UEFA Europa League History & Results | All-Time Winners & Finals

Posted on June 7, 2024 by author in Football

Last Updated on July 19, 2026 by author

The UEFA Europa League is European football’s great proving ground. It has launched managerial dynasties, revived sleeping giants, and produced some of the most dramatic finals the continental game has ever seen. From its origins as the UEFA Cup in 1971 to Aston Villa’s triumph in Istanbul in 2026, the competition has crowned 55 champions across more than half a century of knockout football.

What Is the UEFA Europa League?

The UEFA Europa League is the second-most prestigious club competition organized by UEFA, sitting below the Champions League and above the Conference League in the European hierarchy. Clubs qualify primarily through their domestic league position and cup success, while the winner earns two significant prizes: a place in the following season’s Champions League league phase and a shot at the UEFA Super Cup against the Champions League winners.

The trophy itself is a piece of football folklore. Weighing 15 kilograms, it is the heaviest piece of silverware UEFA awards — and famously, it has no handles, which makes every celebratory lift a small athletic achievement in its own right.

Origins: The UEFA Cup Era (1971–2009)

The competition was founded in 1971 as the UEFA Cup, effectively replacing the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, a tournament that had run since 1955 and was originally tied to trade fairs between European cities. UEFA wanted a competition it fully controlled, open to clubs that finished high in their domestic leagues but missed out on the European Cup.

Tottenham Hotspur won the inaugural final in 1972, beating Wolverhampton Wanderers in the first — and so far only — all-English final of the competition, played over two legs as all UEFA Cup finals were until 1998.

The Two-Legged Final Era

For its first 26 editions, the final was contested home and away, which gave the UEFA Cup a distinct character. English clubs dominated the early years: Tottenham (1972), Liverpool (1973, 1976), and later Ipswich Town under Bobby Robson (1981) all lifted the trophy. German and Italian clubs then took over, with Borussia Mönchengladbach winning twice (1975, 1979) and Serie A sides claiming eight titles between 1989 and 1999 — a stretch in which Juventus, Inter Milan, Napoli (with Diego Maradona in 1989), Parma, and others turned the UEFA Cup into an almost domestic Italian affair. The 1990 and 1998 finals were contested entirely between Italian clubs.

Single-Match Finals and the Cup Winners’ Cup Merger

The 1998 final between Inter and Lazio in Paris was the first one-off final, a format the competition has kept ever since. Two years later, in 1999–2000, UEFA absorbed the discontinued Cup Winners’ Cup into the UEFA Cup, folding domestic cup winners into the field and broadening the tournament’s identity.

The 2000s brought memorable moments: Liverpool’s astonishing 5–4 golden-goal win over Alavés in 2001, Porto’s 2003 triumph that announced José Mourinho to the world, and CSKA Moscow (2005), Zenit Saint Petersburg (2008), and Shakhtar Donetsk (2009) delivering titles for Eastern European football. A group stage was introduced in 2004–05, moving the tournament away from its pure knockout roots.

The Europa League Rebrand (2009–Present)

In 2009–10, UEFA relaunched the competition as the UEFA Europa League, with a new name, new branding, an expanded 48-team group stage, and a stronger commercial profile. Atlético Madrid won the first edition, beating Fulham in extra time in Hamburg — the beginning of a golden Spanish era.

The Age of Sevilla

No club is more synonymous with this competition than Sevilla FC. The Andalusian side has won it a record seven times (2006, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2020, 2023), an unmatched haul that includes a historic three-peat from 2014 to 2016 under Unai Emery and a remarkable ability to win finals from improbable positions — most famously the 2023 penalty-shootout victory over José Mourinho’s Roma in Budapest, which kept their record perfect at seven wins from seven finals.

Spanish clubs in general have towered over the modern era. Between 2010 and 2023, Spanish teams won ten of fourteen editions, with Atlético Madrid (2010, 2012, 2018) and Villarreal (2021, beating Manchester United 11–10 on penalties) joining Sevilla on the honours board.

