10 Great players to have never won the UEFA Champions League

#9 Lothar Matthaus

Lothar Matthaus was a talented midfielder and one of the best of his generation, winning 7 Bundesliga titles and 4 DFB-Pokal Cups with Bayern Munich. Matthäus was part of the winning squad in the European Championships in 1980 and ten years later we added the FIFA World Cup to his collection.

'Loddar' as he was known in Germany, won the Ballon d’Or in 1990 while playing for Inter Milan, but his name joined a list of winners who were never able to lift the Champions League trophy.

It was in the 1998/99 season that the German maestro made the Champions League final with Bayern Munich as they faced Manchester United. Just like Michael Ballack, Lothar ended his season on a very painful note to Manchester United

Bayern were just minutes from winning the greatest prize for the first time in the clubs history, but the game ended in heartbreak for both Bayern and Matthaus. Manchester United pulled off the miracle of miracles in the dying seconds scoring twice to win the trophy and achieve the treble.

The midfield dynamo retired from the game in 2000 and much to his misfortune, Bayern Munich went on to win the Champions League the following season after beating Spanish side Valencia 5-4 in a penalty shout out and a 1-1 draw.

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#10 Ronaldo

One of the best strikers in history, Ronaldo managed to destroy teams at club and international level every week, but he is probably the biggest name in world football to never win the Champions League title.

In the 1996/97 season, while playing for Barcelona, Ronaldo won the UEFA Cup Winners Cup when his Spanish side beat Paris Saint Germain 1-0 with the striker scoring the decisive goal in the 38th minute.

After just one season at the Nou Camp, he moved to Serie A side Inter Milan. In his first season in Italian football, he won the UEFA Cup scoring one of the goals in the final helping his team to a 3-0 win against Lazio.

Ronaldo's best attempt to win the main trophy came when he signed for Spanish giants Real Madrid in 2002.

That season his Madrid side took on Juventus in the semi-finals of Europe's biggest competition. The LaLiga team won the first leg 2–1 at the Bernabeu a game that saw the Brazilan score.

Sadly for Ronaldo, they lost the second leg 3–1 in Turin and it was Juventus who went on to the final to play fellow Italians AC Milan at Old Trafford.

For the gifted Brazilian goal scorer that was the closest he ever came to playing in the final, as Real Madrid went through a phase of not getting any further than the Round of 16 between 2005 and 2011.

Ronaldo parted ways with Los Blancos in 2006, moving to AC Milan where he played for two seasons. 'Il Fenomeno' ended his chances of trying to win the coveted trophy when he headed back to his home nation and finished his playing days with Brazilian side Corinthians.