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.

Sextuple in European football

In terms of football, the sextuple means that a club has to win six official competitions in a row. The performance can be achieved through victories in the same season or calendar year.

The three national titles in Europe are:
* winning the national league
* winning the national cup
* winning the national supercup and/or winning the national league cup
The two international titles in Europe are:
* winning the UEFA Champions League
* winning the UEFA Super Cup
The international title worldwide is:
* winning the FIFA Club World Cup and/or winning the FIFA Intercontinental Cup

Sextuple winners

Currently, FC Barcelona and FC Bayern Munich are the only two teams to have achieved the sextuple. Both teams won the only six possible trophies, as neither Spain nor Germany has a league cup and the Intercontinental Cup was non-existent at the time.

2009:

FC Barcelona

Coach: Pep Guardiola

2020:

FC Bayern Munich

Coach: Hansi Flick

Missed sextuples

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

* 1995: Ajax – won the Eredivisie, the Dutch Supercup, the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup, but lost the quarter-finals of the KNVB Cup against Feyenoord.
* 2006: Al Ahly – won the Egyptian Premier League, the Egypt Cup, the Egyptian Super Cup, the CAF Champions League and the CAF Super Cup, but lost the semi-finals of the FIFA Club World Cup against Internacional.
*2010: Inter Milan – won the Serie A, the Coppa Italia, the Supercoppa Italiana, the UEFA Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup, but lost the UEFA Super Cup against Atlético Madrid.
* 2011: Barcelona – won La Liga, the Supercopa de España, the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup, but lost the final of the Copa del Rey against Real Madrid.
* 2013: Bayern Munich – won the Bundesliga, the DFB-Pokal, the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup, but lost the DFL-Supercup against Borussia Dortmund.
* 2015: Barcelona – won La Liga, the Copa del Rey, the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup, but lost the Supercopa de España against Athletic Bilbao.
* 2017: Real Madrid – won La Liga, the Supercopa de España, the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup, but lost the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey against Celta Vigo.
* 2022: Real Madrid - won La Liga, the Supercopa de España, the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup, but lost the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey against Athletic Bilbao
* 2023: Manchester City - won the Premier League, the FA Cup, the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup, but lost the FA Community Shield against Arsenal.
* 2024: Real Madrid - won La Liga, the Supercopa de España, the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Intercontinental Cup, but lost the round of 16 of the Copa del Rey against Atlético Madrid.

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.

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 in England which does not exist in the many other countries that have only one domestic cup competition.

In 2024, there was an opportunity for any European top division league club to win seven trophies supplemented by a domestic cup and super cup, as well as an octuple for top-flight English clubs, if they win a FIFA Intercontinental Cup in the same year in which the revamped FIFA Club World Cup took place.

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 and tertiary Glasgow Cup. However, there was an absence of either a Scottish or European Super Cup at the time, 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.

See also

* Treble
* Double
*List of association football teams to have won four or more trophies in one season
* List of football clubs by competitive honours won

Notes

{{notelist

External links

Alle Titel des FC Bayern der Saison 2019/20
rp-online.de

Der FC Bayern krönt sich mit dem historischen „sextuple“
rp-online.de

Remembering FC Barcelona's Unprecedented sextuple
Forbes

Ten years since historic sextuple
FC Barcelona

References

Association football terminology