Which club team has won the most Champions League titles?

Which club has won the most Champions League titles?

The answer is Real Madrid, by a wide margin. As of October 2026, the Spanish club have won 15 European Cup and UEFA Champions League titles, including the very first final in 1956. Their most recent triumph came in 2024, when they beat Borussia Dortmund 2-0 at Wembley. The next best club, AC Milan, have seven, so Real are more than twice as successful as any other team.

The competition began in 1955 as the European Cup and was renamed the UEFA Champions League in 1992. When fans talk about the club with the most titles they normally count both eras together, as UEFA does. If you only count the Champions League era from 1992-93, Real Madrid still lead, with nine wins in that period.

If you are new to the tournament, start with our explainer on what the UEFA Champions League is to see how the format and qualification work. This article focuses on who has won it, how often and why.

Champions League titles by club

Twenty-four clubs have won the trophy since 1955. Here are the clubs with more than one title, all as of October 2026 and including the European Cup years.

Clubs with a single title are Celtic (1967), Feyenoord (1970), Aston Villa (1982), Hamburger SV (1983), Steaua Bucuresti (1986), PSV Eindhoven (1988), Red Star Belgrade (1991), Marseille (1993), Borussia Dortmund (1997) and Manchester City (2023).

Real Madrid: the club of the European Cup

Real Madrid's dominance started at the beginning. They won the first five European Cups, from 1955-56 to 1959-60, a run that still stands as the record for consecutive titles. The final of 1960 is remembered for a 7-3 win over Eintracht Frankfurt at Hampden Park in Glasgow, in front of more than 127,000 people. Real added a sixth title in 1966.

After a long wait they returned to the top in 1998 and 2000, then 2002. The modern era brought an extraordinary spell: titles in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018, then 2022 and 2024. Their 2022 final win over Liverpool in Paris came 1-0, and their 2018 win over the same team in Kyiv ended 3-1.

Supporters often point to the club's reputation for late comebacks in knockout ties, but the record is more than reputation: Real have often had some of the best players of each generation and a deep culture of winning in Europe. You can read about some of those names on our iconic players page.

The 2025-26 season showed that no record is permanent, as Real were not champions again, but their lead of eight titles over the second-best club looks hard to close.

Consecutive titles and back-to-back winners

Winning once is hard, so winning in a row is rarer still. The longest run is Real Madrid's five in a row from 1956 to 1960. Three other runs stand out.

• Ajax: three straight European Cups from 1971 to 1973.
• Bayern Munich: three in a row from 1974 to 1976.
• Real Madrid: three in a row from 2016 to 2018, the first back-to-back winners of the Champions League era.

Several other clubs have won two in succession, including Benfica (1961 and 1962), Inter (1964 and 1965), Liverpool (1977 and 1978), Nottingham Forest (1979 and 1980) and AC Milan (1989 and 1990).

The newest names on that list are Paris Saint-Germain. They won their first title in 2025, beating Inter 5-0 in the final in Munich, which is widely reported as the biggest winning margin in a final. A year later, on 30 May 2026 in Budapest, they beat Arsenal 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw, making them the second club of the Champions League era to win back-to-back, after Real Madrid.

It was also PSG's second win in a row for a club that had never won the trophy before 2025, a story that links to the wider question of money in the game, which we explore in our guide to financial fair play.

Most successful managers and players

Among coaches, Carlo Ancelotti is in a class of his own, with five titles: AC Milan in 2003 and 2007, and Real Madrid in 2014, 2022 and 2024. Zinedine Zidane won three in a row with Real Madrid from 2016 to 2018. Bob Paisley won three with Liverpool (1977, 1978 and 1981), and Pep Guardiola has three, with Barcelona in 2009 and 2011 and Manchester City in 2023.

Among players, Francisco Gento of Real Madrid holds the long-standing record of six European Cups, winning the first five and another in 1966. Several modern Real Madrid players, including Luka Modric, have reached six as well, which makes the record a shared one in recent years. Cristiano Ronaldo won five (one with Manchester United and four with Real Madrid), and Paolo Maldini won five with AC Milan.

Lionel Messi won four with Barcelona. His story, and many others, is part of the player profiles we publish in the players section. For a more visual look at some of their best work, browse our skills videos.

If you are comparing the clubs behind those players, our guide to El Clasico explains the rivalry between the two Spanish clubs with 20 of the trophies between them.

Which countries have won the most titles?

Spain leads the country table with 20 wins, all from two clubs: Real Madrid (15) and Barcelona (5). England follows with 15 wins from a record six different clubs: Liverpool (6), Manchester United (3), Nottingham Forest (2), Chelsea (2), Aston Villa (1) and Manchester City (1). Italy has 12 wins from three clubs: AC Milan (7), Inter (3) and Juventus (2).

Germany has eight, the Netherlands six, Portugal four and France three, thanks to Marseille in 1993 and Paris Saint-Germain in 2025 and 2026. Other winners are from Scotland (Celtic), Romania (Steaua Bucuresti) and Serbia (Red Star Belgrade, then in Yugoslavia).

This tells you something about the league landscape too. The strongest leagues have produced almost all of the winners, and the arrival of PSG shows that clubs can move up with massive investment. For a look at how those leagues compare, read Premier League vs La Liga vs Serie A.

Common myths about Champions League winners

Myth: Arsenal have won it. They have not. Arsenal lost the 2006 final to Barcelona and the 2026 final to PSG on penalties, so they remain without a title.

Myth: Atletico Madrid have won it. They have reached three finals (1974, 2014 and 2016) without winning one, which is a record for a club that has never won the trophy.

Myth: The most finals lost is Real Madrid. In fact Juventus have lost seven finals, the most of any club, while they have won two.

Myth: Only European Cup titles before 1992 are in the total. UEFA counts both eras together, so Real Madrid's total includes the five from the 1950s.

Myth: English clubs dominated in the 1980s because they were allowed to. English clubs won from 1977 to 1982 and again in 1984, but after the Heysel disaster in 1985 they were banned for five years.

A related question is what clubs do in a single season by winning several trophies at once, which we cover in what a treble means in soccer.

What this means for fans

Real Madrid's 15 titles are the headline, but the trend is the story: the trophy is now more evenly spread, with different winners in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2025 as well as the repeat winners at either end. With a 36-team format, more clubs play more games, and the table could change again over the next decade.

If you want to follow the next race for the trophy, check our next coming soccer game directory for upcoming matches. And remember that every total here is as of October 2026, so the numbers will change after each final.