a new world record - 91 goals per season. 79 of them he scored for Barcelona and 12 for his Argentine national team. However, one of best goals in football history he scored even earlier - in 2007, in the home game Barcelona - Getafe.
What is ELO?
The system for assessing the conditional "strength" of the participants in the competition (both individually and in a team) was invented by the Hungarian chess player and part-time scientist Arpad Elo.
- To simplify greatly, when the player wins, points are added, and when he loses, they are taken away. And if there is a draw, they are debited from both opponents.
- In this case, the number of added / subtracted points depends on the opponent's rating and on the probable outcome of the competition.
- For example, if the opponent belongs to the major league, and the newcomer belongs to the lower league, then the system assumes the victory of the first one with a probability of 99%. And if a newbie suddenly wins, he will receive a lot of points. And if a sufficient number of these points is accumulated, then the player goes to the next category, where other coefficients are used when calculating points.
For football, a special Elo system modified for football specificity is used. It takes into account all the matches of class "A", the results of which are available to everyone, and the final verdict is issued after playing 30 matches.
The system also takes into account many nuances, for example, the team's previous rating, the importance of the competition, the number of goals and, of course, the result.