The Champions League cult sides are so much more memorable than the winners of the competition, in some cases. Seriously, who remembers the Bayern side of the early 2000s, compared with, say, Monaco with Falcao and Mbappe leading the line?
It takes something special to become a Champions League legend. It takes something perhaps even more so to become a cult hero: just last week, we were awash with Barclaysmen on social media – well, here are the 'Gazprommen' who have lit up the competition without winning it.
The clubs that entertained you without being all-conquering, did something unique, after all. Only one team of the 32 entrants – OK, OK… 36 – can win it.
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The rest are competing merely for memories. So let's delve into that: for our list of the greatest-ever cult sides in the Champions League, we've excluded winners. We've ranked them purely on nostalgia, fun and a little of their ability.
You've seen a thousand eulogies for Pep Guardiola's Barcelona; debates of whether Sir Alex's '99 or '08 stars were better. Well here's to all those misfits at Ligue 1 clubs who stumbled into the quarters, and the Bundesliga stars who had no right getting to the final.
We've considered teams collectively and individually. And this is what we've got…
Who are your favourite cult, streets-won't-forget Champions League sides? Tell us @FourFourTwo on social.
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The greatest-ever cult Champions League sides ever 20. Paris Saint-Germain, 1994/95
These days, Paris Saint-Germain are the U2 of football: painfully uncool, no matter how hard they try. Exactly the kind of club to force you to download their new away shirt. Back in the 90s, however, they were every hipster's choice.
Even those navy blue shirts were a brighter shade; the badge looked like the logo for a bad TV channel. George Weah played up front with L'Oreal frontman David Ginola out left. The talismanic Rai was behind at no.10: this was a culture club with style fitting of the French capital.
PSG stormed their group, beat Barcelona in the quarters and were eventually turned over in 1996 by AC Milan, like everyone was, back when Milan were good. And that was the last we heard of PSG for a bit: they won the Cup Winners Cup the following season and were thwarted in the final a season later by Barcelona.
That only added to the mystique, as this curious club later signed Jay-Jay Okocha and Ronaldinho, not making it back into the big time for a while. Honestly? We kind of wish they hadn't rebranded as the Nike pet project ft. Neymar. Ginola is still cooler than Mbappe, too.
19. Arsenal, 2010/11
In 2006, Arsenal got the Champions League final with a 4-5-1, relying on solidity and the genius of Thierry Henry. And it needs pointing out: Arsene Wenger's greatest-ever European team was also his most boring – they didn't concede goals but they didn't exactly thrill, either.
Not like 2011's vintage. This was an Arsenal team with a 19-year-old Jack Wilshere running the show; Cesc Fabregas was captain, while Tomas Rosicky, Samir Nasri and Andrey Arshavin provided the flair. Things weren't nearly as stable at the back but the Emirates seemed to rock in a way that north London hadn't since the Invincibles.
This was the season that Barcelona were beaten in north London and the team remains one of the most fun and most fluid that Wenger ever constructed. It was never going to win the Champions League - but it certainly left its mark.
18. Barcelona, 1993/94
Johan Cruyff seems a world away from the Champions League era. He was barely pirouetting in colour for the Netherlands – so the fact that his Barca team were a mainstay of the early Champions League years is trippy to say the least.
The 1992 champions returned in subsequent years, ever more desperate to get their hands on Old Big Ears again, like a TV villain camply rubbing its hands. Barca still had Stoichkov and Romario, Guardiola and Koeman - they still played beautiful football - and they were still a club of panache and incredible technique. But the fact that they weren't unbeatable back then gave them an aura that they were something a little different. They were renegades. Rebels. They were the exception rather than the rule.
Now, everyone has been inspired by Barcelona. But these were simpler times, the 90s, when Cruyff could smoke in his technical area and Guardiola had thicker eyebrows. The Dream Team were the stuff of legend.
17. Inter Milan, 2004/05
That Inter Milan drew 12 of their first 15 Serie A fixtures should tell you that the 2004/05 season was a bit of a weird one.
With Roberto Mancini at the wheel for the first time, Inter boasted perhaps the most cult mix of strikers that Italian club football has seen this century. Julio Cruz, Adriano Alvaro Recoba, Obafemi Martins and Christian Vieri all lined up for the Nerazzurri that season – backed up by Kily Gonzalez, Edgar Davids, Giorgos Karagounis, Juan Sebastien Veron, Andy van der Meyde, Esteban Cambiasso and Dejan Stankovic. Crikey.
