The 13 biggest one club cities in European football: Leeds, Marseille, Naples…

Manchester, Munich, Milan, Madrid… Europe is home to multiple cities with multiple major football clubs jostling for supremacy – but what about huge cities with only one team?

Regularly described as sleeping giants at both domestic and continental level, these locations are home to some of the most passionately supported clubs in world football.

We’ve trawled through population statistics and leagues across the continent to pick out the 13 biggest one-club cities Europe has to offer, ranging from the Mediterranean to deepest Yorkshire.

13. Lyon

France’s second-biggest city in terms of urban area, Lyon has a population of more than half a million – and a good chunk of them support their continentally renowned local team.

Winners of seven successive Ligue 1 titles in the 2000s, Lyon have fallen from their pedestal in recent seasons but still remain one of France’s leading sides and are performing well in this season’s Europa League.

12. Hannover

With a population of more than half a million, Hanover is one of the largest cities in northern Germany – but it has just the one professional football club.

While they haven’t been a force for some time, Hannover 96 were crowned champions of Germany either side of the Second World War and won the German Cup in 1992.

The city hosted matches at both the 1974 and 2006 World Cup, alongside staging games at Euro 88, but wasn’t selected for last summer’s European Championship.

Perhaps that is down to their club’s diminished status these days, with Hannover currently eighth in the second tier and not having played in the Bundesliga since 2019.

11. Bremen

The key northern German port city of Bremen is home to one of the country’s most decorated football clubs.

Multiple Bundesliga champions and German Cup winners – doing the double in 2003-04 – Werder also enjoyed European success in 1992, when they defeated Monaco to lift the Cup Winners’ Cup and reached the 2009 UEFA Cup final.

Still thriving today, Werder Bremen are currently sixth in the Bundesliga and share the record with Bayern Munich for the most seasons played in the German top flight.

10. Malaga

Gateway to the Costa del Sol, Malaga is enjoying a renaissance with its bars, museums and beaches proving the city is far more than an airport terminal on the way to Marbella.

The local football team were Champions League quarter-finalists back in 2013, but were simply happy to be promoted from the nether regions of Spain’s third tier last year.

Malaga CF, a club that attracts plenty of British expats to its home matches, currently sit 10th in the Segunda Division and are three points off the promotion play-offs.

9. Dortmund

Germany’s second-biggest club after Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund boast the country’s biggest stadium: the iconic Westfalenstadion, famed for the largest terrace in European football in the tifo-laden ‘Yellow Wall’.

Bundesliga champions on numerous occasions, Champions League winners in 1997 and runners-up in 2013 and 2024, Dortmund have no rivals within the city itself but share a fierce derby with Schalke from nearby Gelsenkirchen.

8. Dusseldorf

A major business and financial centre, Dusseldorf lies within the most populous Rhine-Ruhr region of Germany.

The city hosted five matches at Euro 2024, including England’s quarter-final win over Switzerland, at the 54,000-capacity Merkur Spiel-Arena.

But Fortuna Dusseldorf have been outside of the Bundesliga since 2020 and narrowly missed out on promotion last season.

Despite the lure of Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen nearby, Fortuna averaged almost 40,000 fans last season and the potential is there for even more considering the club has previously won the Bundesliga and German Cup.

7. Wroclaw

Home to a population of 674,000, Wroclaw is the third biggest city in Poland and hosted three group-stage matches at Euro 2012.

The Polish League is arguably the most underperforming in Europe, with its clubs rarely making an impression in the Champions League despite Poland’s healthy population and love of football, and Slask Wroclaw are a prime example of that.

Eliminated from the Conference League in the qualifiers, Slask are rock bottom of the league table and in grave danger of relegation.

An embarrassing state of affairs considering the size of the city, even before you consider Slask were league champions in 2012.

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6. Zaragoza

The fourth biggest city in Spain – having recently overtaken the population of Seville – Zaragoza is the capital of Aragon and will host matches at the 2030 World Cup.

Local club Real Zaragoza are one of the most storied in Spanish football, but have been outside of the top flight since relegation back in 2012-13 and are in desperate need of modernisation.

Still, the club hold fond memories for English supporters of a certain age after beating Arsenal in the 1995 Cup Winner’s Cup final.

For years, Gunners fans were taunted with chants of ‘Nayim from the halfway line’ and the aim of Real Zaragoza chiefs is bring those days back to a fallen giant.

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5. Palermo

Italy’s fifth-most populous city, with over 600,000 inhabitants, Palermo is the capital of Sicily – the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.

With their famous pink shirts and having propelled the careers of Luca Toni, Paulo Dybala and Edinson Cavani, Palermo are one of Calcio’s most distinctive clubs but they are currently mid-table in Serie B.

Considering the current iteration of Palermo is a phoenix born from financial disarray in 2019, that is an achievement in itself – even with the grubby hands of City Football Group owning 20% of the club.

4. Leeds

Nowhere in Yorkshire is home to more people than Leeds, but the city has just one professional football club.

Winners of every major domestic honour – including the First Division title on three occasions – and European Cup runners-up in 1975, Leeds United are one of the giants of English football but have spent the majority of the past two decades outside of the Premier League.

With Daniel Farke leading a promotion challenge in 2024-25, and plans to revamp Elland Road, Leeds fans can be tentatively hopeful of seeing their club thrive once more.

3. Amsterdam

There did used to be two professional clubs in Amsterdam – but Ajax have been the sole one in the Dutch capital since FC Amsterdam disbanded in 1982.

Luckily for Amsterdam, Ajax remains one of the most iconic and decorated outfits in world football. The Eredivisie giants aren’t quite at their peak these days, but retain huge support and play in the ultra-modern Amsterdam Arena.

2. Marseille

Only Paris has a larger population than Marseille in the list of French cities – and while the capital is home to a couple of professional clubs besides PSG, that’s not the case in the barmy melting pot on the Mediterranean.

Olympique Marseille (OM to the locals) are one of the most passionately supported clubs in Europe and remain the only French team to win the European Cup courtesy of their 1993 triumph over AC Milan.

The Stade Velodrome is an excellent, modern arena and the atmosphere is capable of making the most assured outfit tremble on its day.

Marseille is also an upcoming travel destination, with the city turning its reputation for grit and edginess into a positive. Well worth a visit.

1. Naples

Unlike the other major Italian cities of Rome, Milan and Turin, Naples has just one football club for the local population of 970,000 to rally around.

This probably explains why Napoli are one of the most fanatically supported teams in the world.

The club actually went bankrupt in 2004, only for film producer Aurelio De Laurentiis to save them and oversee an incredible rise back to the top that culminated in winning the Scudetto in 2023.

Home of Diego Maradona (and Scott McTominay) during his prime, Naples is a city that obsesses over football and Napoli is the object of that obssession.