The top 9 most successful Yorkshire football clubs based on trophies won (Ranked) | OneFootball

Football League World looks at which Yorkshire clubs have the most major honours in the trophy cabinet

Yorkshire has a rich footballing history, with sides achieving success across the entire football league.

Success can be measured in many ways, whether that be how long a club has spent in the top flight, how many First Division titles they have, European ventures or deep runs in the FA Cup.

But who in the county can say that their club has the most major honours in their trophy cabinets?

To clear up any ambiguity, this list focuses on league titles in the EFL and the National League, not in any of the divisions below the fifth tier. County cups don't count, and neither does earning promotion through finishing second, or in League Two's case, third. Play-off trophies, however, are being counted.

So, with all that admin out of the way, Football League World has ranked each Yorkshire-based side based on how many trophies they have won. Here are the top nine.

6 ? ? Rotherham United, Bradford City, Barnsley and Hull City - 7

Action Images

We start the list with a four-way tie, as Premier League new boys Hull City join League One duo Bradford City and Barnsley and League Two outfit Rotherham United on seven trophies won.

The Tigers only just squeezed onto the list last May, having picked up their third Championship play-off trophy after beating Middlesbrough at Wembley, capping off what was a miraculous campaign for the embargoed side.

Alongside those three trophies, Hull have won the third tier four times, most recently under Grant McCann in the 2020/21 campaign.

Down in South Yorkshire, the jewel in Barnsley's trophy cabinet is the FA Cup, which they won back in 2012. They've won League One three times, been promoted via the play-offs twice and won the EFL Trophy back in 2016, too.

Bradford won the FA Cup the year before the Reds did back in 1911. The Bantams have also won the second tier once in 1908, won the third tier twice and the play-offs at that level once, while also winning the League Two play-offs in 2013. They also won the Third Division North Cup in 1939, a competition involving sides in the division of the same name.

And finally, Rotherham have won the third tier twice and the League One play-offs twice too, won the fourth tier in 1989 and have a couple of EFL Trophies in their cabinet too, the most recent coming in 2022, when they beat Sutton United in the final at Wembley.

5 ? ? Middlesbrough - 8

Action Images

It's always a topic for conversation as to where Middlesbrough lies geographically. Technically, the Teesiders are a North Yorkshire side, but what can't be argued is the eight major honours in their trophy cabinet.

Boro are four-time second-tier champions, winning titles in 1927, 1929, 1974 and 1995. They've also been promoted to the top flight via the play-offs once, in 1998.

That's the extent of their league honours (Northern League titles don't count), but their cup history sees them comfortably on the list.

They won the EFL Cup in 2004, beating Bolton Wanderers in the final, and have victories in European competitions, the Anglo-Scottish Cup, and the Kirin Cup, a tournament that now sees national sides compete in Japan, but from 1978 to 1992, it was a continental club tournament. Boro won it in 1980.

Action Images

Sheffield as a city has a very rich footballing history pre-dating the wars, and both United and Wednesday are seen somewhat as sleeping giants, albeit the Blades have spent time recently in the top flight.

Chris Wilder's side are four-time FA Cup champions, in 1899, 1902, 1915 and 1925, and won the top flight back in 1898, too.

Sheffield United has the accolade of being the only recognised Football League North champions, a division built to maintain one football division during the Second World War. Only one season was completed, the 1945/46 campaign, and the Blades won it.

Post-war, United won the second tier in 1953, the fourth tier in 1982 and their most recent league title came in League One in 2017 under their current boss, taking their accolades to nine.

3 ? ? Doncaster Rovers and Huddersfield Town - 11

Britain Football Soccer - Reading v Huddersfield Town - Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Final - Wembley Stadium, London, England - 29/5/17 Huddersfield Town manager David Wagner celebrates with the trophy after winning the Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Final and getting promoted to the Premier League Action Images via Reuters / John Sibley Livepic EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "

Action Images

Doncaster Rovers and Huddersfield Town are being forced to share the bronze medal, as they both have 11 trophies in their respective cabinets.

Donny's success solely comes below the second tier. The South Yorkshire side have won the third tier four times, including in 2013, and were promoted through the League One play-offs in 2008.

They've won League Two four times, most recently in the 2024/25 campaign, and have also been promoted via the play-offs in the National League in 2003, which brought an end to a five-year exile out of the EFL at the time. Their 11th trophy came by way of the EFL Trophy in 2007.

As for Huddersfield, they dominated the top flight in the mid-1920s, finishing in the top three for six straight seasons between 1922 and 1928. They won the title three times in that period, while also winning the FA Cup in 1922 and the Charity Shield in the same year.

Below the top flight, Huddersfield won the fourth tier in 1980 and had success in the play-offs in that division in 2004; they've earned promotion through the play-offs twice in League One in 1995 and 2012, and they've also won the second tier once and the play-offs once, too, famously, in 2017.

2 ? ? Leeds United - 14

Action Images

Leeds United have a brilliant history pre-2000s, and they're looking to recapture those glory days back in the Premier League under Daniel Farke.

They're three-time First Division champions, including winning the final First Division title before it was rebranded to the Premier League in 1992. Alongside that, they won the Charity Shield twice, in 1969 and 1992, the EFL Cup in 1968 and the FA Cup in 1972.

The Whites have won the Championship five times, including twice in a six-season period under Marcelo Bielsa in 2019/20 and then Farke in 2024/25.

And, while Leeds fans will say they're the uncrowned Champions of Europe due to the controversy surrounding their 2-0 defeat to Bayern Munich in 1975, they can say that they've won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the forerunner to the UEFA Cup (now the Europa League) twice, back in 1968 and 1971.

1 ? ? Sheffield Wednesday - 17

Action Images

However, despite Leeds' history in the 1960s and 1970s and again in the 1990s, they were always competing with your Manchester Uniteds, Liverpools and Arsenals for titles.

Meanwhile, there's a reason why Sheffield Wednesday are highly regarded as one of the biggest sleeping giants in football, as they were right at the top of the game pre-World War Two, and their titles overshadow what Leeds were able to win in the years since.

The Owls won the 1890 Football Alliance, a league which ran for three years before merging with the First Division, then four top-flight titles between 1903 and 1930, and won three FA Cups and a Charity Shield alongside that, too.

Wednesday are also five-time Second Division champions, and won the EFL Cup as a second-tier side in 1991. In the third tier, they've won the play-offs twice, in 2005 and then in 2023, following the miracle of Hillsborough in the semi-finals against Peterborough United.