The Best Teams Never to Win the Champions League

All six live in the Drafted squad database. In your draft, they finally get another shot.

Ajax 2018-19: six seconds from the final

The most beloved nearly-team of the modern era. Erik ten Hag's young Ajax — de Jong and de Ligt barely out of the academy, Tadić and Ziyech in the form of their lives — went to the Bernabéu and dismantled the three-time defending champions, then knocked out Ronaldo's Juventus for good measure. Leading Tottenham 3-0 on aggregate in the semi-final with 35 minutes left, they conceded a Lucas Moura hat-trick, the third arriving deep in stoppage time. The final was six seconds away. The team was sold off within two windows, and football lost one of its great what-ifs. Explore the Ajax 2018-19 squad →

Atlético Madrid 2015-16: the team that ran out of miracles

Diego Simeone's Atlético knocked out Barcelona in the quarter-finals and survived Bayern in the semis on away goals — a defensive achievement of absurd difficulty. In the final, against Real Madrid for the second time in three seasons, they were level after 120 minutes before losing on penalties. Combined with the 2014 final, when Sergio Ramos equalised in the 93rd minute of a game Atlético led until stoppage time, no club has been closer, more often, with less reward. Explore the Atlético Madrid 2015-16 squad →

Valencia 2000-01: back-to-back heartbreak

Héctor Cúper's Valencia reached consecutive Champions League finals at the turn of the century — a feat beyond most superclubs — and lost them both. The second was the crueller: Gaizka Mendieta converted a penalty in the third minute against Bayern Munich, the game finished 1-1 after extra time, and the shootout went Bayern's way 5-4. Mendieta, Ayala, Cañizares and Kily González deserved a European title; instead they became the competition's great cautionary tale about margins. Explore the Valencia 2000-01 squad →

Borussia Dortmund 2012-13: Klopp's yellow wall

The team that made heavy metal football famous. Jürgen Klopp's Dortmund, powered by Lewandowski, Reus, Götze and Hummels, produced the semi-final performance of the decade — Lewandowski scoring all four in a 4-1 demolition of Real Madrid. At Wembley they matched Bayern for 89 minutes of the first all-German final, until Arjen Robben slid in the winner. Within weeks, Götze had signed for the team that beat them, and the break-up of a potential dynasty had begun. Explore the Borussia Dortmund 2012-13 squad →

Arsenal 2005-06: ten men against destiny

Arsenal reached the 2006 final in Paris on the back of a record run of clean sheets, knocking out Real Madrid and Juventus without conceding. Then, 18 minutes into the final, goalkeeper Jens Lehmann was sent off. Even with ten men, Sol Campbell headed Arsenal in front against Barcelona — and they held the lead until the final quarter of an hour, when Eto'o and Belletti struck. It remains the club's only Champions League final, and the great unanswerable question of the Wenger era. Explore the Arsenal 2005-06 squad →

Paris Saint-Germain 2019-20: the project's closest pass

Whatever you think of the project, the football that August was real: Neymar and Mbappé cutting through the strange, empty-stadium Final Eight in Lisbon, a 3-0 semi-final dismantling of Leipzig, and a final against Bayern Munich that PSG could easily have led by half-time. Instead, former PSG academy product Kingsley Coman headed the only goal, and the trophy the club was built to win stayed just out of reach. Explore the Paris Saint-Germain 2019-20 squad →

Rewrite their endings

Every team on this list was one moment from immortality — a stoppage-time goal, a penalty, a red card. In Drafted, their players enter the pool with the same ability and none of the baggage. Draft Lewandowski, Mendieta or de Jong into your XI and give them the final they never won.