Recent Finals: 2022–2026

The last five finals have showcased the competition’s unpredictability:

2022 — Eintracht Frankfurt 1–1 Rangers (5–4 on penalties), Seville. Frankfurt went unbeaten through the entire campaign, with goalkeeper Kevin Trapp named man of the match in the final.
2023 — Sevilla 1–1 Roma (4–1 on penalties), Budapest. Sevilla’s seventh title, secured after a tense, controversy-laden final against Mourinho, who suffered his first-ever defeat in a European final.
2024 — Atalanta 3–0 Bayer Leverkusen, Dublin. Ademola Lookman scored a stunning hat-trick to end Leverkusen’s 51-match unbeaten run and deliver Atalanta’s first major trophy since 1963.
2025 — Tottenham Hotspur 1–0 Manchester United, Bilbao. Brennan Johnson’s goal ended Spurs’ 17-year trophy drought and gave them a third title in this competition, bookending their 1972 original.
2026 — Aston Villa 3–0 SC Freiburg, Istanbul. Goals from Youri Tielemans, Emiliano Buendía, and Morgan Rogers at Beşiktaş Park gave Villa their first Europa League crown and their first major trophy since 1996 — and handed Unai Emery a record-extending fifth title as a manager, his first with a non-Spanish club.

Complete List of UEFA Cup & Europa League Winners (1972–2026)

Year	Winner	Runner-Up	Score
1972	Tottenham Hotspur	Wolverhampton Wanderers	3–2 agg.
1973	Liverpool	Borussia Mönchengladbach	3–2 agg.
1974	Feyenoord	Tottenham Hotspur	4–2 agg.
1975	Borussia Mönchengladbach	Twente	5–1 agg.
1976	Liverpool	Club Brugge	4–3 agg.
1977	Juventus	Athletic Bilbao	2–2 agg. (away goals)
1978	PSV Eindhoven	Bastia	3–0 agg.
1979	Borussia Mönchengladbach	Red Star Belgrade	2–1 agg.
1980	Eintracht Frankfurt	Borussia Mönchengladbach	3–3 agg. (away goals)
1981	Ipswich Town	AZ Alkmaar	5–4 agg.
1982	IFK Göteborg	Hamburg	4–0 agg.
1983	Anderlecht	Benfica	2–1 agg.
1984	Tottenham Hotspur	Anderlecht	2–2 agg. (4–3 pens)
1985	Real Madrid	Videoton	3–1 agg.
1986	Real Madrid	Köln	5–3 agg.
1987	IFK Göteborg	Dundee United	2–1 agg.
1988	Bayer Leverkusen	Espanyol	3–3 agg. (3–2 pens)
1989	Napoli	Stuttgart	5–4 agg.
1990	Juventus	Fiorentina	3–1 agg.
1991	Inter Milan	Roma	2–1 agg.
1992	Ajax	Torino	2–2 agg. (away goals)
1993	Juventus	Borussia Dortmund	6–1 agg.
1994	Inter Milan	Austria Salzburg	2–0 agg.
1995	Parma	Juventus	2–1 agg.
1996	Bayern Munich	Bordeaux	5–1 agg.
1997	Schalke 04	Inter Milan	1–1 agg. (4–1 pens)
1998	Inter Milan	Lazio	3–0
1999	Parma	Marseille	3–0
2000	Galatasaray	Arsenal	0–0 (4–1 pens)
2001	Liverpool	Alavés	5–4 (golden goal)
2002	Feyenoord	Borussia Dortmund	3–2
2003	Porto	Celtic	3–2 (silver goal)
2004	Valencia	Marseille	2–0
2005	CSKA Moscow	Sporting CP	3–1
2006	Sevilla	Middlesbrough	4–0
2007	Sevilla	Espanyol	2–2 (3–1 pens)
2008	Zenit Saint Petersburg	Rangers	2–0
2009	Shakhtar Donetsk	Werder Bremen	2–1 (aet)
2010	Atlético Madrid	Fulham	2–1 (aet)
2011	Porto	Braga	1–0
2012	Atlético Madrid	Athletic Bilbao	3–0
2013	Chelsea	Benfica	2–1
2014	Sevilla	Benfica	0–0 (4–2 pens)
2015	Sevilla	Dnipro	3–2
2016	Sevilla	Liverpool	3–1
2017	Manchester United	Ajax	2–0
2018	Atlético Madrid	Marseille	3–0
2019	Chelsea	Arsenal	4–1
2020	Sevilla	Inter Milan	3–2
2021	Villarreal	Manchester United	1–1 (11–10 pens)
2022	Eintracht Frankfurt	Rangers	1–1 (5–4 pens)
2023	Sevilla	Roma	1–1 (4–1 pens)
2024	Atalanta	Bayer Leverkusen	3–0
2025	Tottenham Hotspur	Manchester United	1–0
2026	Aston Villa	SC Freiburg	3–0

