Only 10 Players Have Ever Completed Football...
Since the very inception of football, only 10 players have ever managed to complete the sport by winning the three biggest trophies available. Which three trophies are we talking about? The World Cup, Champions League and Ballon d'Or. The big three. How many more players will join this exclusive list in the future? Let us know in the comments down below! Football WorldCup
Transcript
The World Cup, Ballon d'Or, and Champions League are the three biggest trophies available in football today. But, did you know since the very inception of football, only 10 players have managed to get their hands on all three trophies? And for the purposes of this video, we're going to say they're the only 10 players who have fully completed football. Who are those 10 players, I hear you ask? Let's check them out. So, the first player to ever officially complete football was former Manchester United and England forward Bobby Charlton, who won both the World Cup and Ballon d'Or in 1966 before adding the Champions League to his collection 2 years later in 1968 with Manchester United. Upon winning the Champions League in '68, Bobby Charlton was the only player of his time to have got his hands on all three major trophies. And it's safe to say that Charlton's legacy in the footballing world is still felt today. He's widely regarded as England's greatest ever player and Manchester United's, too. Regardless of how many players go on to complete football between now and the end of time, Charlton will always have the record as the first player to ever achieve this. Following on from Charlton, the second player to ever complete football is one of the most lethal finishers of all time. It's Germany's Gerd Müller, who won the Ballon d'Or in 1970, the World Cup in 1974, and the Champions League on three occasions with Bayern Munich in '74, '75, and '76. Müller scored over 700 goals throughout his professional career and is widely regarded as Germany's best striker of all time. And speaking of Germany's golden generation, Franz Beckenbauer also completed football at the same time as Müller. Beckenbauer became the first ever defender to win the Ballon d'Or back in 1972 before winning the prize again in 1976. He also won the Champions League on three occasions with Bayern in the '70s like Müller and won the World Cup as a player in 1974 with Germany before then winning the World Cup as a manager with his country in 1990, the only player on this list to do that. Speaking about the best defenders of all time, Beckenbauer's name is usually right at the top of the list and he's the only player on this list of players who have completed football, a testament to his amazing legacy. After that German double-header, Italy's Paolo Rossi became the next player to complete football in the 1980s. He won the World Cup and Ballon d'Or in 1982 before finally adding the Champions League to his collection in 1985, winning the trophy with Juventus. Italy had produced countless legends and some of the best players of all time, but Rossi is the only one to have won the World Cup, Ballon d'Or and Champions League, which is some achievement. And of course, the video would be incomplete without discussing Zinedine Zidane, who completed football in 2002 after winning the Champions League with Real Madrid, having already won both the Ballon d'Or and World Cup back in '98. We were previously discussing how Franz Beckenbauer is the only person on this list to manage his country to a World Cup trophy, but don't rule Zidane out from achieving that in the future with him set to step into the role, taking over from Didier Deschamps going forward. In terms of his playing legacy though, there can be no disputing what Zidane's achieved. Undoubtedly one of the best midfielders of all time and deserving of a place on this list. Next up, we've got Rivaldo, who was the first but certainly not last Brazilian to complete football. He won the Ballon d'Or in 1999, the World Cup in 2002 before adding the Champions League to his collection in 2003. Now, when discussing Brazilians and South American players on this list, it's worth taking into consideration that they weren't actually eligible to win the Ballon d'Or until 1995. So, any of the legendary Brazilians or Argentine players who who before that weren't actually eligible to win that prize and so have been a bit hard done by on this list. So, take that with a pinch of salt. When Rivaldo won the Ballon d'Or in 1999, he became only the second Brazilian to get his hands on the prize, second only to R9. But, R9 doesn't have a place on this list as he famously never won the Champions League. And after Rivaldo had set the trend for Brazilians to be winning these trophies, plenty of others quickly followed suit. The next of which was Ronaldinho, who won the World Cup in 2002, Ballon d'Or in 2005, and Champions League in 2006 with Barcelona. And the latest Brazilian to complete football is the last Brazilian Ballon d'Or winner that we had, and that was Kaká, all the way back in 2007. He was also a part of Brazil's 2002 World Cup winning squad and won both the Ballon d'Or and Champions League in the same year with Milan, '07. Kaká managed to get his hands on the Ballon d'Or just before the era of dominance had started from Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, and had it not been for those two players, who knows, he could have got his hands on even more of them. The ninth player to complete football was Lionel Messi, who finally got his hands on that World Cup trophy in Qatar 2022 after it agonized him for so long. An eight-time Ballon d'Or winner and four-times Champions League winner, Messi's legacy is set in stone and for many has him outright as the greatest player of all time. And who could argue with that? Even at the World Cup this year, the guy's been lighting things up at the age of 39. Since winning the World Cup with Argentina in 2022, Messi has had nothing else to prove but has continued to operate at such an elite level. His eight Ballon d'Ors are also a record, and his four Champions League trophies also put him in pretty pristine company as well. But, since Messi completed football, there's been one other player who's managed to do it, too. Because the latest player to complete football, as of recording this video, is Francis Ousmane Dembélé, who won the World Cup in 2018, the Ballon d'Or in 2025, and is now a two-time Champions League winner in both 2025 and 2026. He was by no means a key player of France's 2018 squad. He featured in all three group stage matches, but only played in the quarter-finals in the knockout rounds, and didn't feature in the semi or final. But, he still played his part and got his hands on that trophy. And now, in his later years, has developed into one of the best forwards the world has currently got to offer, winning the Champions League in consecutive years with PSG. And because of that, the Ballon d'Or in 2025. But, there you guys have it. As of recording, those are the only 10 players to have completed football. Will we be adding a new name to this list come Sunday's final? We'll have to wait and see. Regardless of who gets added to this list in the future, these 10 players can take pride by the fact that they were the first 10 players to win all three major trophies, which is some going. Apart from that though, guys, that'll wrap it up for today's video. Thank you very much for tuning in, and I'll see you all in the next one.