Man City Champions League victory defines new era in European football

Manchester City's players lift the European Cup trophy as they celebrate on the podium after winning the UEFA Champions League final football match between Inter Milan and Manchester City at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul–  AFP 

ISTANBUL, AFP: Pep Guardiola laughed when it was put to him that Manchester City could go on to chase down Real Madrid’s record tally of European Cups after their victory over Inter Milan in Saturday’s Champions League final.

“Be careful Real Madrid! If you sleep a little bit we will catch you,” he joked in the wake of City’s first triumph in Europe’s elite club competition, which also saw them complete a treble after they won the Premier League and FA Cup.

A Rodri strike gave City a 1-0 win at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium as they became European champions for the first time after several near misses in recent years.

The Abu Dhabi-owned club have a long way to go to catch Real’s record haul of 14 victories, and it would be some achievement if they ever get there.

Yet it is tempting to look at Saturday’s success in Turkey and wonder if it might definitively mark the start of a new era in European football.

Real, the great aristocrats of the sport, have resisted the rise of City and Paris Saint-Germain, teams backed by Gulf riches, to win the Champions League five times in the last decade.

The Spaniards were blown away by City in this season’s last four, though, and Guardiola’s side – beaten by Chelsea in the 2021 final – may take some stopping now they have claimed their first title.

“The good thing is that we want more,” match-winner Rodri said. “This project is to want more, more ambition.” City are just the second English side to win the treble, following Manchester United in 1999.

It is an era-defining triumph for a club whose rise has been remarkable, as well as a potentially era-shaping moment.

City were in England’s third tier the year their cross-town rivals completed their treble.

United were reigning European champions while City had finished ninth in the previous season’s Premier League when they were bought in 2008 by the Abu Dhabi United Group, backed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

City had not won the English title in 40 years at that point.

They have just claimed a seventh Premier League in 12 seasons and have won three FA Cups and six League Cups since the takeover. Now they have a first Champions League.