From Maradona to Buffon, these are the finest players in football history to have never lifted the UEFA Champions League trophy.

The Champions League is the ultimate measure of club football greatness. Yet some of the most gifted players to have ever played the game went their entire careers without lifting it. Here are ten of the finest.

Diego Maradona

Maradona tops the list almost by default. Widely considered the greatest footballer of all time, Maradona won the World Cup virtually singlehandedly in 1986 and dominated European football with Napoli. The UEFA Cup in 1989 was the closest he came to continental glory. The Champions League was simply never his.

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Ronaldo Nazario

R9 had the talent to win everything. Two World Cups, two Ballon d’Ors, and spells at Barcelona, Inter and Real Madrid – yet he never reached a Champions League final. Injuries disrupted his peak years at Inter, and the closest he came was a semi-final exit with Real Madrid in 2003.

Zlatan Ibrahimović

Zlatan played for more Champions League clubs than almost anyone – Ajax, Juventus, Inter, Barcelona, AC Milan and PSG. He made 124 appearances in the competition, more than any player never to win it. The timing was always wrong. Inter won it the year after he left. Barcelona lost the semi-final the season he was there.

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Gianluigi Buffon

Buffon lost three finals with Juventus – 2003, 2015 and 2017. Three different opponents. Three defeats. Arguably the finest goalkeeper in the history of the game, the Champions League is the one trophy that permanently eluded him.

Fabio Cannavaro

Cannavaro won the World Cup and the Ballon d’Or in 2006, but the Champions League remained out of reach despite playing for Inter, Juventus and Real Madrid across a glittering career.

George Weah

Weah was the first African player to win the Ballon d’Or. He led PSG to the semi-final in 1995 but never went further. A player of rare quality who deserved at least one shot at the final.

Ruud van Nistelrooy

Van Nistlerooy remains the highest-scoring player never to have won it – 56 Champions League goals across PSV, Manchester United and Real Madrid. The semi-final in 2002 with United was as close as he got.

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Lilian Thuram

Thuram made 69 Champions League appearances and won everything the game had to offer internationally. He played in the 2003 final with Juventus and lost on penalties to AC Milan. That was his only final.

Cesc Fàbregas

Fabregas was part of the Arsenal side that reached the 2006 final as a teenager. They lost 2-1 to Barcelona. He never returned to a Champions League final in a career that spanned two decades.

Patrick Vieira

The midifield general, Vieira is perhaps the unluckiest of all. He left Arsenal the summer before they reached the 2006 final. He then left Italy for Manchester City in January 2010 – just months before his former side Inter Milan won it. He never received a winners medal that his career so richly deserved.

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Honourable mentions – active players still waiting:

Harry Kane reached the 2019 final with Spurs and lost to Liverpool. Kylian Mbappé lost the 2020 final with PSG and joined Real Madrid after their 2024 triumph, still searching for his first medal. And Antoine Griezmann – Atletico Madrid’s greatest ever scorer – leaves the club this summer for Orlando City without success in Europe’s premier competition.

Photo: Photo: Getty Images