European football’s top flights have been welcoming back former headline acts at a steady rate in recent years. Deportivo, Parma and Hamburg have all returned to their respective elite divisions, and Leeds United, Nottingham Forest, Schalke and Malaga can be added to that list. With so much footballing royalty back in the big time, the question of who is still sleeping is a live one.
BBC Sport senior journalist Alex Bysouth set out to answer it, drawing up criteria based on history, heritage, fanbase and stadium, and limiting the field to clubs currently outside the top flight. A big-city home helps but is not decisive, which rules out Bristol City and second-tier Russian side FC Ufa, where the local population tops one million. Nor is a large ground enough on its own: Bari’s Stadio San Nicola is the third-largest in Italy and was built for Italia ’90, while Hellas Verona, Messina and Palermo also have grounds of more than 30,000 outside Serie A. Germany, stacked with historic clubs in sizeable homes such as Fortuna Dusseldorf, Wolfsburg and Hannover 96, could not be represented in full.
Former glory is a requirement, and Pro Vercelli — seven Italian titles by 1922 — are the obvious candidate on that measure, but the third-tier club, despite being under new ownership, have neither the ground nor the local population to awaken that status soon. Recent success also disqualifies: West Ham won a European competition three years ago and Wolves are recent top-flight regulars, while Stade de Reims, twice European Cup runners-up, and eight-time French champions Nantes are left out. Leaving out Steaua Bucharest was another big call — European Cup winners 40 years ago and Romania’s most dominant club, they now play in Liga II, but after a deeply divisive split many of the traditional fanbase follow top-flight FCSB. Boavista, title winners in 2001, were also considered, but their existence hangs by a thread: facing financial ruin despite fans’ best efforts, they have been ejected from Portugal’s professional leagues.
At number one is Sampdoria. The Genoa club were once continental big-hitters rather than merely domestic champions, buoyed by Paolo Mantovani’s investment. They won the Coppa Italia four times between 1985 and 1994, clinched the Scudetto in 1991 and reached three European finals, winning the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1990 a year after losing the final to Barcelona. In 1992 the team of Gianluca Vialli, Roberto Mancini and Gianluca Pagliuca were again beaten by Barcelona, in extra time of the European Cup final at Wembley. Big names kept arriving between Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side winning the club’s last major trophy in 1994 and a first relegation five years later — Clarence Seedorf, Juan Sebastian Veron and Ariel Ortega among them. Samp had spells back in Europe before finishing bottom of Serie A in 2023 amid serious financial problems, almost dropping into the third tier. Under new ownership, fans hope for greater stability, and the architecturally iconic Stadio Luigi Ferraris they share with rivals Genoa is set for an expensive redevelopment before Italy host Euro 2032.
Second are Saint-Etienne, the most-decorated club in France until Paris St-Germain overtook them in the past decade, with 10 league titles in 25 seasons from 1956-57 to 1980-81. Les Verts reached the European Cup final in 1976, losing to a vintage Bayern Munich side, and their last silverware came in the now-defunct Coupe de la Ligue 13 years ago with a team spearheaded by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. They are spending a fourth season in five in the second tier, but continue to produce top prospects: William Saliba and Wesley Fofana came off the production line, and 18-year-old attacking talent Djylian N’Guessan will join Liverpool in January. Their 41,965-capacity Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, nicknamed the ‘cauldron’, came within a whisker of seeing Ligue 1 football again this term, but Les Verts lost to Nice in the promotion/relegation play-off.
Real Zaragoza take third place, three decades on from Nayim’s long, looping winner beating David Seaman in the final minute of extra time to deliver the 1995 Cup Winners’ Cup. There have been two Copa del Rey triumphs, European journeys and star names since — Pablo Aimar, Diego Milito and David Villa among them — but Los Manos now find themselves in Spain’s third tier. Ander Herrera, aged 37, is back at his boyhood club, which is developing a new 43,114-capacity stadium for the 2030 World Cup in an attempt to help the fallen giants return to former glories. “Real Zaragoza belong to Europe, they belong to compete for trophies, to be fighting with the biggest clubs in Spain and in Europe,” Herrera said.
