The holy trinity headed by Di Stéfan, or the BBC and MSN. Which is the best attacking trio in the history of football?

In the history of football, we can find several attacking trios that have scared the opponent’s defences. But which offensive trio was the best and most dangerous?

Alfredo Di Stéfano – Ferenc Puskás – Paco Gento | Real Madrid

A trio of all trios, probably the greatest of them all. Thanks to these three, Real Madrid is what it is today. Los Blancos won 5 European Cups (today’s Champions League) in a row between 1956 and 1960. Di Stéfano and Gento were at all of them, Puskás joined in 1958. Together they scored 440 goals in six years, a great feat as back then they didn’t play 60 games a season like today.

This attacking trio together dominated 4 league titles, 2 European Cups, 1 Spanish Cup and 1 Intercontinental Cup. Di Stéfano is considered the pioneer of total football. He could play, everything, striker, second striker, sub, central and defensive midfielder, stopper and libero. But he played all the positions at once, often running for the ball between the stoppers and then taking them out on the attack.

Puskás is a legendary goalscorer, netting 242 goals in 262 games for Real Madrid. FIFA honoured him so much that the poll for the best goal of the year bears his name, the Puskás Award. Paco Gento, on the other hand, was an extremely quick winger who set up chances for his teammates. He finished his career with 12 league titles and 6 European Cup titles, among others, and until recently he was the most decorated player in Real Madrid’s history before Marcelo matched him.

George Best – Denis Law – Bobby Charlton | Manchester United

United trinity. That’s the nickname for the Best – Law – Charlton trio that has gone down in golden letters in Manchester United history. They helped the club become the first ever English team to win the European Cup in 1968.

Together they played 1,632 games in a Red Devils jersey and scored 665 goals, the club subsequently made them immortal by erecting an iconic joint statue to all the legends outside Old Trafford.

Ronaldo – Ronaldinho – Rivaldo | Brazil

The football samba, danced by the three “Rs”, is probably not seen in today’s physical and aggressive football. But it was a spectacle! The trio of toys shot Brazil to the World Cup title in 2002. Back then, the Canaries dominated all seven games they played.

Of the 18 Brazilian goals scored in the tournament, the trio accounted for 15. Ronaldo Nazário scored eight, Rivaldo scored five times and Ronaldinho added two goals.

Gareth Bale – Karim Benzema – Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid

Real Madrid fans have enjoyed the BBC’s attacking trio for five seasons. And it’s been quite a ride. In those 5 seasons Los Blancos have won the Champions League four times, three in a row, a hardly repeatable achievement in modern football. In total, they won 13 titles and played a total of 293 games, scoring 442 goals (Ronaldo 249, Benzema 105, Bale 88).

In the Champions League final, Bale scored three times, Benzema once, Ronaldo twice and added the winning penalty. The Portuguese phenom was absolutely unstoppable in this era, matching Messi’s 5 Ballons d’Or and scoring goals like a treadmill. All of this would not have been possible without the work of Benzema, who did all the servicing for Ronaldo. Pulling defenders away, winning duels, passing for goals. Bale helped the most with his winning goals in the finals against Atlético and Liverpool.

Lionel Messi – Luis Suárez – Neymar | Barcelona

A trio that has won the hearts of all Barcelona fans. Considered by some as the best trio in history, they have only won one Champions League title in three years (2014-2017), the other two years were dominated by the aforementioned BBC trio.

So, the MSN trio won’t win it all on overall success, but it must be admitted that in the 2014/15 season they were probably the most dangerous of all the aforementioned trios. The South American trio were feared by all defences, scoring a whopping 364 Barcelona goals out of the team’s 519 in their era together.

They won 138 games out of 181, plus they racked up 173 assists between them, which is why they were so dangerous, as they could get by on their own, whereas the BBC trio, for example, relied heavily on the support of the rest of the team.

Source: Marca, Twitter