Highlights
Opta have ranked the 30 best football teams in the world using their power rankings.
Teams like Girona and Chelsea make the list, despite the latter’s subpar performances in the Premier League in 2023/24.
The top 10 teams include Manchester City, while Bayer Leverkusen have risen to fourth after their unbeaten season under Xabi Alonso.
What makes a team the best in the world? It’s a rather subjective question. Sure, the amount of wins and trophies a club has won in recent times can be a good indicator, but in a sport where anyone could beat anyone, it feels like a tough ask to pick just one team that trumps the rest. After all, comparing teams from different leagues requires pure guesswork.
As an example, Manchester United have never locked horns with Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr. And while many may think the former would easily come out on top, it’s practically impossible to know full well. Admittedly, it’s subjective and there is technically no right or wrong answer – but everyone could use some help from the folks over at Opta, who have calculated – and recently updated – their Power Rankings. For an explainer on how their Power Rankings are calculated, please read here.
Had a read through? Good. Here are the 30 greatest teams in world football as things stand, how well they’ve performed in European competitions in seasons gone by and exactly why they are placed where they are.
World’s Best Teams: 30th-21st
Including Chelsea and Napoli
Opta Power Rankings – 30-21 (as of July 26, 2024)
Power Ranking
Team
Rating/100
30.
Napoli
89.3
29.
Real Sociedad
89.7
28.
AS Monaco
89.8
27.
Benfica
89.9
26.
Newcastle United
89.9
25.
Athletic Club
90.1
24.
PSV Eindhoven
90.2
23.
Lazio
90.2
22.
Chelsea
90.3
21.
Porto
90.4
Making the top 30 by the skin of their teeth is Napoli. The 2022/23 Italian champions did a torrid job retaining their crown last season with a litany of managerial changes – from Luciano Spalletti to Rudi Garcia to Walter Mazzerri to Francesco Calzona. Despite that, the Serie A side managed to crawl their way into this list by the barest of margins.
They are followed by a Real Sociedad side who secured Europa League qualification last time out and an AS Monaco team who, unsurprisingly, finished in second place behind Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1. The former will be looking to regain a spot in Europe’s top table in 2024/25, while the latter will be hoping to take their domestic rivals to the wire and potentially even shock the French top division. For now, they have a ranking of 89.8.
Benfica and Newcastle United have been two surprise packages in recent seasons and both occupy 27th and 26th place, respectively. Eddie Howe’s hardened outfit may have dropped off from 2022/23’s high standards – but given they were juggling a ridiculously high injury list for most of the season, their season cannot be regarded as unsuccessful. What the next campaign will bring for the Magpies is unknown.
Athletic Club won the Copa del Rey last season – for the 24th time in their storied history – and finished fifth in the La Liga standings, eight points behind the Champions League spots. While Europa League football would be far from a failure, the allure of being among Europe’s elite is bound to drive them on in the coming seasons.
PSV, under Arne Slot’s stewardship, made the Eredivisie look like a cakewalk in 2023/24 and held an unassailable nine-point lead with two games to go, whereas Serie A club, Lazio, come in 23rd spot in Opta’s rankings (90.2).
Chelsea and Porto follow closely next and conclude the 30-21 places, with the Portuguese side pipping the west London outfit, who went on quite a roll at the latter stages of 2023/24. It wasn’t a terribly impressive season for the English side – but with Enzo Maresca now through the door as boss, who knows what they will achieve? Meanwhile, with Sporting CP the runaway winners, Porto were forced to settle for third place in their league behind Benfica.
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World’s Best Teams: 20th-11st
Including AC Milan & Barcelona
Opta Power Rankings – 20-11 (as of July 26, 2024)
Power Rankings
Team
Rating/100
20.
Bologna
90.5
19.
AS Roma
90.7
18.
Girona
90.8
17.
Stuttgart
91.1
16.
AC Milan
91.3
15.
Sporting CP
91.8
14.
Atletico Madrid
92.2
13.
Juventus
92.2
12.
RB Leipzig
92.8
11.
Borussia Dortmund
92.9
Into the top 20 we go, and these spots start with a couple of teams who enjoyed seasons that have gone beyond their wildest expectations: Spain’s Girona and Bologna of Serie A. Sandwiched in between are AS Roma, whose fortunes in the Italian capital changed drastically following Jose Mourinho’s departure. Club legend Daniele De Rossi has turned the tide, although his men just crashed out of the Europa League in the semi-final stage having initially fought their way back into the tie. With a 90.7 rating, they sit in 19th.
La Liga’s resident underdogs, Girona, were the talk of the town in Spain for their journey into the Champions League places and although their title charge ran out of steam around February, the fact they have secured Tuesday and Wednesday night football is remarkable in itself – and they are only bound to improve as the seasons go by.
AC Milan, in 16th, had to watch on as their local rivals held another league title aloft after a dominant season in Italy. In fact, they gifted Inter Milan domestic gold following a 2-1 defeat to the Nerazzurri. Atletico Madrid – placed in 14th – are just in front of Sporting CP, who finished last campaign at the summit of Liga Nos. Despite their excellent run, it wasn’t enough for chief Ruben Amorim to convince the higher-ups at Liverpool to take a chance on him.
