Carabao Cup winners: Full list of League Cup all-time champions, history of most successful clubs

Founded in 1960, England's League Cup has become a cornerstone of the domestic football calendar and has seen its fair share of thrills and spills.

Since the inauguration of the tournament back in the 1960-61 season, there have been no fewer than 23 separate winners, adding a competitive exterior to its reputation among supporters of competing clubs. The competition is controlled by the English Football League, permitting all 92 clubs from England's four top divisions to compete for the prestigious title. 

Winners of the trophy receive the added bonus of a UEFA Europa Conference League playoff round spot. This will be allocated to the 6th placed team in the Premier League (seventh if the FA Cup is claimed by a top-six side) if the tournament winner has already qualified for the Champions League or Europa League by finishing top five in the Premier League. 

Here are the four teams that have won the trophy more than any other in the history of the competition:

Liverpool, most recently winners in 2022, sit top of the chart with regards to all-time Carabao Cup trophies, claiming the tournament nine times and finishing as runners-up on four occasions.

The Reds have enjoyed a fruitful relationship with the competition, having last taken the crown in 2022 in a penalty shoot-out against Chelsea.

Memorably, the Reds also managed to get their hands on the cup in the 2000-01 campaign, courtesy of a Gary McAllister penalty which downed Birmingham City 5-4 in another shootout on the way to a famous League Cup, FA Cup, and UEFA Cup treble-winning season.

In recent years, Manchester City has become a major force in the Carabao Cup. Unbelievably, Pep Guardiola's men managed to scoop the trophy on four successive occasions between 2017-18 and