For any footballer, winning the coveted Champions League trophy is seen as the pinnacle of any career. While some of world's greatest players have won European football's Holy Grail, but other elite players have failed to do so. Some haven't had the chance, while some have come agonizingly close.
The two greatest players of recent times, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, have won the Champions League four and five times respectively, which goes to show how quality often coincides with success in the competition.
Yet there are some exceptions, with a number of legendary players having failed to win the greatest club prize of all. And it remains a great injustice that some of the finest to grace the pitch were denied that elusive winners' medal.
Without further ado, here's the greatest XI of players who have never won the Champions League.
1. Goalkeeper
Gianluigi Buffon deserves a Champions League trophy and it is hard to believe that the 2006 FIFA World Cup winner with Italy has not won the prestigious trophy yet.
Buffon won the 2003 UEFA Champions League Player of the Year award, but his Juventus side lost on penalties to Italian rivals Milan in the final.
Fresh from becoming a World Cup winner in 2006, Buffon chose to stay with Juventus even after they were relegated following the match-fixing scandal. Little wonder he is such an icon in Turin.
2. Defenders
Left back: Gianluca Zambrotta - Juventus, 71 UCL games
Zambrotta was at Barcelona during a relatively dry spell for the LaLiga giants. Zambrotta was crucial to Juventus' imperious side in the 90s and also excelled at Milan but like so many of the great Italians of his era, he failed to translate that into Champions League success.
Center back: Lilian Thuram - Juventus, 69 UCL games
Perhaps a slightly neglected great these days among the pantheon of all time defenders, but there were few centre backs more complete than Lilian Thuram. Some of Thuram’s achievements in Italy were revoked due to the match-fixing scandal in the mid-2000s, but he is still a club legend having won two Serie A titles legitimately.
Center back: Fabio Cannavaro - Juventus, 60 UCL games
XI below
Right back: Gael Clichy - Arsenal, 73 UCL games
In a season when he made 16 appearances, with nine matches featuring a teenage Clichy in the starting line-up, Arsenal were truly the Invincibles. They did not lose a single league game and were 11 points ahead of second-placed Chelsea. But the closest he's got to the Champions League is when Arsenal reached the final in 2006 only to lose to Barcelona.
3. Midfielders
Right midfield: Robert Pires - Arsenal, 81 UCL games
When Jens Lehmann was shown a red card just 18 minutes into the 2006 Champions League final between Arsenal and Barcelona, Pires was the unfortunate casualty forced to make way for substitute goalkeeper Manuel Almunia. That was the closest Pires came to winning the tournament, with his four pre-Arsenal years at Villarreal yielding a single quarter-final appearance in 2008/09.
Central midfield: Michael Ballack - Chelsea, 93 UCL games
Finishing runner-up with one team is bad enough, but to do it with two must be galling. That's exactly the fate which befell Ballack: first in 2002 with Bayer Leverkusen, then six years later with Chelsea. All of those near-successes must have been painful, but they earned Ballack a move to Bayern Munich. There, he won three league and cup doubles.
Central midfield: Pavel Nedved - Juventus, 79 UCL games
Nedved, considered one of the greatest midfielders of the modern era, made 100 appearances in Europe during his time in Italy but never even played in the final. Nedved would have featured in the 2003 final against Milan had he not picked up too many yellow cards, which saw him miss the big occasion through suspension.
Central attacking midfielder: Francesco Totti - AS Roma, 55 UCL games
One of the greatest Italian players of all time and one of the greatest of his generation period, Francesco Totti hasn't even come close to winning the Champions League trophy. Totti deserved far more silverware in his career - the blow softened by winning the 2006 World Cup with Italy - but his sparse mantelpiece is the price he paid for his loyalty to Roma.
4. Forwards
Forward: Zlatan Ibrahimovic - PSG, 120 UCL games
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been on the league-winning side every year for the past nine seasons, but he's never been able to turn it on when taking on the continent's best. The 38-year-old has played for no fewer than six clubs who have won the Champions League - Ajax, Milan, Inter, Manchester United, Juventus, and Barcelona - but by sheer accident of timing, his time with those sides have never coincided with their European triumphs.
Forward: Ronaldo - Real Madrid, 40 UCL games
Ronaldo won the Ballon d'Or twice and the FIFA World Player of the Year three times, but he was always a year too late for the Champions League. PSV, Inter, Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Milan are among the forward's former teams, but the man who was named the best player in the world in 1997 and 2002 was never able to scoop European club football's top prize. What’s more, he never even played in a Champions League final.
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