Winning one major trophy in a season is an achievement. Winning three in the same season, the league title, the domestic cup and the Champions League, is rarer still. Football calls these clubs Treble winners, and only a handful of European sides have ever joined that list. This guide explains what the Treble means and profiles every one of football’s Treble winners.
What makes a club Treble winners?
In European football, the Treble usually refers to winning three major trophies in a single season: the domestic league title, the primary domestic cup competition, and the Champions League (or European Cup, before the 1992 rebrand). Some fans use looser definitions that include other trophies, but the strict version, league plus domestic cup plus European Cup, is the one that carries the most weight among pundits and historians.
Celtic: football’s first Treble winners
Celtic became the first British club to complete this exact Treble. In 1966–67, they won the Scottish league, the Scottish Cup and the European Cup in the same season. Their European Cup final victory over Inter Milan remains one of football’s most romantic stories. Every player in the starting eleven that day came from within about 30 miles of Glasgow, a story we cover in our guide to early European Cup history.
Manchester United’s 1999 Treble
Manchester United achieved English football’s only Treble in 1998–99. They won the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Champions League, all in the same season. The European Cup final against Bayern Munich became legendary in its own right. United scored twice in stoppage time, through Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær, turning a 1–0 deficit into a 2–1 win in about two minutes.
No other English club has repeated the feat since, which is part of why the 1999 team still holds a special place in Premier League history.
Barcelona’s two Trebles
Barcelona have completed the Treble twice, more than any other club. The first came in 2008–09, in Pep Guardiola’s first season as coach. His squad was built around Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andrés Iniesta, all products of the club’s famous academy, La Masia, which we cover in our guide to Barcelona’s history.
Barcelona repeated the achievement in 2014–15, this time led by the attacking trio of Messi, Luis Suárez and Neymar, known collectively as MSN, who scored well over 100 goals between them across the season.
Bayern Munich’s Trebles
Bayern Munich have also won the Treble twice. The first came in 2012–13 under Jupp Heynckes, ending a run of near-misses in the Champions League final. The second came in 2019–20 under Hansi Flick, a campaign that included an 8–2 demolition of Barcelona in the quarter-final.
Inter Milan’s Treble
Under José Mourinho, Inter Milan completed the Treble in 2009–10. They remain the first, and so far only, Italian club to achieve it. Inter beat Bayern Munich in the Champions League final in Madrid, a result that also denied Bayern their own Treble bid that same season.
Manchester City’s 2023 Treble
Manchester City became the most recent club to win the Treble, completing English football’s second in 2022–23. Pep Guardiola, who had already won it once with Barcelona, led the way again. City beat Inter Milan in the Champions League final to complete a season that also included the Premier League and FA Cup. It cemented the club’s status as one of the dominant teams of its era.
Why the Treble is so rare
Winning the Treble requires a club to maintain peak form across three very different competitions. It takes the consistency of a 38-game league season, the knockout unpredictability of a domestic cup, and the elite quality needed to beat the best teams in Europe. Squad depth, freedom from major injuries and a settled tactical system all need to align for an entire season. That is why so few clubs have ever managed it.
Could more clubs achieve it?
Squads have grown deeper, and rotation policies have become more sophisticated. Because of that, some analysts believe the Treble may become slightly less rare in the years ahead. Still, the list of clubs that have done it remains extremely short, a testament to just how demanding the feat truly is.
To learn more about the competition where every Treble bid is decided, read our guide to the modern Champions League format, or check the official record books on the UEFA website. You can also browse our Champions League section.