Which Player Has Won the Most Champions League Titles?
The Champions League, first held in the 1955-1956 season as the European Cup, has seen 22 clubs hoist the trophy as winners. Naturally, some of the game's top players have captured numerous Champions League titles; 20 players have won the competition four or more times, and 10 have won it five or more times.
One player has won the competition more than five times: Francisco Gento, a Spainard who captured six titles with Real Madrid in the 1950s and 1960s. Real Madrid won the first five championships from 1956-1960, along with a 1966 win with Gento as a left-winger. Gento scored 31 European Cup goals and 182 total goals with Madrid, and he was more recently appointed honorary president of Real Madrid in 2016.
A number of players have won five Champions League titles, seven of whom were part of the Real Madrid core that won five-straight from 1956-1960 (Héctor Rial, Juan Alonso, Juan Santisteban, Marquitos, Rafael Lesmes, José María Zárraga and Alfredo Di Stéfano). Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Costacurta (AC Milan) also won five European titles, with theirs coming across a span of 18 years from 1989-2007, though Costacurta didn't play in two of the finals. Cristiano Ronaldo has five titles too, three of which came in the past three years with Real Madrid.
Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi are among a larger group of players with four Champions League titles.
