Which Teams Have Won the Treble in History?

13/06/23 1914

For a team to win the treble in European football, they must win three trophies. However, to win what is considered ‘the treble’, a team must win their domestic title, the domestic cup competition, and the Champions League.

A mix of three domestic trophies or anything including the Europa League or Europa Conference League is not considered to be ‘the treble’.

For example, in terms of English football, we are talking the Premier League, the FA Cup, and the Champions League, something which was achieved most recently by Manchester City in 2022/23.

Under the guidance of Pep Guardiola, Manchester City won the Premier League by 5 points over Arsenal, beat Manchester United 2-1 in the FA Cup final, and Inter Milan 1-0 in the Champions League final.

It was the first Champions League trophy in the history of Manchester City but they are not the only club from English football, or Manchester, to land the treble.

Manchester United won the treble in 1999 having finished 1 point clear of Arsenal in the Premier League, beat Newcastle United 2-0 in the FA Cup final, and Bayern Munich 2-1 in dramatic fashion in the Champions League final.

There are two clubs who won the treble twice and they are Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Guardiola has won the treble twice having overseen Barcelona when they won La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and Champions League in 2008/09.

Barcelona repeated the feat in 2014/15 with Luis Enrique as manager. Bayern Munich won their first treble in 2012/13, winning the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal, and Champions League.

They claimed all 3 titles in the same season for a second time in 2019/20. The other most recent treble winning club is Inter Milan and they won Serie A, the Coppa Italia, and the Champions League in 2009/10.

So, there have been plenty of examples of clubs winning the treble over the past 25 years but there are further examples back in history of teams winning the treble with the first club to achieve the feat being Celtic in 1966/67. Celtic won the Scottish League, Scottish Cup, and European Cup.

In fact, Celtic won all five competitions they entered that season, including the Scottish League Cup and the Glasgow Cup. The Lisbon Lions, as they are known, are considered by many to be the best European club team of all time.

The great Ajax team of 1971/72 including Johan Cruyff won the Eredivisie, KNVB Cup, and European Cup, losing only one match the whole season.

Interestingly, along with two English based clubs, two Dutch clubs have won the treble and 16 years after Ajax, in 1988, PSV Eindhoven won the Eredivisie, KNVB Cup, and European Cup.

Guus Hiddink was the manager and their European Cup progress was interesting because PSV failed to win any of their 5 games from the quarter final onwards, relying on away goals and penalties to win the competition.