The pride of Galicia, Real Club Celta de Vigo, have yet to lift a major title in their 100-year history. The club have consistently performed at the highest level of Spanish football but has only ever managed fourth place as their best position and three Copa Del Rey finals which they all lost of course.
This lack of success is juxtaposed against their arch-rivals down the road Deportivo La Coruna who won a league title and two Copa Del Rey’s in their hugely successful period of the late 90’s and early 2000’s.

Celta have spent a decade more in the Primeira Division than their rivals to make matters a bit more embarrassing. Os Celestes came closest to silverware in the Copa Del Rey with three losses in the final: Sevilla in 1948, and Real Zaragoza twice in 1994 and 2001.

Celta only managed their highest position in fourth place twice again in 1948 and 2003, however, that second fourth-place finish allowed them to enter the Champions League, getting out of their group in second place against the likes of Ajax and AC Milan before losing to Arsenal in the last-16.

Their European exploits are not to be sniffed at either, they have reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup/ Europa League on four separate occasions even going as far as the semi-finals in 2016. Add to that they regularly get big crowds of around 23,000 at their Balaidos stadium which hosted matches at the 1982 FIFA World Cup.

Strong candidates to win a trophy soon one would hope.

Sport-Club Freiburg from the city of Freiburg im Breisgau in Baden-Wurttemberg in the very southwestern corner of Germany is a bit special on this list. Recently risen to the top echelons of German football they became properly professional in the late 1970’s and only reached the Bundesliga in 1993, since then they have predominantly been a top division team even finishing third once in 1995.

Their recent exploits are what include them on this list getting sell-out crowds and playing great football to finish in the top five of the Bundesliga and reach their first-ever DFB Pokal final only to lose to RB Leipzig. The fact that they do this on a smaller budget than that of many of their rivals in the division makes them a second favourite team (alongside Union Berlin) amongst many of the other clubs’ fanbases.

Current manager Christian Streich is one of the longest-serving managers at a top-level European club having joined Freiburg in 2011.
The club is due a trophy, they have even invested in a brand-new state-of-the-art stadium called Europa-Park which holds 10,000 more seats than its predecessor the classic Dreisamstadion.

Another Spanish club this time from the Navarre region in the north, Club Atletico Osasuna from the city of Pamplona, famous for the running of the Bulls, are yet another waiting to taste success.

The club is the only one to be named in the Basque language in the whole of La Liga and their fans are favourable towards Basque independence. However, they are big rivals with the Basque clubs despite having a lot less success than both Athletic Club (Bilbao) and Real Sociedad (San Sebastien). The closest they have come to winning a league title was on two occasions in 1991 and 2006 finishing in fourth place. They have also tasted defeat in two separate Copa Del Rey finals, in 2005 against Real Betis and just last year in 2023 against their nemesis Real Madrid.

The past few seasons have seen a revival at Los Rojillos and they have made a mark in Spain, and have a decent record against the Clasico Big Two.
The atmosphere at the stadium is among the best and most raucous Spanish football has to offer and they regularly sell out their 23,500-thousand-seater stadium El Sadar.

All of this adds up to Osasuna being one of the biggest clubs out there not to have won a trophy and potentially one of the likeliest to do so.

The Pirates of Hamburg, Football Club Saint Pauli have a massive global cult following. Bigger than most clubs in Germany and possibly even more than many other clubs across Europe. Owing to their left-wing ideology many people associate themselves with the club from as far as the USA all the way to the small district in the city of Hamburg.

Most people will know who they are in the football universe and most will also know that they are in the shadow of their more illustrious one-time European champions neighbours HSV Hamburg. Their staunch anti-fascism, anti-homophobia and anti-sexism stances amongst other things have garnered them international support and a sizeable match-going fanbase within a city with already one major club.

The Millerntor-Stadion holds 29,000 and is sold out every time the team plays. They are known for flying a pirate flag alongside the LGBTQ+ flag and have their own clothing line DI!Y that makes their kits. The club stands for everything that is against modern football as well which makes them exceptionally popular with fans of clubs who feel disassociated with modern football.

Despite the club spending a total of eight seasons in the Bundesliga in their history they make this list because the World would love to see Saint Pauli of all teams win a major trophy.

Real Sporting de Gijon are the team which have come closest to winning the league of all the teams on this list.

They finished second behind Real Madrid in 1979 and a few years later would lose back-to-back Copa Del Rey finals one against Barcelona in 1981 and one against Real Madrid in 1982.

The Rojiblancos had created an almighty team that could compete but unfortunately lost out in the end. They have unfortunately faltered in recent years dwindling in the Segunda Division but their fanbase remains as strong as ever and historically they are still one of the biggest clubs to have never won a major trophy.

In fairness and with all due respect to both teams I could have picked their arch-rivals from down the road in Asturias, Real Oviedo. They have a similar history except that Gijon came a lot closer to winning the League and the Cup than Oviedo did with only three third-place finishes to show.

Gijon also have played six seasons in the UEFA Cup albeit only winning two ties officially, all this spanning between 1979 and 1992. Gijon is another club whose fans have demonstrated great fidelity during these tough times and long for a return to top-flight action in the El Molinon stadium which holds 29,000.

Udinese Calcio, the final club in this carefully curated list, from the northeastern city of Udine in the Italian Alps not far from the border with Slovenia.
The club has spent the last three decades in Serie A finishing in the top four three times including a third-place finish in 2012. They have even reached a Coppa Italia final all the way back in 1922 in the inaugural tournament losing to Vado 1-0.

Their best league finish came in 1955 when they lost out on the Seria A title to AC Milan but were subsequently relegated the next season after being found guilty of corruption. Le Zebrette has become a prominent fixture in Italian football and has represented Serie A in Europe on multiple occasions since their first appearance back in 1998 going as far as the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup in 2009 before losing to Werder Bremen.

The club enjoys good support as the sole representative of the area around Udine and has seen star players come and play including a young Alexis Sanchez. Another strong contender, whilst the league title has not been in their sights over the past few years the Coppa Italia still could be the option in the near future and who knows maybe even a trip to the UEFA Europa League.

Let me know of other clubs who deserve a mention from any league in Europe, I obviously only focused on the biggest leagues in UEFA.