Elsewhere, Atleti enjoyed a flawless run in their Champions League group but fell to eventual finalists, Borussia Dortmund. Diego Simeone and his entourage finished below Girona, Barcelona and Real Madrid in the league last term, but the Madrid-based club still managed to achieve Champions League football.
Juventus – with a rating of 92.2, sitting in 13th – may count themselves unlucky not to make the top 10, though their status in the European football echo chamber does let them down. Gone are the days when the Old Lady were one of the best clubs in the continent and the far superior team in their nation.
Losing out on the Bundesliga title to Bayern Munich on the final day of the 2022/23 season was a real sickener for Borussia Dortmund, who also lost to Chelsea in the Champions League Round of 16 that season – but that didn’t stop them from reaching the Champions League final after some brilliant performances against Atletico Madrid and PSG in the knock-out stages.
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World’s Best Teams: 10th-1st
Including Manchester City, PSG and Bayer Leverkusen
Opta Power Rankings – 1st-10th (as of July 26, 2024)
Power Rankings
Team
Rating/100
10.
Atalanta
93.7
9.
Bayern Munich
93.8
8.
Liverpool
94.3
7.
Barcelona
94.4
6.
Paris Saint-Germain
94.6
5.
Arsenal
95.6
4.
Bayer Leverkusen
95.6
3.
Inter Milan
97.9
2.
Real Madrid
99.3
1.
Manchester City
100
The top 10 are made up of the creme de la creme of world football, though every team here – unsurprisingly – resides in Europe. Kicking off the top 10 are a stubborn-looking Atalanta side, who secured 10th spot as the second-highest rated Italian team. The Bergamo-based outfit did a magnificent job overcoming Liverpool in the quarter-finals of the Europa League last term and then recorded an Ademola Lookman-inspired victory over Bayer Leverkusen at the final stage.
A defeated Champions League semi-finalist, Bayern Munich, have a rating of 93.8 and have dropped a few places, after their dominant decade-long run came to an end. Harry Kane’s side failed to meet the expectations many have come to expect of the Bavarians as they lost out on the Bundesliga title.
They are just behind a Liverpool team that failed to provide the fairytale ending for their German manager, winning just the League Cup. In fact, it was quite the opposite, with pitch-side fights and disappointing performances marring the out-of-work tactician’s farewell tour. Now, it’s Arne Slot’s chance to prove himself as a top-level manager.
There’s also a place in the top 10 for Barcelona. It was a tough year for the Catalan giants as they never looked close to retaining their La Liga title. Despite having a 3-2 lead after the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final, they crashed out to PSG. Can new boss Hansi Flick – formerly of the German national team – propel them further up Opta’s rankings?
Paris Saint-Germain may have lost Kylian Mbappe to Real Madrid this summer, but they are still sixth in terms of their ranking (94.6), in front of the likes of Barcelona and Liverpool. The Ligue 1 juggernauts secured a domestic treble with a 2-1 win over Lyon in the French Cup final in May – but that’s become commonplace nowadays for the capital club.
They are followed by an Arsenal side, who – once again – failed to knock Manchester City off their perch. Having come so close to Premier League success two campaigns on the bounce, Mikel Arteta and his well-drilled entourage will be hoping to end the Gunners’ 20-year league title drought when the season ends.
In fourth comes arguably the most in-form team on the planet. In fact, it’s not arguable – they lost one game throughout the entirety of last term. What Xabi Alonso has done at Bayer Leverkusen is beyond explanation. Their last gasp 2-2 draw against Roma in the Europa League gave them the longest European unbeaten run of all-time, but they stumbled at the last hurdle to secure a historic treble.
Inter Milan surprised everyone by reaching the Champions League final in 2022/23 and finished last season, largely thanks to one of Europe’s top performers this season, Lautaro Martinez, as champions of Italy for the 30th time in their history. It was one of the most dominant league campaigns the Serie A has ever seen, which is saying something.
The star-studded nature of Carlo Ancelotti’s industrious Real Madrid side sees them nick position number two with a rating of 99.3 That is hardly a surprise, as Los Blancos came out of the back end of the Champions League campaign triumphant. All eyes were on superstar Ballon d’Or contender Jude Bellingham, who had been outstanding during his maiden term at the Santiago Bernabeu, and he certainly stepped up to the plate. With Kylian Mbappe now brought into the fold, Madrid could create one of the most impressive dynasties football has ever seen.
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That leaves Manchester City to take the gold medal. Despite not retaining their status as Champions League winners, the fact that Pep Guardiola and Co won their fourth consecutive league title means the Cityzens are still given a perfect score of 100. Guardiola, for all his brilliance, has turned the Manchester-based outfit into an unstoppable force, one that enjoyed treble-winning success in 2022/23. The aforementioned success no doubt plays a massive factor in their current ranking, but to say last season was unsuccessful is a huge judgement of error.
All Power Rankings courtesy of Opta – correct as of 26/07/2024
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Publish date : 2024-07-26 13:06:00
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