All-Time Winners: Most Titles by Club

Titles	Club	Years
7	Sevilla	2006, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2020, 2023
3	Inter Milan	1991, 1994, 1998
3	Juventus	1977, 1990, 1993
3	Liverpool	1973, 1976, 2001
3	Atlético Madrid	2010, 2012, 2018
3	Tottenham Hotspur	1972, 1984, 2025
2	Borussia Mönchengladbach	1975, 1979
2	Feyenoord	1974, 2002
2	IFK Göteborg	1982, 1987
2	Real Madrid	1985, 1986
2	Parma	1995, 1999
2	Porto	2003, 2011
2	Chelsea	2013, 2019
2	Eintracht Frankfurt	1980, 2022

Titles by Country

Spain leads all nations with 15 titles, powered by Sevilla’s seven and Atlético’s three. England follows with 11, Italy has 10, and Germany 7. The Netherlands (4), Portugal (2), Sweden (2), Russia (2), Belgium, Turkey, and Ukraine (1 each) complete the honours list.

Records and Notable Facts

Most successful club: Sevilla, with seven titles and a perfect record in finals.

Most successful manager: Unai Emery, with five titles — three with Sevilla (2014, 2015, 2016), one with Villarreal (2021), and one with Aston Villa (2026). Remarkably, he has also lost a final, with Arsenal in 2019.

Biggest final wins: Several 3–0 and larger margins stand out, but Juventus’ 6–1 aggregate demolition of Borussia Dortmund in 1993 remains the most lopsided final in the competition’s history.

Unbeaten champions: Eintracht Frankfurt (2021–22) and Atalanta’s 2023–24 side both produced iconic campaigns, with Frankfurt going the entire run unbeaten and Atalanta ending Leverkusen’s record 51-game unbeaten streak in the final itself.

Iconic individual final performances: Ademola Lookman’s 2024 hat-trick — the first in a Europa League final — sits alongside Radamel Falcao’s dominant displays for Porto (2011) and Atlético (2012), when he scored in consecutive finals for different clubs.

Curse-breakers: The Europa League has a habit of ending droughts. Tottenham’s 2025 win was their first trophy in 17 years; Aston Villa’s 2026 triumph was their first silverware in 30; Atalanta’s 2024 title was their first major honour in 61.

How the Format Has Evolved

The competition’s structure has changed almost as often as its champions:

1971–1998: Pure knockout, two-legged final.
1998: First single-match final (Inter 3–0 Lazio, Paris).
2000: Cup Winners’ Cup merged into the UEFA Cup.
2004–05: Group stage introduced.
2009–10: Rebranded as the UEFA Europa League; 48-team group stage.
2021–22: Field trimmed to 32 group-stage teams with the launch of the Conference League; winners guaranteed Champions League qualification.
2024–25: The “Swiss model” league phase arrives — 36 teams in a single table, each playing eight different opponents, with the top eight advancing directly to the round of 16 and teams ranked 9th–24th entering a knockout play-off round.

The current format has added jeopardy to every matchday, since a single league-phase result can swing a club from automatic qualification to elimination.

Why the Europa League Matters

It is tempting to view the Europa League purely as a consolation prize, but its history argues otherwise. It gave Maradona his only European trophy. It built the legends of Emery and Mourinho. It turned Sevilla from a mid-table Spanish side into a continental institution. And with a Champions League place now awarded to the winner, the stakes in May are as high as they have ever been.

For clubs like Aston Villa in 2026, Tottenham in 2025, and Atalanta in 2024, the Europa League was not a footnote — it was the night their modern history was written.

FAQs

Who has won the most Europa League titles? Sevilla, with seven (2006, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2020, 2023). They have never lost a final in the competition.

Who won the most recent Europa League final? Aston Villa defeated SC Freiburg 3–0 at Beşiktaş Park in Istanbul on 20 May 2026, claiming their first title in the competition.

When did the UEFA Cup become the Europa League? The rebrand took effect for the 2009–10 season. UEFA counts UEFA Cup and Europa League titles together in the official records.

Does the Europa League winner qualify for the Champions League? Yes. Since 2015, the winner has earned a place in the following season’s Champions League — now the league phase — if they have not already qualified domestically.

Which manager has won the Europa League the most times? Unai Emery, with five titles across Sevilla, Villarreal, and Aston Villa.

Where is the next Europa League final? The 2027 final is scheduled for the Waldstadion in Frankfurt, Germany, on 26 May 2027.