The European Champion Clubs' Cup, also known as Coupe des Clubs Champions Européens, or simply the European Cup, is a trophy awarded annually by UEFA to the football club that wins the UEFA Champions League. The competition in its older format shared its name with the trophy, being also known as the European Cup, before being renamed for the 1992–93 season onwards.

There have been several official incarnations of this trophy, as a club was entitled to keep the cup after five wins or three consecutive wins, with a new cup having to be forged for the following season. During the first years of the competition, up until 1966–67 season, the trophy had a distinctively different design.

The original European Cup trophy was donated by L'Équipe, a French sports newspaper. This trophy was awarded permanently to Real Madrid in March 1967. At the time, they were the reigning champions, and had won six titles altogether, including the first five competitions from 1956 to 1960. Celtic therefore became the first club to win the cup in its current design in 1967.

The replacement trophy, with a somewhat different design from the original, was commissioned by UEFA from Jörg Stadelmann, a jeweller from Bern, Switzerland. At a cost of 10,000 Swiss francs, it was silver, 74 cm high, weighing 11 kg. Subsequent replacement trophies have replicated this design. The shape of the handles have earned it the nickname of "big ears" in multiple languages, including French ("la Coupe aux grandes oreilles"), Italian ("La Coppa dalle grandi orecchie"), Spanish ("La Orejona"), Russian ("Ушастый, Ushastiy"), Vietnamese ("Cúp tai voi"), Chinese ("大耳朵杯") and Arabic ("كأس ذات الأذنين"). Between 1967 and 1994, the trophy bears the title "Coupe des Clubs Champions Européens" in sentence case; AC Milan were the last team to win this type of trophy. Since then, the trophy bears the title fully in capital letters, although the size is increased in the subsequent and current trophy.

The trophy that currently is awarded is the sixth and has been in use since 2006, after Liverpool won their fifth European Cup in 2005. Since 2009, Champions League winners have not kept the real trophy, which remains in UEFA's custody at all times. A full-size replica trophy, the Champions League winners trophy, is awarded to the winning club with their name engraved on it. Winning clubs are permitted to make replicas of their own. They must be clearly marked as such and can be a maximum of eighty percent the size of the actual trophy.

A rule introduced before the 1968–69 season allowed a club to keep the original trophy after five wins or three consecutive wins. At that point, Real Madrid was the only club meeting either qualification, and indeed met both. Once a club had been awarded the trophy, their count would be reset to zero.

Five clubs have been permanently awarded the real trophy under the old rules, from the 1968–69 to 2008–09 seasons:

Prior to 2008-09, a club whose Champions League title was not a fifth overall or third consecutive win kept the real trophy for ten months after their victory and received a scaled-down replica to keep permanently.