The greatest squads of the 2000s

The decade

The 2000s were the decade of the loaded semi-final. England has five squads here, as many as any country reaches in any decade of this database, because for most of the second half of it there was an English club in the last four and often three. Spain answered with the Galácticos and the first great Barcelona side of the century; Italy answered with two Milan titles and the Juventus team that reached the final in 2003. And in 2003-04 Porto won it, the last club from outside Europe's four richest leagues to do so.

Where the squads come from: England (5), Italy (4), Spain (4) and Portugal (1). The highest-rated player of the era in this database is Ronaldinho (96), and 18 different players across these 14 squads are rated 90 or above.

Drafting the 2000s

The decade with the highest concentration of great individuals in the database: Zidane and Ronaldinho both at 96, Kaká at 95, Cristiano Ronaldo and Henry at 94. Draft here and the wheel eventually offers you a player who can decide a knockout tie on his own — which is a different game from the 1990s squads, where you are usually assembling a team to survive one.

This decade has a draft mode of its own: The 2000s narrows the wheel to exactly these squads, so every spin lands in the era. Runs in it rank normally — narrowing the wheel carries no scoring penalty.

However you narrow the wheel, the run itself is the same Champions League draft game: an XI built one spin at a time, then a league phase, two-legged knockouts and a final.