page_title: 1998–99 Manchester United F.C. season
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: 1998–99 Manchester United F.C. season / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Manchester United's players parade the FA Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League trophies on an open-top bus down Deansgate, Manchester, in May 1999.
context_page_description: The 1998–99 season was the most successful season in the history of Manchester United Football Club. After finishing the previous season without winning any titles, United won the treble of trophies, the first side in English football to achieve such a feat. During the campaign United lost only five times, including a one-off Charity Shield fixture, in the League Cup against eventual winners Tottenham Hotspur and their only home defeat, a league match against Middlesbrough in December 1998 and two away defeats to Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday in September and November respectively. A run of 33 games unbeaten in all competitions began on 26 December at home to Nottingham Forest.
  Veteran players Brian McClair and Gary Pallister, along with a host of younger and less experienced players such as goalkeeper Kevin Pilkington and striker Graeme Tomlinson, had left the club before the season began. The big news of the pre-season was the arrival of Dutch defender Jaap Stam for a club record fee of £10.75 million. Other additions included striker Dwight Yorke and Swedish winger Jesper Blomqvist.
context_section_description: Almost 24 hours after the dramatics in Barcelona, a crowd of 500,000 people turned up on the streets of Manchester to greet the United players, who paraded through the city in an open-top bus. As champions of Europe, Manchester United were invited to play in the Intercontinental Cup against Brazilian side Palmeiras in Tokyo. Roy Keane scored the winner, ensuring the team became the first and last British side to win the trophy, which was abolished in 2004.
  To help England with its World Cup host bid, United controversially withdrew from the 1999–2000 FA Cup, the first time the holders had done so in order to play in the inaugural Club World Championship. They did not progress past the group stages, and Ferguson has since admitted his regrets in how they handled the situation.
  Along with the Busby Babes, the 1999 treble-winning team is regarded by supporters as the benchmark of Manchester United teams. In 2007 The Daily Telegraph in association with World Soccer Magazine published a list of the twenty greatest football teams of all time: United were ranked in last position, behind Liverpool's double winners of 1977.  The extra-time winner scored by Ryan Giggs in the FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal topped a poll for the best goal in the competition and Channel 4 viewers rated the team's comeback in the Champions League final at number four on the list of 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.
  On 26 May 2019, Manchester United and Bayern Munich legends sides played each other in a charity match at Old Trafford to commemorate the 20th anniversary of United completing the Treble. Manchester United won the match 5–0, with goals from Solskjær, Yorke, Butt and Beckham, as well as Louis Saha, who played for the club from 2004 to 2008.
caption: Manchester United celebrating their Treble win in Deansgate in May 1999
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