# Best (Association) Football team int the world being a club. Likely?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-association-football-team-int-the-world-being-a-club-likely/361560>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 21, 2006, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-association-football-team-int-the-world-being-a-club-likely/361560 "2006-06-21T10:10:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Manny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dec6dc/32.png) [@Manny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manny)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-association-football-team-int-the-world-being-a-club-likely/361560/1 "2006-06-21T10:10:35Z")

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If we don’t count special one-off teams like the occasional ‘Rest of World’ XI that sometimes play charity matches, Brazil are probably on average ‘the bet team in the world.’ Argentina, Germany, England etc are still probably better than any club. But as the club game becomes more about money and the international game more about prestige, (with money obviously but not as much), do you think that sooner or later we will be ending up with Superclubs that would realistically on average beat the best National teams?

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**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-association-football-team-int-the-world-being-a-club-likely/361560/2 "2006-06-21T11:19:59Z")

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> [@Manny](#):
>
> Brazil are probably on average ‘the bet team in the world.’ Argentina, Germany, England etc are still probably better than any club.

I wouldn’t necessarily jump to that conclusion. Club teams pull players from everywhere (look at Chelsea, Man Utd, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Juventus), whilst national teams can only pull players who meet certain prerequisites (nationality).

> [@Manny](#):
>
> But as the club game becomes more about money and the international game more about prestige, (with money obviously but not as much), do you think that sooner or later we will be ending up with Superclubs that would realistically on average beat the best National teams?

I don’t think that it’s such a stretch to say that the teams at the top of the major european leagues (La Liga, The Premiership, Bundesliga, Serie A) could already beat the best national teams. The players train and play together far more on a club basis than they do for their national teams.