A domination of Spanish clubs
The Europa League record reflects the dominance of Spanish clubs, starting with Sevilla FC. The Andalusian club has indeed won the competition five times. After his victories in 2005/06 and then in 2006/07, he even allowed himself the luxury of a triple history (seasons 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16). To fully appreciate this feat, just take a look at the names of the other clubs with the most Europa League wins.
Sevilla FC are ahead of an impressive quartet of teams with three wins. The latter is made up of another Spanish club, Atlético Madrid (winners in the 2009/10, 2011/12 and 2017/18 seasons), English side Liverpool FC (1972/73, 1975/76, 2000/01 ), Italians Inter Milan (1990/91, 1993/94, 1997/98) and Juventus (1976/77, 1989/90, 1992/93).
Regarding the longest periods of invincibility for the same club, the best performance once once more goes to a Spanish club. It was carried out by Atlético Madrid between 03/11/2011 and 25/10/2012. During this time, the other club Madrid remained undefeated in the Europa League. This still represents fifteen games without knowing defeat, a rare thing in a European competition of this caliber!
Which players have marked the history of the competition?
Let’s now look at the most emblematic players of this European Cup. The one who has played the greatest number of matches (Europa League and its ancestor the UEFA Cup) is called Giuseppe Bergomi. This rough but no less talented Italian central defender thus counts 96 meetings in C3, all disputed under the same jersey (Inter Milan). He is ahead in this ranking of a German player, Frank Rost, who has played 90 games in this competition (Werder Bremen, Schalke and Hamburg) and Bibras Natcho (80 games played with the clubs Hapoel Tel-Aviv, Rubin, CSKA Moskva , Olympiacos and Partizan).
Several well-known strikers have also left fond memories for football fans. The most prolific of them remains the Swede Henrik Larsson who scored 40 goals in this competition with three different clubs (Feyenoord Rotterdam, Celtic Glasgow, Helsingborg). He outperformed Dutchman Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (who scored ‘only’ 34 goals while wearing Heerenveen, Ajax Amsterdam and Schalke 04 kits) and a duo of Basque of Bilbao Aritz Aduriz and the Colombian Radamel Falcao, player of FC Porto then Atlético Madrid (both with 31 goals).
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