Bayer Leverkusen 2002

Coach: Klaus Toppmöller

Bayer Leverkusen's 2001-02 season earned the club the enduring, rueful nickname 'Neverkusen' after finishing runner-up in all three competitions they contested — the Bundesliga, the DFB-Pokal, and the Champions League — a heartbreaking treble of near-misses achieved by a genuinely talented squad built around Michael Ballack's breakout season as one of Europe's most complete midfielders, alongside Brazilian playmaker Zé Roberto and a young Bernd Schneider. Leverkusen led the Bundesliga table for much of the season before collapsing on the final day, lost the domestic cup final to rivals Schalke, and then lost the Champions League final itself 2-1 to Real Madrid, decided by one of the most iconic goals in the competition's history: Zinedine Zidane's left-footed volley from the edge of the box, controlling a looping cross on the run before striking it cleanly into the top corner. Ballack's stellar individual campaign was enough to earn him a big-money move to Bayern Munich that summer, adding a further layer of frustration for Leverkusen supporters who watched their club's finest generation broken up almost immediately after its most heartbreaking near-miss season.