The Copa Libertadores is the Champions League's mirror on the other side of the Atlantic, and in the game it shares exactly the same format: `groups32`, 32 teams in eight groups of four played home and away — just like the Champions League — followed by a round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals played over two legs, and a single-match final. That's why this competition's perfect campaign is also a 13-0: the same number as the Champions League, not the World Cup's 8-0 or the Copa América's 6-0 — what decides the badge's size is the tournament's design, not the continent. Whoever wins it is crowned "Champion of the Americas". The game covers its 66 editions, from 1960 to 2025: 132 squads, 1,669 cards and 1,264 players from 44 different clubs.
As in every competition in the game, the pantheon doesn't belong to whoever had the single best campaign — it belongs to whoever dominates the competition's HISTORY, measured here in all-time goals and trophies lifted. And it's a pantheon with a signature of its own: neither Pelé, nor Zico, nor Passarella, nor Neymar make the cut — all of them played in the Libertadores, but none of them left the goal-scoring numbers that decide this pantheon. The king is called Alberto Spencer.
The competition's all-time great
Alberto Spencer — 1960
Alberto Spencer is the Copa Libertadores' all-time top scorer: 54 goals, a record by a margin no other scorer in the competition comes close to threatening — the runner-up has 37. The 100 card is from the inaugural 1960 edition, which he won with Peñarol while also being the tournament's top scorer. An Ecuadorian playing in Uruguay and a three-time champion with Peñarol, he's this game's criterion at work: Europe barely knew him, and he's still the undisputed king of this competition.
GK
Miguel Ángel Santoro — 1972
The most decorated goalkeeper in Copa Libertadores history: four titles with Independiente, in 1964, 1965, 1972 and 1973 — more than any other goalkeeper who has played in the competition.
RB
Hugo Ibarra — 2003
Four titles with Boca Juniors, in 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2007 — the highest number for any right-back in this competition, and a number he shares: the Argentine Commisso won the same four with Independiente between 1972 and 1975. The two also tie on finals played and on appearances, and neither left behind a scoring record in the competition that would separate them. It is the rare case where the choice is made with no margin at all, and that is worth saying out loud rather than hiding.
CB
Francisco Sá — 1974
The Copa Libertadores' all-time title record: six, four in a row with Independiente (1972 to 1975) and two more with Boca Juniors (1977 and 1978). No one has lifted the trophy more times in the history of the competition.
CB
Hugo De León — 1983
Three titles with two clubs — Nacional, in 1980 and 1988, and Grêmio, in 1983 — and captain of the Brazilian club's first-ever title.
LB
Ricardo Pavoni — 1974
Five titles with Independiente, the second-highest number in competition history, behind only teammate Francisco Sá — a Uruguayan shining at an Argentine club.
CDM
Semenewicz — 1973
Semenewicz won four Copa Libertadores titles with Independiente — more than any other midfielder in the competition's history. He has held this spot since September 2026: the midfielder who had it before him, Carlos Pachamé, has three titles with Estudiantes de La Plata (1968, 1969 and 1970), a number he shares with three other midfielders in the competition — Palhinha, Rubén Galván and Sebastián Battaglia. One more title, with no tie splitting it, is what decides it. The card is from 1973, the second of Independiente's four titles.
CM
Carlos Bilardo — 1969
The brain of that same three-time champion Estudiantes side — the same man who, years later, would become a World Cup-winning coach.
CAM
Pedro Rocha — 1966
The Copa Libertadores' third all-time top scorer, with 36 goals — scored from midfield, not from the front line — across Peñarol, São Paulo and Palmeiras. This is the most contested card in this eleven, and the contest is stated rather than buried. On trophies he does not win, but nor is he swept aside: three Copas Libertadores with Peñarol — 1960, 1961 and 1966 — against the four Argentina's Ricardo Bochini won with Independiente, across two eras nine years apart, and the three Juan Román Riquelme won with Boca Juniors. One title separates first from third, and one title does not settle a position. What puts him here is the only axis that measures the player rather than his team: goals. Riquelme scored 25 in the competition and Bochini does not even appear in the all-time top scorers table, which runs down to 28 goals. And this game's rule is to discount titles won inside the most dominant side of an era, not to reward them: three of Bochini's four came from the Independiente that won four in a row.
RW
Luis Cubilla — 1961
Five Copa Libertadores finals played — more than any other right winger who appeared in the competition. They were: 1960 and 1961 with Peñarol, both won; 1966 with River Plate; 1969 with Nacional; and 1971, with Nacional again, won again. Three titles, three clubs and two countries, with eleven years between his first final and his last. If the criterion were the raw trophy count, the spot would belong to Argentina's Agustín Balbuena, who won the competition four times with Independiente between 1972 and 1975 — but all four came from the same club and the same run of four in a row, and four finals is fewer than five. That is the difference between following a dominant side for four years and reaching the final of South America in three different shirts across a decade.
LW
Juan Ramón Verón — 1969
"La Bruja" Verón won three Libertadores in a row with Estudiantes de La Plata, in 1968, 1969 and 1970. He's the father of the other Verón who would bring the title back to the club forty years later, in 2009.
ST
Alberto Spencer — 1966
This is the same Alberto Spencer as the 100 card, and this competition's forward spot has no other candidate: 54 all-time goals, the absolute record. This icon card is from the 1966 season, the third of his titles with Peñarol; the 100 card is the 1960 one, the inaugural edition he won while also its top scorer.