Having deadly attacking trios in football is as necessary as having a powerful defense. The philosophy of attacking trios that can pull down any strong defense in the game has been attempted and tested over the years and has, more often than not, prevailed to an overwhelming degree. Nonetheless, a splendid comprehension amongst the trios is the way to such a formidable partnership.
But it gets more enthralling when a couple of players in the team develops a strong understanding and chemistry on and off the pitch and use it to help the team record even more to greater feats. These players, through the bond they create, make formidable partners in the team that no opponent will want to have a go against at any point in time.
For the records, a team could be blessed quartets of players in a team like we saw with Tostao linking up with the trio of Rivelino, Pele, and Jairzinho in the fifties and sixties.
For another team, it could be trios and you may even have some deadly dynamic duos in some teams – Diego Milito and Samuel Eto’o in Inter Milan’s treble-winning squad of 2010.
But in no particular order, we will chronicle some legendary trios who in time past, took the football scene by storm to a devastating degree with the alliance they created and became a blessing to every eye that saw them in action.
Here Are The 10 Greatest Attacking Trios In The History Of Football
- Alfredo Di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas, Francisco Gento – Real Madrid
During the 1950s, Real Madrid announced themselves as the first great team in European Club football when they romped up five successive European Cup titles in the early days of what’s today the UEFA Champions League.
It wouldn’t have been possible without the help of one of the potent attacking tridents of Di Stefano, Puskas, and Gento. The three musketeers comprised of deadly attackers who at that time were terrifying.
Alfredo Di Stefano was at the heart of this great trio, Ferenc Puskas, who was the most educated left-footed forward at that point in time and not forgetting Paco Gento, who could swiftly switch between his two feet and at intervals.
Their best moment together as a unit was one of Real’s crowning moments, during a European Cup final, precisely 1960. Di Stefano bagged a hattrick while the Hungarian forward, Puskas, netted a poker (4 goals) in a 7-3 drubbing of Eintracht Frankfurt.
- Pele, Pepe, Coutinho – Santos
A haul of 1418 goals in 1800 appearances between the most lethal attacking trident in Brazilian history over a period of nearly 15 years, will most likely not be broken by any other attacking trios.
In the sixties, while Real Madrid and the rest of other football powerhouses in Europe were busy vying for supremacy, Santos too was busy setting the South American region and the Brazilian landscape on fire through its three legendary figures.
Pele alone scored a total of 643 official goals for Santos. However, his partners in crime (Pepe and Coutinho) were great goalscorers in their own right too. The combination of the three players validated a verse in the Holy Bible that says ‘iron sharpeneth iron.
Both Pepe and Coutinho became more feisty with the leadership of Pele upfront and they all understood each other.
Pepe’s 405 goals and Coutinho’s 370 goals may have been overshadowed by Pele’s unimaginable goalscoring statistics but all three Brazilians were involved in Santos’ incredible domination of Brazil and South American football for close to two decades.
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- Ferenc Puskas, Sandor Kocsis, Nandor Hidegkuti – Hungary
The Hungarian Golden Team of 1954 is another great but unlucky National Team that never won the World Cup. But they relentlessly brought themselves to the cognizance of the observers at that time when they went unbeaten for four years in international football and went as far as the final of the Mundial in 1954.
It was so interesting to see the Hungarians emerge as the dark horses at a time when there was a nail-biting contest between England, West Germany, and Sweden on the European football scene.
The triad of Ferenc Puskas, Sandor Kocsis, and Nandor Hidegkuti was so popular for their ruthlessness on the pitch. They blitzed past everything that came their way and recorded to date, one of the most popular upsets in world football when they thumped England 6-3 at Wembley and another 7-1 in Hungary to book a date in the final with West Germany.
Unfortunately for the Hungarians, they lost the final in a controversial manner to West Germany by 3-2, having a Puskas’ goal chalked off for offside by the English Referee on duty, William Ling.
The ‘Magical Magyars’ (as they were fondly called) may have shockingly lost the World Cup final to West Germany that year, but Puskas, Kocsis, and Hidegkuti wrote their names into football’s history book as three of the best forwards to have graced the football world in their time.
- Johan Cruyff, Piet Keizer, Sjaak Swart – Ajax
Posterity will forever be kind to the Ajax set between the sixties and seventies who managed to imbue some revolution into the round leather game once, and forever.
At the center of this revolution were Johan Cruyff, Piet Keizer and Sjaak Swart. Cruyff, a prolific goalscorer, had an exceptional relationship with the pair of wingers who were best in their time too.
Piet Keizer came through the ranks at Ajax as a teenager and grew into an unplayable phenomenon on the left flank. While Sjaak Swart who amassed a total of almost 600 matches at Ajax, thrived on Ajax’s right flank, and the trio formed one of the most complete tridents in the history of football.
The relationship of Cruyff and his cohorts did birth a trophy-laden eight seasons. A total of six Eredivisie titles and three European Cups was enough for the torchbearers of Total Football.
- The MSN: Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luis Suarez – Barcelona
Barcelona’s front three of Messi, Suarez, and Neymar between 2014 and 2017 was the new school threesome, with a blend of skill, speed, and aesthetics-filled shooting ability. Oh! You could add magic too.
The South American trio launched onslaughts on defenses in the Spanish LaLiga and Europe at large in just their first season of playing together. As such, they cruised to a novel treble.
