By winning the Champions League final on Saturday against Inter Milan (1-0), Manchester City joined the inner circle of C1 winning clubs. A status that the Cityzens had been waiting for fifteen years.
This time, no one will be able to make fun of Manchester City and its millions of euros spent for nothing. Like Paris Saint-Germain, unhappy in the Champions League for years, the English club had been aiming for a victory in the greatest of European competitions for more than ten years. The Cityzens finally succeeded, Saturday June 10, by winning in Istanbul against Inter Milan, in the C1 final (1-0). A victory that brings the new rich into a new world.
For several seasons, Manchester City was obviously a big European. The English club had C1 semi-finals in 2016 and 2022, a final lost in 2021 against Chelsea (0-1). Any Premier League club in the mid-2000s, accustomed to living in the shadow of Manchester United for decades, Manchester City experienced an upheaval in 2008 with the takeover of the club by a public investment fund from the United Arab Emirates.
European football had already seen the emergence of new rich, with Chelsea and its Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. He got to know those boosted by money from the Gulf, the Emiratis at City, the Qataris at PSG and the Saudis, more recently, at Newcastle. For fifteen years, Mancunian leaders have spent 2.3 billion euros on the transfer market and City has the most expensive workforce on the football planet.
“If you want your club to be respected, you have to win this trophy”
Despite the many victories in recent years in the Premier League, Manchester City still lacked a title on its record to find a place: the C1. “If you want your club to be respected by all the other big teams on the continent, you have to win this trophy“, analyzed Yaya Touré, former winner of the competition with FC Barcelona and ex-player of Manchester City, last May.
“We worked a lot to win this competition that we were missing.”, assured Bernardo Silva at the microphone of Canal + after the final. “All these people in the stands deserve it, they have been waiting for I don’t know how long: 20, 30 or 40 years…”savored Rodri, scorer in the final, at the microphone of BT Sport.
After having waited a long time, City has therefore moved into a new world: it has become the 23rd club in history to have won the Champions League, the first unprecedented winner of the competition since Chelsea in 2012. This success, the English club above all went to look for it intelligently.
The beginning of a new era
The City method stands out from other major European clubs. Admittedly, the English club have spent lavishly in recent seasons, but the board of the club has also thought about the best way to use this money. Despite Pep Guardiola’s succession of failures in C1, the management of Manchester City has maintained its confidence in the Spanish coach.
The latter has never hidden his gratitude towards the confidence of his leaders. As well as the big-eared cup, Manchester City also achieved a historic treble by also winning the Premier League and FA Cup this season. Only rivals Manchester United had done so in English football history, back in 1999.”I didn’t expect to do the treble, but that’s why I came here”savored Erling Haaland after the final, Saturday at the microphone of Canal +.
European football is going through a turning point and the arrival on the roof of Europe of the English club will remain as a historical marker. After Manchester City today, Paris Saint-Germain for tomorrow?