For example the most successful clubs and most powerful in South American history are Peñarol, Boca Jrs, Nacional, Independiente, River Plate, São Paulo, Gremio, Flamengo, Palmeiras and Santos. What other do you think are great or never heard of this top 10 from the Americans clubs?
Peñarol and Nacional from Uruguay and Boca Juniors from Argentina and Sao Paulo are the only ones from South America who has 3 World Cups of clubs. So to me they are the best ones.
It’s about economics. Look at how people perceive Manchester City today compared to 10 years ago. Until the 90s, teams like Palmeiras, sponsored by Parmalat, still managed to keep players like Cafu, Rivaldo and Roberto Carlos and beat any team in the world (Look at Palmeiras 6X1 Borussia). Today it is impossible to compete with rich European clubs. But history is not something that can be erased, clubs like Palmeiras, Santos, Botafogo, Corithians and Flamengo had better players in the past than most European clubs that people consider successful today.