Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony has revealed whether he thinks Manchester City or Real Madrid is the best team in the world.
Considering Real Madrid won the Champions League, perhaps some might think it is indisputable that they are the best of the best.
But with how Manchester City dominated the Spanish giants when they faced off in the Champions League quarter-finals coupled with their 5-1 thrashing of them over the two-legged semi-final in 2023 — it is difficult to pick which team is truly superior to the other.
Darragh MacAnthony reveals which team is better: Man City or Real Madrid
Ultimately, Real Madrid won the double in 2024 while Manchester City became treble-winners in 2023.
As a result, it is tough to split both teams at this point in time.
On talkSPORT, Sam Matterface said: “It was fascinating listening to Rodrygo in the build-up to the Champions League final, he did an interview with GQ in Spain, which he sort of intimated, he actually said the words, Manchester City are the best team in the world.”
“I just thought if the alarm bells are going off, he’s looking at [Kylian] Mbappe coming in, Endrick coming in and he’s thinking he’s going to be the one missing out.”
Darragh MacAnthony replied: “But then he corrected that today, didn’t he, yesterday? He said no.”
Matterface added: “Backtrack, backtrack, backtrack.”
Darragh MacAnthony has claimed that over the past five years, Manchester City have been superior to every team in world football, including Real Madrid.
“Man City are a brilliant football club and there is no doubt in my mind, they are the best football team in the world. When you look at over the past five years collectively and what Pep’s [Guardiola] done, they win another Champions League next year and they were close this year.”
However, Darragh MacAnthony believes Real Madrid remain a bigger club than Manchester City.
“But Real Madrid’s Real Madrid and that obsession for players to play for Real Madrid is there. And no matter how big you are as a club, Man United was the biggest football club in the world but they still lost their best players to Real Madrid. So, that’s just that lure of Real Madrid.”
Man City have been the superior team over the past few years
In our view, Darragh MacAnthony is spot on about why Manchester City have been a better team than Real Madrid and the best in the world over the past few years.
During Pep Guardiola’s time in charge, City have dominated what is arguably the best league in the world at its very best — due to the quality of coaches in the division, the investment and the advancement of football as a whole.
In Guardiola’s eight years in charge of the English giants, they have won six Premier League titles while Real Madrid have won four during the same period.
Despite Barcelona’s decline over the past few years and La Liga not being as strong a league in recent seasons.
Real Madrid’s European dominance has been mightily impressive but as is commonly known, the team that wins the Champions League is not necessarily the best side in the continent.
As exemplified by Carlo Ancelotti’s side’s showings against Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund this season — the results paint a different picture to the quality of their displays.
The same cannot be said about City, who tend to dominate proceedings, regardless of the result and a case can be made that the quality of football they have played under Guardiola trumps that of most teams in history.