For the fifth time in nine successive editions, the Champions League replica crown is Spain-bound. Spanish hegemony is well known — between them, Real Madrid and Barcelona, the bitterest and grandest of rivals, have accumulated 15 titles, their combined haul better than any other country’s. This time, though, it’s not heading to Camp Nou.
It might not reach the Santiago Bernabeu either. Vicente Calderon could be the eventual destination, some 12-odd kilometres west of Bernabeu, overlooking the historic Almudena cathedral. This is the home of Real’s bitterest rivals Atletico Madrid, the working class quarter of Madrid. The upstarts of Madrid, then the upstarts of Spain, and now the upstarts of Europe, could finally be crowned the elites of Europe.
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Though not to the scale of Leicester City’s triumph, Atletico winning the Champions League would be a momentous occasion for the perceived underdogs of the game. In the last four years, they have won the league, Copa del Ray and agonisingly lost in the Champions League final.
They, unlike Leicester, have world-class players like Antoine Griezmann and Fernando Torres, though almost every other year, their standout players are priced out by the bigger clubs. But the ethics that govern both Leicester and Atletico are identical — of courage and enterprise. Wherever Atletico play, slogans that hang from the fans enclosures read: “Never stop believing”. And Atletico never did.
