Has any team ever won the quadruple? History of football teams attempting holy grail of four-trophy seasons

Arsenal and Manchester City have kept alive the dream of an unprecedented English quadruple by advancing through their FA Cup fifth-round ties, setting the stage for a spring pursuit of football’s most elusive clean sweep. With both clubs still alive in the Premier League title race, booked for the Carabao Cup final on 22 March, and through to the Champions League last-16, the conversation has shifted from theory to possibility: could 2025 finally be the year football’s holy grail is claimed?

First, the parameters. A quadruple is defined here as a single-season haul of a club’s four major competitions: the domestic league, the primary domestic cup, the secondary domestic cup and the continent’s premier tournament. In England that list is precise – Premier League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup and Champions League. Super cups, community shields and world championships are deliberately excluded; purists argue they are curtain-raisers rather than core targets.

By that narrow definition, no men’s team in the modern era has managed it. Liverpool came within touching distance in 2021-22, lifting both domestic cups only to be pipped to the league by City’s dramatic final-day comeback against Aston Villa and then edged 1-0 by Real Madrid in the Champions League final. City themselves replicated Manchester United’s 1999 treble of league, FA Cup and Champions League last season, but their League Cup campaign ended at St Mary’s against a Southampton side ultimately relegated from the top flight. United’s own 1999 charge was halted in the League Cup quarter-finals by Spurs, while City’s 2018-19 domestic treble was soured by a Champions League quarter-final exit, again to Spurs.

Elsewhere the pathway barely exists. France’s now-defunct Coupe de la Ligue offered a brief window, yet no Ligue 1 side lifted the Champions League during its 25-season lifespan. Paris Saint-Germain collected four domestic trebles in that period, adding the Trophee des Champions each time, but never broke through on the European stage. Portugal’s Taca da Liga provides the only other current two-cup system in Europe; Porto’s 2010-11 collection of league, primary cup and Europa League plus the season-opening Supertaca remains the closest Iberian analogue, still one trophy shy of the mark.

That leaves Celtic’s 1966-67 side as the sole men’s team to meet the strict criteria. Jock Stein’s “Lisbon Lions” swept the Scottish First Division, Scottish FA Cup, Scottish League Cup and, in their defining act, overturned Inter Milan to claim the European Cup, completing a clean sweep in an era when Scottish football could legitimately face its continental peers on equal terms.

The women’s game offers a parallel landmark. Arsenal’s 2006-07 squad were English and European champions while also securing the FA Cup and League Cup, giving the club a place in history as the first to achieve a European quadruple.

As the 2024-25 campaign enters its decisive months, City and Arsenal know the margin for error is non-existent. A single draw, one off-night in Europe, or a shock at Wembley could shatter the fantasy. Yet the very fact the conversation endures into March illustrates how rare, and how precious, the pursuit remains. Forty-four years after Celtic’s unique feat, the quadruple remains the one prize even the most lavish squads have failed to capture. Guardiola, Mikel Arteta and their star-laden squads now carry the baton, chasing immortality one fixture at a time.