The 65th season of football’s greatest competition is underway and we’ve already seen some incredible group stage matches like Atletico’s 2-2 draw with Juventus and PSG’s 3-0 victory over Real Madrid.
However, because we are only in the early stages of the competition, we’re going to take a look at some of the most interesting facts surrounding the prestigious Champions League to get everyone hyped for the action and excited to bet on all the upcoming fixtures.
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The UEFA Champions League final is the most watched annual sporting event in the world. The final of 2012–13 that featured Borussia Dortmund vs Bayern Munich was aired in more than 200 countries and had the highest TV rating so far, with 360 million TV viewers.
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The UEFA Champions League anthem officially titled as “Champions League”, was written by British composer Tony Britten in 1992, and is an adaptation of George Frideric Handel’s Zadok the Priest. It has two short verses and the chorus, which contains three official languages used by UEFA: English, German, and French.
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The most successful club in the tournament’s history is Real Madrid, who secured their 13th victory defeating Liverpool 3–1 in 2018 finals. They became the first team in the UCL era to win the title in three consecutive years. Following is Milan with 7 titles, and Barcelona, Bayern München and Liverpool with 5.
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The highest number of victories by country is an honour held by Spain with 18 wins. Following this achievement are England and Italy with 12 title wins. It can be noted however, that England has the most variance in winning teams, since 5 different football clubs have all won the title.
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English clubs were banned from the UEFA Champions League between 1986 and 1991 because of series of hooliganism problems and stadium disasters. The absence of these teams gave PSV Eindhoven, Red Star Belgrade and Steaua Bucarest the opportunity to win a title for the first time following a decade of English dominance.
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Cristiano Ronaldo became the first player to score a goal in three UFC finals – in 2008 for Manchester United, and in 2014 and 2017 for Real Madrid. He is also the only player that scored in two different UCL finals with two different teams.
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Clarence Seedorf is the only player to win the trophy with three different clubs – Ajax (1995), Real Madrid (1998), and Milan (2003 and 2007).
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The quickest goal in a UEFA Champions League final was scored in 51 seconds by Paolo Maldini in 2005. The record in UCL overall is however held by Roy Makaay, after scoring a goal in little over 10 seconds for Bayern Munich against Real Madrid in 2007.
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UEFA retains the original trophy at all times, but any team that wins three times in a row or five years overall gets the right to a full-sized replica. This honour was earned by 6 clubs so far – Real Madrid, Milan, Liverpool, Ajax, Bayern Munich, and Barcelona.
Who knows what this year’s Champions League will bring and how many new records we could list above. Who do you think is going to win this time? Are you willing to bet on your prediction?
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