Ultimately, the trident notched an astonishing 131 goals in space of three years but didn’t last long. The first to depart the club was the Brazilian, Neymar, who joined Paris Saint-Germain for a world-record fee of €222m but without doubts, the exploits of the MSN within this short period have been engraved in Spanish and Europe’s football record bank as one of the successful trios to have ever appeared.
- The BBC: Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo – Real Madrid
At the beginning of the last decade, Barcelona had their hands firmly on the proceedings in the Spanish LaLiga; they dominated the league so much so that it was looking like a one-club league with Madrid only winning one league title between 2009 and 2013.
Therefore, Real Madrid was forced to put a stop to the supremacy of the Cules. In doing so, Florentino Perez made some signings that looked similar to the Galacticos in the early 2000s. Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema joined the club at the same time but Gareth Bale joined in 2013.
The trio of Benzema, Bale, and Cristiano Ronaldo came to the fore when needed most. And indeed, there was a strong contest between Real Madrid’s BBC and Barcelona’s MSN.
By and large, the BBC was not bad. Albeit they didn’t score as the MSN did. The lethal trio scored 97 goals in their first year of working together and achieved a feat that no other front three has achieved in the modern era of club football.
The BBC won three UEFA Champions League trophies consecutively between 2016 and 2018 and four in total in a span of four years with each of them scoring crucial goals in the finals. They may not look dominant on the home-front and may have played together for a short while, but during their reign in Europe, The BBC was unplayable.
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- The Holy Trinity: George Best, Denis Law, Sir Bobby Charlton – Manchester United
Manchester United has been blessed with some of the greatest attacking threats the world has ever seen. The likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Andy Cole, and Dwight Yorke all carved a niche for themselves during their days for the Red Devils.
But United’s greatest attacking fervor could be traced back to the sixties when George Best, Dennis Law, and Bobby Charlton were around. While Dennis Law was a thorn in the flesh of the opposition’s defense, both Best and Charlton forged a unison in the midfield and would always make goalscoring a beauty to behold for the Scot upfront.
The Holy Trinity in their almost a decade dominance scored an astonishing 46 goals in a 42 matches streak and took turns on the Ballon d’Or podium for four successive seasons.
No doubt, Manchester United has enjoyed the presence of a host of brilliant players over the years but may never see another ‘Holy Trinity’ again.
- The Three Rs: Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Rivaldo
The 2002 FIFA World Cup has to be one of the best we’ve had in football’s modern days all thanks to an exciting trident that fired Brazil to glory.
The trio first came around together during the Copa America tournament in 1999. Ronaldo and Rivaldo helped a young Ronaldinho navigate the challenges of the first team and the terrifying ‘tripartite committee’ scored 11 goals in six games to win the trophy.
One good term deserves another they say. The Seleção brought to the 2002 Mundial this triad with different types of qualities in every sphere. Ronaldo Nazario was at that point, the deadliest goalscorer in the world and could switch effortlessly, between any of his legs to hit the bull’s eye.
Both Ronaldinho and Rivaldo were embodiments of skills, infallible techniques, speed, and superb playmaking ability. With Ronaldinho on the left wing, Ronaldo Nazario in the center, and the thunderous left-footed Rivaldo on the right flank, every defense they went against had a swollen time containing them.
Brazil’s front three scored between them, 15 goals over the course of the finals in Japan and South Korea, blowing away teams like England, Turkey, and their fellow finalists, Germany.
- The Invisibles: Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Dennis Bergkamp – Arsenal
This Arsenal’s legendary trio is most times not included in the conversation for the best-attacking trios the world has ever seen, yet, they were great attackers in their own ranks.
Although the front three had some help from Freddie Ljungberg it would be criminal to have the conversation about the best-attacking tridents of football and leave out the trio of Henry, Pires, and Bergkamp.
The truth is that there probably may be another strike partnership in the history of the Premier League that boasted quite so much talent than these three, and would break the invisible record set by these legendary forwards who have etched their names in gold on the Premier League record book.
The Arsenal team which was led to glory by the French legendary manager, Arsene Wenger, had 90 points from 38 matches on the final day of the 2003/04 Premier League season. They amassed 26 wins and 12 draws to clinch the league title unbeaten – the only side to have done that in this history of English football.
With the foregoing, one would understand why the front three of the team are always not given much credit when talking of great trios in football because there was quality in every department of this England conquering squad.
The three forwards had amongst them 48 goals with Henry emerging as the league’s top scorer. And when you add the gliding class and the piercing threat of Ljungberg, you really do have a fearsome four.
- Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah – Liverpool
If there’s any reason Liverpool has risen again to be one of the most feared club sides today, it’s simply because of the front three of Mane, Firmino, and Salah.
It’s quite unusual to see a front three who have Africans as integral parts. But for Liverpool, both Salah and Mane have been pivotal to the success the Kop has recorded lately.
Mane provides the skill and energy, Firmino brings intelligence and technically input while Salah, who spearheads the attack, adds some devastating soaring pace to make up a complete trident which suits Jurgen Klopp’s premium pressing style of play.
The attacking trios have had a decent stint together since the Egyptian king joined in 2017 and ever since, Liverpool have made two UEFA Champions League finals, winning one of it while losing the other to The BBC in 2019, as well as their first English League title in 28 years and they’re currently on course to win another.
You don’t want to imagine what the Liverpool front three will look like when Mane and Salah leave for the 2022 AFCON next January, do you?