Fourth are FC Nuremberg, who meet every criterion: nine league titles, with the latest of four cup triumphs coming in 2007, a 50,000-seater home and a large local fanbase in a one-club city. Nicknamed ‘Der Club’ because of their status in early German football, they are managed by World Cup winner and Germany’s all-time top goalscorer Miroslav Klose, in charge since June 2024.
Bordeaux are fifth, their recent troubles well documented. Relegated from Ligue 1 in 2022, administration meant they tumbled into the fourth tier, and this summer they were again demoted, to the regional sixth tier, because of financial issues. Having seemingly hit the bottom, the 2009 French champions at least have something to build on after being bought by US investment fund Park Bench for one euro. Les Girondins are dripping in history — once home to former greats Jean Tigana and Zinedine Zidane, as well as current France internationals Aurelien Tchouameni and Jules Kounde — and their decade-old home hosted a Euro 2016 quarter-final, although Bordeaux are not playing there at present as they try to shape their future.
Hertha BSC come sixth. Their only titles precede the Bundesliga era, but the Old Lady once reached a Uefa Cup semi-final and beat Chelsea in the Champions League in 1999. This season is their fourth consecutive campaign outside the top tier, yet Hertha continue to play at Berlin’s Olympiastadion and regularly attract more than 50,000 fans, with a new ground on the Olympic Park site housing up to 52,000 being considered. Currently top of 2.Bundesliga, they can tap into a deep talent pool on their doorstep — highly rated youngsters Ibrahim Maza and Kennet Eichhorn have joined Leverkusen, while goalkeeper Tjark Ernst went to Feyenoord.
Sheffield Wednesday are seventh. Their rivals Sheffield United may argue they should be here instead, but the Owls edge it on history and heritage, even if the most recent of their four league titles came almost 100 years ago. Wednesday were League Cup winners in 1991, and in living memory for many gave us magical moments from the likes of David Hirst, Chris Waddle and Paolo di Canio. They now sit in the third tier after entering administration and enduring relegation last season, before a US consortium bought the club in May. Boasting England’s 12th biggest club stadium and relegated from the top flight in 2000, the Owls’ fans are fuelled with fresh optimism that a reawakening is possible.
Kaiserslautern are eighth. With their 1997-98 success, they remain the only side to win the Bundesliga immediately after promotion, albeit following a surprise relegation having also been champions in 1991 and enjoyed cup triumphs in 1990 and 1996. European regulars in the 1990s and early 2000s, it is now almost 15 years since they competed in the Bundesliga, and they spent four seasons in the third tier before a promotion in 2022. Despite modest league finishes they continue to record average crowds of more than 46,000, and almost pulled off another shock in 2024 when they reached the German Cup final, losing to Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen.
Dynamo Dresden, ninth, are the first of four German entries and, bearing a complex history and situated in the underrepresented east, feel a little different. Initially enjoying the support of the security forces before their best players were relocated to Berlin, Dynamo became European regulars and lost to Liverpool in the Uefa Cup in 1976 and the European Cup two seasons later. One of East Germany’s most dominant clubs, they won eight titles and seven cups and joined the Bundesliga in 1991 following reunification, but dropped into the third tier four years later amid relegation and mounting debts. With alumni including Matthias Sammer, they have bounced around the regional and lower leagues for many years but now sit in 2.Bundesliga, their potential underpinned by a large, passionate fanbase who averaged over 30,000 for home games in the second tier last term.
Rounding off the top 10 are Bursaspor, who snapped Istanbul’s long-running dominance by becoming only the second club from outside the capital — and the first since Trabzonspor almost three decades earlier — to clinch the Turkish title in 2010. That meant Champions League nights against Manchester United and Rangers, but in 2024 the Green Crocodiles dropped into the fourth tier for the first time in their history. Based in a city of about 2.5 million people in the north west, near Mount Uludag, and with a unique crocodile-shaped stadium that can house 43,361 fans, Bursaspor have soared up the pyramid since and are looking to return to the Super Lig for the first time since 2019.