Europe’s Elite

The European Super Cup was born in the early 70’s and historically pitted the European Cup winners against the Cup Winners Cup holders from the previous season to help crown who was the ultimate Kings of European Football for that season. This two-legged final would usually take place at the start of the new season and matched up the best league and cup winning sides against each other.

Under the guidance of coaches Rinus Michels and Stefán Kovács, Ajax of Amsterdam dominated Europe during the early 70’s with an exciting brand of ‘Total Football’ which was expertly administered on the pitch by the Dutch talisman and captain, Johan Cruyff amongst others. The first Super Cup final took place in 1972 where European Cup winners Ajax took on the Cup Winners Cup winners Glasgow Rangers. The Dutch side won the final 6-3 on aggregate to win the first European Super Cup but it wasn’t officially recognised by UEFA. Lucky for Ajax they retained their title the following season to make history by becoming the first official UEFA European Super Cup winners.

This tradition has continued on to this day apart from on three occasions; 1974 due to political reasons between West German side Bayern Munich facing the East German side Magdeburg, in 1981 Liverpool couldn’t find space in the fixture list to meet Dinamo Tiblisi and 1985, Everton we’re banned from European competition following the ban on English sides after the Heysel Stadium disaster.

In 1997, to help clubs with the fixture congestion it was decided that the European Super Cup would no longer be a two legged affair and would now be played in a one off match on neutral ground. This was predominantly the Stade Louis II stadium in Monaco between 1998-2012 before being moved across other European cities from 2013 onwards. By 2000, more changers we’re afoot and UEFA restructured it’s European competitions. After 39 seasons the Cup Winners Cup was made redundant and replaced by the UEFA Cup who would now provide the other finalist for the Super Cup final. Fast forward another decade and the UEFA Cup would became the UEFA Europa League.

The Serie A sides certainly dominated the European Super Cup competition during the 90’s but since then the La Liga giants have dominated with 16 titles in total. Joint second place for most wins by nation is England and Italy who have won it nine times apiece. At club level, Barcelona, Real Madrid and AC Milan are all tied after being crowned Kings of Europe on five occasions.

Carlo Ancelotti has the most wins as a coach with four titles whereas the following players have won it four times too, Paolo Maldini, Dani Alves, Dani Carvajal, Karim Benzema, Toni Kroos and Luka Modric.

Can you name the nine top goal scorers who all have three goals a piece?