Has Any Team Ever Won the Quadruple? Arsenal Challenge for Football’s Rarest Achievement
Arsenal remain firmly on course for a truly special season.
Having not lifted a trophy since winning the FA Cup in Mikel Arteta’s debut campaign in 2019–20, the Gunners are now in contention to claim not just one, but potentially four major trophies this term.
If they manage it—and admittedly, it is a big if—Arsenal would join an elite and exclusive group of clubs to have completed a historic quadruple, securing their place in the football history books.
So who has achieved the feat before them? And just how realistic are Arsenal’s chances of following suit?
dark. FREE NEWSLETTER. New SI FC Newsletter Global Embed. Sign Up to Get Informed With SI FC
What Is a Quadruple?
First, let’s address the elephant in the room.
Taken literally, the term quadruple could refer to a team winning any four trophies in a single season. In footballing terms, however, a true quadruple is far more narrowly defined.
To be considered genuine, a quadruple requires a team to win its top continental competition, its domestic league title, its primary domestic cup, and its secondary domestic cup (or equivalent) all in the same campaign. In England, for example, that would mean lifting the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and EFL Cup.
One-off honours such as the Community Shield or Supercopa de España are not included, nor are additional competitions like the FIFA Club World Cup. Secondary continental tournaments, including the Europa League and Europa Conference League, also do not count.
With such strict criteria, it’s little wonder that completing a true quadruple remains one of the rarest feats in football history.
How Close Are Arsenal to Winning the Quadruple?
At present, Arsenal’s pursuit of all four major trophies is going remarkably well.
The Gunners sit top of the Premier League with roughly a third of the season remaining and have built a small but valuable cushion over closest challengers Manchester City and Aston Villa.
In the Champions League, Mikel Arteta’s side have already booked their place in the last 16, finishing first in their league phase after winning all eight matches—an emphatic statement of intent.
Domestically, Arsenal remain alive in the FA Cup, although the competition is still in its early stages. More significantly, they have reached the EFL Cup final, having seen off Chelsea 4–2 on aggregate in the semifinals.
All told, Arsenal could hardly have hoped for a better position at this stage of the campaign. There is still plenty of football to be played, but silverware now feels a strong possibility. Winning all four trophies, however, is another matter entirely. The Champions League, in particular, looms as the ultimate challenge, requiring Arsenal to overcome Europe’s very best to lift the trophy for the first time in their history.
Has Any Team Ever Won the Quadruple?
Only one team in European football history has ever completed a true quadruple.
That team was Celtic in the 1966–67 season, when Jock Stein’s legendary Lisbon Lions achieved the remarkable feat. Named after their 2–1 victory over Inter Milan in the European Cup final at Lisbon’s Estádio Nacional, Celtic won the European Cup, Scottish First Division, Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup all in the same campaign.
Outside of Europe, the iconic Santos side of 1962, led by Pelé, also completed a recognised quadruple. That season, Santos lifted the Campeonato Paulista, Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, Copa Libertadores and the Intercontinental Cup.
Teams That Have Won Four or More Trophies
There have been countless instances of teams winning four or more trophies in a single season without completing a true quadruple.
Paris Saint-Germain, for example, won a domestic treble—Ligue 1, Coupe de France and Coupe de la Ligue—on four occasions (2014–15, 2015–16, 2017–18, and 2019–20), also lifting the Trophée des Champions, France’s domestic Super Cup, in each of those seasons.
When PSG finally claimed the Champions League in 2024–25, they also won Ligue 1 and the Coupe de France. However, the Coupe de la Ligue had already been scrapped, denying them the chance to join Celtic as European quadruple winners.
Clubs such as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Porto have all collected four trophies in a single campaign multiple times without ever securing a true quadruple. The same is true in South America, where teams like River Plate, São Paulo and Peñarol have enjoyed trophy-laden seasons that still fell short of the strict criteria.
Elsewhere, clubs across Asia—including Al-Muharraq and Al-Wehdat—have also amassed four or more titles in a season without meeting the definition.
Most strikingly, Flamengo won six trophies during the 2024–25 campaign—Supercopa do Brasil, Campeonato Carioca, Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, Copa Libertadores, FIFA Derby of the Americas and the FIFA Challenger Cup—yet still did not complete a true quadruple, as the haul did not include all four of the country’s and continent’s major competitions.
Call it unfair—but those are the rules.
READ THE LATEST ARSENAL NEWS, TRANSFER RUMORS AND MORE
feed