Where do PSG rank among Europe's greatest football dynasties?
BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountHomeNewsSportEarthReelWorklifeTravelCultureFutureMusicTVWeatherSoundsMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportEarthReelWorklifeTravelCultureFutureMusicTVWeatherSoundsClose menu BBC SportMenuHomeFootballCricketFormula 1Rugby UTennisGolfCyclingAthleticsMoreA-Z SportsAmerican FootballAthleticsBasketballBoxingCricketCyclingDartsDisability SportFootballFormula 1Gaelic GamesGolfGymnasticsHorse RacingMixed Martial ArtsMotorsportNetballRugby LeagueRugby UnionSnookerSwimmingTennisFull Sports A-ZMore from SportEnglandScotlandWalesNorthern IrelandQuizzesNews FeedsHelp & FAQsEuropean FootballScores & FixturesTableChampions LeagueEuropa LeagueWhere do PSG rank among Europe's greatest football dynasties?ByAlex BysouthBBC Sport Senior JournalistPublished4 hours agoSome find success sweet but fleeting, others spend years building to the pinnacle, and then there are those whose lasting glory evolves into a dynasty. Paris St-Germain begin their Champions League campaign on Wednesday hoping to enter that bracket, attempting to become continental champions for a third successive season. To mark this, we're looking at how the Parisians compare to those clubs who have enjoyed the most dominant eras in European competition. Some will point out that football existed before the European Champion Clubs' Cup began in 1955 - so apologies to Stan Cullis' 'world-champion' Wolves outfit and the Mitropa Cup's early Vienna heavyweights. However, this top 10 debate is centred around winning European football's grandest prize. OK, straight in with the current champions, because this is a dynasty in the making. PSG have had a lacklustre start to the season - they always do this, don't they? However, you wouldn't bet against Luis Enrique's slick side adding a third successive European crown come next summer. The Parisians have been France's most dominant force since the arrival of Qatar Sports Investments 15 years ago, but it took a change of approach for the holy grail of continental success to arrive. "It's the end of the glitter," professed president Nasser Al-Khelaifi after years of lavish spending, ushering out the "flashy, bling-bling" era. Instead, Enrique arrived in 2023 intent on building a coherent team. There was still significant investment, but on younger players who could be moulded by his philosophy and discipline while given room to flourish. Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, PSG thrashed Inter 5-0 to win their first Champions League in 2025 Talking of discipline. Helenio Herrera, the Argentine-born defender reared in Casablanca and Paris, had already traversed the dugouts of Atletico Madrid, Malaga, Deportivo and Barcelona before landing in Milan in 1960. Herrera set about implementing his tactical brand of catenaccio at San Siro - one he insisted is misremembered as being more defensive than it actually was - and developing a ruthless counter-attacking team known as 'Grande Inter'. Winning the Scudetto in 1962-63, Herrera's outfit became the first to lift the European Cup without losing a game the following season as Sandro Mazzola netted twice against Real Madrid in the final. The Italians defended their crown the following year, despite losing their semi-final first leg at Anfield, edging Benfica in the final. It was the Portuguese giants' second final defeat in three seasons. Some may say they were cursed... Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Helenio Herrera won league titles with Inter, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid The story goes that Bela Guttmann, fresh from winning the title with Porto, rocked up at Benfica, sacked all the senior players and promoted a talented bunch of youth team players instead. Those promising youngsters won the title and then went all the way in the European Cup, beating Barcelona in the 1961 final. That summer, a teenage Eusebio also joined Guttmann's squad and steered them to European glory once more, seeing off Tottenham Hotspur in the semi-final before beating the great Real Madrid in the competition's showpiece. The legendary Ferenc Puskas scored a first-half hat-trick for the Spaniards, but Eusebio netted twice after the interval to seal Benfica a second successive crown. Guttmann, buoyed by his remarkable success, left the club after not being offered the pay rise he felt he deserved and the curse the Hungarian boss supposedly put on the club - that they would not win another European trophy for 100 years - has become fable. Whether the often-disputed story is true or not, the Lisbon giants have not landed another since - losing eight European finals, including three in the 1960s. Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Eusebio scored 47 goals in the European Cup, including two in the 1962 final This was Bayern's coming of age. Emerging from what was a fiercely competitive West German football scene, the Bavarians - promoted to the Bundesliga less than a decade earlier - were able to establish themselves as heavyweights in Europe. With a backbone of goalkeeper Sepp Maier, marauding sweeper Franz Beckenbauer and the prolific Gerd Muller, and fresh off West Germany winning the 1974 World Cup, Bayern clinched three on the bounce, despite their domestic form dipping. In fact, Beckenbauer said Bayern were past their peak after the first European Cup win over Atletico Madrid, but experience carried them through big games. They beat Leeds in a controversial final in Paris, and then saw off Saint-Etienne the following year. Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, It took Bayern Munich 25 years to win Europe's top prize again after doing it three times in a row during the 1970s The teams above make the list for their trophy-winning spells. Pep Guardiola's Barcelona were European champions twice in three years - losing to Jose Mourinho's treble-winning Inter in between - but their dynasty was built on more than silverware. Guardiola only spent four seasons at Barcelona, but it was an era-defining tenure, the Catalan giants pioneering a brand of football that would be celebrated and copied the world over. Perhaps the real success of a team is in its legacy. Guardiola's tiki-taka Barcelona built around La Masia graduates Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and, of course, Lionel Messi still resonates more than a decade since he left. Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Pep Guardiola won the European Cup as a player with Barcelona and then twice as a manager, losing semi-finals to Inter and Chelsea either side of those triumphs Where does this particular Milan dynasty start and end? It was fuelled, of course, by Silvio Berlusconi, who saved the club from bankruptcy in 1986 and appointed the up-and-coming Arrigo Sacchi as boss. You could argue it continued until a Champions League final defeat by a young Ajax side in 1995. In between, the Rossoneri won back-to-back European Cups in 1989 and '90, then thrashed Cruyff's Barcelona 'Dream Team' in 1994 after defeat in the final the previous season. In fact, the only campaigns in which Milan did not reach the final were after their quarter-final second leg was abandoned because of floodlight failure while trailing Marseille in 1991. The Serie A giants' refusal to re-enter the pitch for the final minutes of that one also led to them being banned the following year.
Source: BBC Sport
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