Sextuple (association football)

The term sextuple is mainly used in the sports press for winning six important national and international titles in sport, especially in football, within one season or calendar year.

During a football season, clubs typically take part in a number of national competitions, such as in a league and one or more cup competitions, and sometimes in continental competitions. Winning multiple competitions is considered a particularly significant achievement. Doubles and triples tend to be long-remembered achievements, but they occur with a certain frequency, while winning four or more trophies in a season is much less common. In the 2010s, the terms quadruple, quintuple, and sextuple were sometimes used to refer to four, five, and six trophies in a single season.[1][2]

Sextuple in continental football

In terms of football, the sextuple means that a club wins six official competitions in the same season or calendar year.[3] The national titles in a continent are:

The international titles in a continent are:

The international titles worldwide are:

  • winning the FIFA Intercontinental Cup (previously the annual FIFA Club World Cup before its restructuring into a quadrennial World Cup-like event in 2023)
  • winning the FIFA Club World Cup (quadrennial competition, with the first edition held in 2025; winning the tournament bypasses the requirement of winning the FIFA Intercontinental Cup in the same year as when the edition of that tournament is held)

Currently, only the clubs from the top-flight leagues in Africa, Europe or South America can have a chance to achieve a sextuple, due to the presence of continental super cups in those continents.

Sextuple winners

Currently Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Paris Saint-Germain are the three teams that have achieved the sextuple. Each of them won six titles during an annual season. Barcelona and Bayern won the FIFA Club World Cup and PSG won the FIFA Intercontinental Cup as annual world champions title.

2009: Barcelona

Main articles: 2008–09 FC Barcelona season and 2009–10 FC Barcelona season

Coach: Pep Guardiola

Year Titles Record / final score
2009 La Liga 87 points (27–6–5)
Copa del Rey 4–1 vs Athletic Bilbao
Supercopa de España 5–1 vs Athletic Bilbao (agg.)
UEFA Champions League 2–0 vs Manchester United
UEFA Super Cup 1–0 vs Shakhtar Donetsk
FIFA Club World Cup 2–1 vs Estudiantes (a.e.t.)

2020: Bayern Munich

Main articles: 2019–20 FC Bayern Munich season and 2020–21 FC Bayern Munich season

Coach: Hansi Flick

Year Titles Record / final score
2020 Bundesliga 82 points (26–4–4)
DFB-Pokal 4–2 vs Bayer Leverkusen
DFL-Supercup 3–2 vs Borussia Dortmund
UEFA Champions League 1–0 vs Paris Saint-Germain
UEFA Super Cup 2–1 vs Sevilla (a.e.t.)
FIFA Club World Cup[a] 1–0 vs UANL

2025: Paris Saint-Germain

Main articles: 2024–25 Paris Saint-Germain FC season and 2025–26 Paris Saint-Germain FC season

Coach: Luis Enrique

Year Titles Record / final score
2025 Ligue 1 84 points (26–6–2)
Coupe de France 3–0 vs Reims
Trophée des Champions[b] 2–2 vs Marseille (4–1 p)
UEFA Champions League 5–0 vs Inter Milan
UEFA Super Cup 2–2 vs Tottenham Hotspur (4–3 p)
FIFA Intercontinental Cup 1–1 vs Flamengo (2–1 p)

Missed sextuples

The following teams could not win the sixth official competition after a quintuple and thus missed out on the sextuple:

Seventh and eighth title

On 11 February 2021, just minutes after Bayern Munich won the FIFA Club World Cup final to secure a sextuple, former Bayern coach Pep Guardiola jokingly challenged the side to a match against previous sextuple winners Barcelona, a team that was managed by Guardiola at the time. As these two sides were the only ones to have achieved a sextuple in football history, he suggested that they could play for a seventh title.[10]

It is technically possible for certain teams to win seven trophies in a single calendar year; for example, a top-flight English club can win the standard six trophies that are of similar calibre and format to the ones achieved in previous sextuples, but can also add a seventh title by winning the EFL Cup, a secondary national cup, which does not exist in most countries, where they only have one domestic cup competition.

Since 2025, there is an opportunity for any European, African or South American top division league club to win seven trophies, as well as eight trophies for top-flight clubs in some countries (such as England, Egypt, Japan, Portugal, and Scotland, where a league cup exists), if they win the FIFA Intercontinental Cup in the same year in which the revamped quadrennial FIFA Club World Cup took place.[11]

Celtic were close to achieving the feat of septuple feat in 1967, when they added a European Cup title to their domestic quadruple consisting of the Scottish First Division, Scottish Cup, secondary Scottish League Cup and tertiary Glasgow Cup. However, there was an absence of either a Scottish[c] or European Super Cup at the time,[d] and Celtic's subsequent loss against Argentine side Racing Club in the 1967 Intercontinental Cup prevented them from achieving their seventh major honour within the year.[12]

Paris Saint-Germain missed the opportunity to achieve the feat in 2025; they won the Ligue 1, the Coupe de France, and the Champions League, but then lost the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup final to Chelsea before securing the UEFA Super Cup, the FIFA Intercontinental Cup, and the Trophée des Champions.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Played in February 2021, but still considered to be part of the 2020 football season.
  2. ^ Played in January 2026, but still considered to be part of the 2025 football season. They also won the 2024 Trophée des Champions, which was played in the year 2025.
  3. ^ Scotland has never organized a domestic Super cup
  4. ^ The UEFA Super Cup's inaugural competition was in 1973.

References

  1. ^ "On this day in 2009 - Barcelona completed the only 'sextuple' in history". 19 December 2019.
  2. ^ "Comparing sextuples: 2009 Barça vs. 2020 Bayern". 15 February 2021.
  3. ^ Wilson, Jonathan (15 February 2021). "Comparing the Sextuple Winners: 2009 Barcelona vs. 2020 Bayern Munich". SI. Retrieved 27 December 2025.
  4. ^ "Atletico stun Inter in Super Cup". BBC Sport. 27 August 2010.
  5. ^ "Real Madrid beat Barcelona 1-0 to win Copa del Rey". 21 April 2011.
  6. ^ "Watch: Borussia Dortmund win the Supercup – handing Pep Guardiola his first defeat as Bayern Munich coach".
  7. ^ "Barcelona 1-1 Athletic Bilbao (Agg 1-5) | Spanish Super Cup report". The Guardian. 17 August 2015.
  8. ^ "Real Madrid shocked at home by Celta Vigo in Copa del Rey quarter-final". The Guardian. 18 January 2017.
  9. ^ "Vieira seals Arsenal's Community Shield shootout win after Trossard strikes late". The Guardian. 6 August 2023.
  10. ^ "Pep Guardiola challenges Bayern Munich to sextuple showdown with Barcelona". Bundesliga. 11 February 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
  11. ^ Straus, Brian (14 March 2023). "FIFA Confirms Four-Team Groups for 2026 World Cup, New Club World Cup Qualification". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  12. ^ "Celtic's 1966/67 team voted the greatest club side of the last century". 20 April 2020.
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