Salah & 7 more world-class players who have never won an international trophy | OneFootball

Big names from France, Italy and Spain are among the world-class players who’ve never managed to win an international trophy.

Winning things on the international stage is arguably the biggest achievement in a player’s career, although only a select few are fortunate enough to win silverware with their nation.

Here are eight world-class players who’ve never managed to win an international trophy.

Mohamed Salah

Salah’s lack of international silverware was recently brought up by Jamie Carragher.

“He’s the greatest player the country has ever had,” Carragher said on Monday Night Football.

“Egypt in the AFCON are the most successful nation [historically]. He hasn’t won AFCON. That’s not me trying to put him down as a player… what it tells Mo Salah and his agent it’s not about an individual.”

The 33-year-old has dragged Egypt to the AFCON final on two occasions, but lost both finals in 2017 and 2021.

With the tournament set to kick off in a few weeks, he’ll have the chance to prove the doubters wrong, with Egypt currently being tipped as the second favourites, only behind Morocco.

Wayne Rooney

We could’ve selected any England player for this article from the past 59 years, but we’d argue Rooney is probably the most talented of the bunch.

Despite being part of England’s Golden Generation, Rooney never made it past the quarter-finals in either the Euros or the World Cup.

“I used to think that if I played well, if we win the tournament, it’s because of me,” Rooney said on Stick to Football.

“If we don’t, then I’d still also think it’s because of me, because I didn’t perform as well as I should have. So that is how I always felt like.”

Eden Hazard & Kevin De Bruyne

Hazard and De Bruyne have been the face of Belgian football for the past decade.

While Belgium have had some extremely talented squads in recent tournaments, they’ve never managed to get over the line.

The closest they came was in the 2018 World Cup, when they were beaten by eventual winners France in the semi-final.

Luka Modric

Modric earned a Ballon d’Or for his heroics with Croatia in 2018, but despite his elite performances on the international stage, he’s never actually won a trophy with his nation.

He narrowly missed out on the World Cup in 2018 and came third in 2022, after losing against Argentina in the semi-final.

Franck Ribery

Ribery was too young to have been involved in France’s Euro 2000 winning squad and too old to be part of their 2018 World Cup winning side.

He did come agonisingly close to international glory in 2006, but lost the World Cup final to Italy on penalties.

Johan Cruyff

For some, Cruyff is the best to have ever done it.

Certainly one of the most influential people in the history of football, the Dutch forward was practically unplayable during his pomp.

However, despite being one of the best players in the world, he never tasted international glory with the Netherlands.

He lost the 1974 World Cup final to West Germany and never made it past the semi-finals at the Euros.

Paolo Maldini

We still can’t quite believe that Maldini never won an international trophy with Italy.

He lost the 1994 World Cup final to Brazil and the 2000s Euro final to France. While he was still active in 2006 when Italy did win the World Cup, he’d already retired from international football by that point.

“I said no to the call-up in 2006 and they won. It was destiny, I guess,” Maldini told Football Italia.

Raul

By the time Spain had started to dominate international football, Raul had already retired from international duty.

The Spaniard was one of the most lethal strikers of his generation with 448 goals throughout his illustrious career.

Unfortunately, he retired from international duty in 2006, two years before Spain became the dominant force in world football and won the following three consecutive major trophies.