The iconic shot from their Champions League campaign is one of disgrace, mind. Rui Costa and Marco Materazzi stood chatting on the San Siro pitch during a Milan derby, as missiles were thrown and fireworks set off. Still, what a team – and what an third kit, while we're at it…
16. Villarreal, 2005/06
Juan Roman Riquelme spent one season at Villarreal. He was majestic for the entire campaign, helping the Yellow Submarine to the semi-finals of the Champions League for the first time. And then he missed a decisive penalty as Arsenal beat them to get to Paris.
Stories like those fuel legends. Manuel Pellegrini's team were fantastic in 2006, knocking out Rangers and Inter Milan in the knockouts. Diego Forlan was in fine fettle wearing the no.5 shirt, Alessio Tacchinardi was on loan from Juventus, while Marcos Senna was imperious in the engine room. A 21-year-old Santi Cazorla was there, too.
It may have ended in heartbreak for the Spanish minnows but theirs is one of the most memorable underdog stories in the competition's recent history.
15. Juventus, 1997/98
Juventus lost twice in the league in the whole of 1997/98. This is one of the most outrageously talented football teams that ever existed and frankly, how they lost back-to-back European finals is anyone's guess.
Marcello Lippi was in charge, with Alessandro Del Piero and Filippo Inzaghi up front; Zinedine Zidane was just behind them, with Edgar Davids, Antonio Conte and Didier Deschamps in midfield. That's utterly ridiculous, in any era.
This is the Juventus that everyone fell in love with; a Juve of style, expression and grace, long before the Old Lady bored everyone to death with deep blocks under Max Allegri. OK, so they may only have won one Champions League in the 90s – but we wouldn't swap that for the memories this side created.
14. Atalanta, 2019/20
Atalanta didn't win their first four Champions League games in their maiden campaign – yet just they came minutes from knocking moneybags Paris Saint-Germain out of the competition in Lisbon during lockdown.
They were just nothing like we'd ever seen before. From the man-marking and the back three to Papu Gomez darting from side to side like a bumblebee, Atalanta were just insanely fun to watch. Duvan Zapata and Luis Muriel also grabbed headlines, while the madcap wing-backs became a reference point for some of Europe's brightest tactical minds. When Josip Ilicic netted four times to send Valencia out of the knockouts 8-4 on aggregate, we all knew we weren't witnessing your average park-the-bus Italian side, right?
A team so small that they couldn't play their home games in Bergamo, La Dea might not ever achieve too much in Europe. Fair play to them though – their status as a cult favourite is already assured.
13. Dynamo Kyiv, 1998/99
In footballing terms, the world is now fully discovered. Gone are the days of watching a 3pm World Cup to find new players: no one is new and everyone has a blue Wikipedia link.
But things were different at the turn of the century. English speakers have only just started pronouncing it Dee-NAR-moh, so imagine the shock at discovering Serhiy Rebrov and Andriy Shevchenko were hiding away in eastern Europe.
It was one of the deadliest strike duos of the modern era, supplemented by crosses from future Milan star Kakha Kaladze and future Arsenal lump Oleg Luzhny. They made the Champions League final four in 1999 - and they were marvellous, beating Real Madrid en route.
12. Real Madrid 2002/03
Real Madrid are plenty of things but they are not cool. They have never had a kit that you've been nostalgic for in later years; the closest they have to a genuine cult footballer is probably Guti. They are the mainstream that Barcelona have kicked against for decades.
But the 2002/03 side - the Galactico squad that achieved nothing in Europe - has become a cult side despite itself. If they had have won the Champions League, no one would have cared: it's the fact they didn't they took on a higher elevation. Their iconic moments are that Ronaldo hat-trick at Old Trafford, a 3-1 mauling of AC Milan in the group stage (though it hardly mattered) and a semi-final first-leg masterclass over Juventus, despite losing the second leg.
This Real side became cool because they played like winning wasn't the be-all and end-all – it was all about putting on a show. Of course, that wasn't what Florentino Perez intended though, was it? In the years that followed, they slowly and sadly lost that cult aspect.
11. Auxerre, 2003/04
Perhaps Auxerre made it onto this list because they had PlayStation as their sponsor, or perhaps it was because their no.9 had a spider's web dyed into his hair. Either way, they're a forgotten gem of French football.
Auxerre were managed by Guy Roux who had been in charge for decades, led up top by a young Djibril Cisse and in Phillippe Mexes and Jean-Alain Boumsong, they had a genuinely solid defensive partnership before career decisions altered other perceptions. This was a tiny team who punched so above their weight that they made it to the top table of European football – and even though their Champions League dream lasted six matches, they were great value.
Les Diplomates are finally back in Ligue 1, now. They no longer have a goalkeeper called Fabian Cool, though. Swings and roundabouts, really.
