Lionel Messi, Zlatan Ibrahimović & Co – The players with the most league titles in the top five leagues

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Cristiano Ronaldo 62nd 

Europe’s top-five leagues have dominated club football – certainly on the continent itself – for a long time now. Of the 23 clubs to have won the Champions League, or the European Cup as it used to be called, just eight of them are clubs outside of the top-five leagues. Among them only Ajax have won it more than twice. The last non-top-five league team to win the competition was Liga Portugal’s Porto, 20 years ago, back in the 2003/04 campaign. This, of course, supports the argument that to win a top-five league title in modern football is mightily tough.

Whilst some might argue that it’s perhaps easier to win France’s Ligue 1 than England’s Premier League or Spain’s LaLiga, lifting the title in any of those five divisions is some achievement. But which players have tasted that glory the most down the years? Here at Transfermarkt, we have calculated the all-time players with the most league titles in a top-five league division (that’s Premier League, LaLiga, Serie A, Bundesliga, and Ligue 1). Some legendary names crop up on the list.

Leading the way is one-club man Ryan Giggs. The Welshman spent 21 years at Manchester United, as the club enjoyed the most successful period in their history under Sir Alex Ferguson. In that time they won as many as 13 Premier League titles stretching from 1992/93 until 2012/13, with Giggs a part of each and every one of those triumphs. While the Red Devils’ legendary winger stands out alone in first place, six players follow him in second with 12 league titles in the top five divisions.

The icon Lionel Messi won 10 LaLiga titles with Barcelona, before winning Ligue 1 twice with PSG. David Alaba lifted 10 Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich, whilst adding two LaLiga titles with Real Madrid. Thomas Müller won all of his 12 titles in the Bundesliga with Bayern, and the same could be said for Gary Neville, but all Premier League victories with Man United. Real Madrid legend Paco Gento won 12 LaLiga titles with ‘Los Blancos’ back in the 1950’s and 60’s, while Kingsley Coman has been a winner everywhere he’s been – winning eight Bundesliga titles with Bayern, two Ligue 1 titles with PSG, and two Serie A titles with Juventus. He won both the Serie A and the Bundesliga in 2015/16 as the Frenchman was part of both the Bayern and Juventus squads that lifted their respective titles, transferring to the German club on August 30 having already played for Juventus in Serie A.

There are then another six players with 10 titles: Manuel Neuer, Paul Scholes, Arjen Robben, Thiago Alcántara, Robert Lewandowski and Gianluigi Buffon. Three players have won 10 top-five league titles – Zlatan Ibrahimović, Gerard Piqué and Pirri. Interestingly of the 16 players to have a top-five league title 10 or more times, only Buffon and Ibrahimović have failed to also win the Champions League. The great Cristiano Ronaldo is as far down on the list as joint 62nd, having won a top-five league title just seven times across his sensational career.

However, the Portuguese superstar is among the 23 players to have won the title in three of Europe’s top five leagues. To date, no player has managed the feat of winning it in four of the five divisions. As you can see in the graphic above, the list of winners in three different countries includes other legendary names such as David Beckham, Thierry Henry, and Eden Hazard.