Without going into a ton of detail, because that’s been done ad nauseum in these pages, the annual rankings consider only the statistics from the most recently completed season (2008-09 for most domestic leagues, 2009 for some) and the most recently completed continental championships (2008-09 UEFA Champions League, 2009 Copa Libertadores, etc.). For that reason, you’ll see Liverpool and Atletico Madrid on these rankings despite disappointing 2009-10 campaigns. Keep that in mind before the hate mail comes in. Oh, nevermind. Most of the hate mail will come from people who didn’t bother to read this far anyway.
Twenty-three of the twenty-five clubs come from Europe, so we’ll begin there. For the third year in a row, England placed three clubs into the final four in the UEFA Champions League, so English clubs dominate the charts. This season, however, Manchester United’s run of WCR Club of the Year titles came to an end at two as Barcelona won the UEFA Champions League (and everything else, it seems) on the foot of Eto’o and the head of Messi, defeating Manchester United 2-0 in the final. This victory was enough to kick Barcelona to the top of the WCR Annual Rankings for the third time. With respect to the final UEFA Cup, that title was taken by the Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk, who scored a 2-1 extra time victory over Werder Bremen in the final.
None of the other continental champions managed to make the final WCR Top 25 rankings. Estudiantes de la Plata came from behind in Belo Horizonte to defeat Cruzeiro 2-1 in the second and deciding leg of the 2009 Copa Libertadores final, but Estudiantes struggled all year in the Argentine Primera Division and still managed to miss the rankings. Cruzeiro is below, however, as is fellow Brazilian club Gremio.
Mexico’s Atlante also managed to win a continental title despite mediocre domestic results by defeating Cruz Azul 2-0 in aggregate to take home the CONCACAF Champions League title. Elsewhere around the world, TP Mazembe (Democratic Republic of Congo) won the CAF Champions League by defeating Nigeria’s Heartland on away goals in the final and Pohang Steelers from South Korea defeated Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ittihad 2-1 in the final of the AFC Champions League for the Asian title.
Once again, this is the annual ranking, which is a summary of the latest complete season, and not the weekly ranking, which is a snapshot of the current season to date. The weekly rankings will return next week. Congratulations to Barcelona for taking another title!!!
World Club Rankings – Top 25 Clubs in the World – 2009
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