The UEFA Champions League, a brief history of a great Football tournament!!

By Christian Basantes

With the final whistle of the Hungarian referee Victor Kassai, the 56^th edition of the UEFA Champions League came to an end and FC Barcelona was proclaimed as the new King of Europe.

On Saturday May 28th, Manchester United of England and FC Barcelona of Spain faced each other to define the new European Champion. After a great performance, the “catalanes” beat United by 3-1. The Spaniard Pedro at 27^th, the sensational Argentinean and FIFA World Player, Lionel Messi at 54^th, and Team Spain top scorer, David Villa at 69^th got the goals for the “Blau Granas”. The English Wayne Rooney scored for the “Red Devils” to save some honour in the final. It was simply an amazing and perfect performance by FC Barcelona, and now they have four European Championships in their history.

I’m very sure that many of you, my dear readers, are saying “well I’ve already know that” “I did watch the game last Saturday”, or “that’s the same thing I read on the media and the papers about that game”. All right, you’re all right. Well, I’m not here to just tell you about the last UEFA Champion’s League Final. I’m here to tell you a brief history of this great Football tournament.

As everything, the UEFA Champions League has its beginning. In 1955, a French sports journalist, Gabriel Hanot, had the idea of creating a club tournament in Europe. He received reports from its colleagues in South America. The "Campeonato Sudamericano de Clubes" known today as "Copa Libertadores de América" was having a great success since 1948. Hanot went with the idea to UEFA, and they loved it. The tournament was born as a competition for winners of the European National Leagues, it was named European Champion Club's cup, also known as, European Cup.

                             

Thorough the history, the tournament have suffered many changes. For instance, before 1992 only National League Champions plus the European Cup holder used to participate. Later, as Europe suffered different political and geographical changes, more teams were allowed to be in the competition. Countries like Spain, England, Germany, Italy, and France are allowed to send its top 4 teams. On the other side, the rest of countries get to send just their top 2. The group stage was introduced in the 1992-93 season, and the name changed to its current one, UEFA Champions League. In total, 32 teams, divided in 8 groups of 4 teams, play in the competition at the group stage. Then, the top 2 of each group go to the round of 16^th, then the quarterfinals with 8 teams, then semifinals with the European top 4, and finally the best 2 teams of Europe play for the Championship in a previously designated city and stadium. This last edition the final was played in the legendary Stadium of Wembley in London, England. The League runs from August through May of the next year.

As every exciting football tournament, the Champions League has seen great teams and players reaching the glory. Real Madrid CF was the winner in the first five editions of the tournament. This is the wonderful generation of Ferenc Puskas (Hungary), Alfredo D'Estefano (Argentina), Jose Santamaria (Uruguay), Paco Gento, and Roque Olsen both from Spain. They were the kings of Europe from 1955 to 1960, a record that today is still unbeatable and hard to reach. In total, this team accumulates nine titles in the tournament. Yes, it is the most awarded team in Europe. In addition to the players I mentioned, Real Madrid has won the title with players like Raul Gonzalez (Spain), who is the top historic scorer with 71 goals. Luis Figo (Portugal), Zinedine Zidane (France), Roberto Carlos (Brazil), Fernando Redondo (Argentina), Steve McMannaman (England) and many more.

However, this is not only about Madrid, we can't forget other great teams like Ajax from The Netherlands with Johan Cruff, the powerful AC Milan with a glorious generation of the Italians Paolo Maldini and Franco Baressi, and the Dutch Rudd Gullit, Marco Van Basten, and Frank Rijkard. The FC Barcelona, now current European Champions, with its "Dream Team" from 1992 with players like Ronald Koeman (The Netherlands), Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria), Jose Mari Baquero and Julio Salinas (Spain). Manchester United with talents like George Best and Bobby Charlton from England. And Benfica from Portugal with the talented Portuguese Eusebio, and more, more, more, and more that I would need a lot of time and a lot of pages to tell you.

However, let's make it simple, here I have the list of European Champions. These are the best teams of Europe. As an extra research I did, you will see per every year, the name of the MVP, who helped his team in reaching the European Glory. Here we go!

Please click on the table to have  abetter view.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Champions_League; and http://www.uefa.com/

As you can see, plenty of clubs and also plenty of Football stars, sorry, football stars that amazed Europe and the World. What is your favorite? Tricky question because some players may not be familiar for you, but in my personal case, I choose Zidane. I still can’t forget the amazing goal he scored on May 15, 2002 at Hampden Park in Glasgow, during the final against Bayern Leverkussen (Germany). Zidane’s goal gave the lead to Real Madrid 2-1 in the final, and consequently, it gave the ninth UEFA Champions League to the Spaniard Team. Yes, that was the last one for the “Blancos”.

What about the finals? In this topic, English club fans can be really proud, and if I were fan of Manchester United or Liverpool FC, I would be too.

In 1999, in the final played at the Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, the “Red Devils” of Manchester United (England) beat Bayern Munich (Germany) in the last 2 minutes of injury time! The Germans took the lead at the 6^th minute with a goal from Mario Basler. The score was 1-0 during the whole game. However at the 91^st minute, the English Teddy Sheringham tied the game, 1-1. Finally, at the 93^rd, the Norwegian Ole Solskjaer changed the history, 2-1, and United got the championship. What a shocking ending!!

In 2005, another impressive thing happened. Liverpool faced AC Milan at the Atartuk Stadium of Istanbul in Turkey. The Italian Paolo Maldini, and the Argentinean Hernan Crespo scored for Milan at 1^st, 39^th and 44^th minutes respectively to give them a comfortable lead of 3-0. I’m sure in that moment, they thought “well, it is 3-0, let’s relax”. However, Liverpool players didn’t give up, and the English Steven Gerrard at 54^th, the Czech Vladimir Smicer at 56^th, and the Spaniard Xabi Alonso at 60^th scored to tie the game 3-3! The comfortable lead became an uncomfortable draw in 6 minutes!! The game went to extra time, where no goals came, and in the penalty shoots, the nightmare for AC Milan happened! Liverpool won 3-2 and the Champions League went to The Beatles home city. Simply Amazing!!

In conclusion, England can be proud that their teams never give up. However, let’s not be unfair. I’m sure that Spain is proud with Real Madrid, the most awarded European team, and with FC Barcelona, the current Champion, and the one that is playing the best football in the world right now. Germany also enjoyed wonderful journeys with the famous Bayern Munich. Italy, can’t complain with the success of AC Milan, Juventus, and Inter.

Anyway, there are more stories to tell. I would need more time and pages to write about it. However, I’m sure that with these few episodes I told you briefly, you will agree with me that the UEFA Champions League is one of the greatest football tournaments in the world.

Until next time!!

Christian Basantes