EUROPEAN STARS ARE SHINING BRIGHTEST
FOR the second time in five years football’s greatest club game lit up home shores.
Juventus versus Real Madrid on a sun-soaked summer’s evening in the Welsh capital of Cardiff. Tasty.
As in 2013, when Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund descended upon Wembley amid a backdrop of spectacular colour and feverish anticipation, the 2017 Champions League Final was an equally terrific occasion.
Apart from another opportunity to stage a World Cup or European Championship, there could be no more prestigious event for this football-crazy island to host.
What not to enjoy, then, behind the ring of steel protecting some of planet’s finest players under the roof at a rocking National Stadium?
Well, the fact that only one Brit could possibly play a part in the contest was a bit of a downer, for starters.
And to make matters worse Real Madrid superstar Gareth Bale, born and bred in Cardiff, was just back from a calf injury and started on the bench.
Talk about a cruel, savage blow to the Welshman’s adoring public!
But forgive me for not breaking down in floods of tears. Brilliant Bale had starred in Real’s previous two Champions League final triumphs after all.
Which is considerably more than can be said of the ex-Tottenham winger’s English counterparts content to ply their trade on the other side of the Severn Bridge.
Here’s a question – name the last English player to participate in a Champions League final not involving a Premier League club?
Unless born in the previous century, you may have to turn to the internet for help.
Rewind 15 years, way back to May 2002, and you get the answer – Steve McManaman in Real Madrid’s 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen at Hampden Park.
Yes, I know. What a total joke! What an utter disgrace! What a damning stat for the Premier League’s recent homegrown generations.
Sure, it may be the most profitable and glamorous domestic league of all but clearly this contributes nothing when producing and exporting world-class English talent.
Either our players are not good enough or they do not possess the drive and ambition to venture abroad and improve.
Do not tell me Bale would have developed to such extraordinary heights, at such extraordinary pace, had he chosen Man United over Real Madrid in September 2013.
It was easy to see why on last night’s evidence as Cristiano Ronaldo and Co dazzled and sizzled in a breathtaking encounter. It would be impossible for some of his magic not to rub off on a younger man.
So, how refreshing would it be if, for once, an English international craved a move to a foreign league?
How nice it would be if Ross Barkley, for example, rather than join Spurs or West Ham, was actually itching for a chance in Spain, France, Italy or Germany?
Those four international superpowers were represented on the pitch last night – as were South America giantsw Brazil and Argentina.
Which left little old England, the nation who invented the beautiful game, sticking out like a sore thumb. As usual, we had none!