Gareth Bale aiming to become sixth player to win Champions League or European Cup in hometown
Gareth Bale will hope to join an exclusive club of Champions League winners to lift the trophy in their hometown when Real Madrid face Juventus in Cardiff.
Real are chasing their third European triumph in four years on Saturday, in what would be their 12th title overall.
The La Liga champions are also hoping to become the first club to defend the Champions League since its inception in 1992 – the last club to retain the European Cup were AC Milan (1989, 1990).
To do so, Zinedine Zidane’s men must overcome Serie A winners Juventus at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, and the final in Wales offers Bale the opportunity to become just the sixth player in history to lift the Champions League or European Cup in their hometown.
Interestingly, Nicolas Anelka was the last player to achieve the feat – doing so while he was at Real Madrid, too. The Frenchman from Versailles helped Real to the crown in 2000, in a 3-0 win over Valencia in Paris’ Stade de France.
Here’s the list of players to have won Europe’s elite club competition in familiar surroundings:
Conversely, there are 10 players to have suffered final heartbreak in their hometown – including Londoners Rio Ferdinand and Chris Smalling, Munich-born Philipp Lahm and Sky Sports’ Thierry Henry, who comes from Les Ulis, a suburb of Paris.
Thomas Muller, born in Weilheim, and Bastian Schweinsteiger, born in Kolbermoor, are from just outside of Munich – the scene of their 2012 penalty shootout final defeat to Chelsea.
Here’s the list of players who lost Champions League finals in their hometown: