As competitions go, the Champions League is the ultimate tournament in club football. As the successor to the European Cup, the Champions League 2021 odds are harder to win than its predecessor.
Yes the group stage allows for more opportunity to bounce back from defeat, but you also often have to beat far more of the continent’s best to emerge triumphant, let alone play almost twice as many games than in yesteryear.
Among wonderful Champions League 2021 highlights as the tournament approaches its 30th anniversary, a question to debate is who have been the finest captains?
This was not an easy choice but, the more I think about it, the more obvious it became.
Paolo Maldini
Maldini has lifted the trophy five times in 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003, and 2007 – the final two occasions as captain of AC Milan.
He had already won the competition in its more straightforward European Cup format in 1989 & 1990 ahead of the Champions League era in 1994 and a night when Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona of Stoichkov, Romario, and Guardiola were dismissed with arrogant ease.
14 years on, Maldini was still with the Rossoneri and again a European champion. He remains there to this day as technical director and inspiring the next generation of footballers.
The sheer mention of his name continues to inspire the leading names in the football world.
Sergio Ramos
Ramos may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Indeed, there is a side to the Spanish centre-back which is distinctly unpleasant and underhand.
Yet there’s no doubting his influence at Real Madrid where he won the competition four times in seven years and captained them in three of those triumphs.
Those three in a row (2016-18) was the first time in the Champions League era that any side had ever managed back-to-back successes, let alone three.
In the first of his victories in 2014, Ramos scored a crucial last-gasp equaliser just when it looked like city rivals Atletico were going to win the competition for the first time. Real went onto win 4-1 in extra-time.
Two years later, he scored again in normal time and then kept his cool and netted in a decisive penalty shootout on their way to victory over the same opponents.
12 months on, he skippered Real to a 4-1 victory over 10-man Juventus and then helped bring down Liverpool – and to much disdain – Mohamed Salah in 2018.
Whether he again is successful in the competition this term with big-spending Paris St Germain will not alter his place in the Champions League roll of honour – a true Real legend.
Steven Gerrard
At times it seemed like he was a one-man salvage operation.
Steven Gerrard was the heart and soul of Liverpool for 15 years and his efforts to drive his team forward were first-class.
He may have only lifted the trophy once but that was not down to his lack of passion and a knack of never giving in and scoring crucial goals.
That was evident on many occasions but none more so than the 2005 final which was effectively over at half-time.
Or at least it should have been had Milan not fallen asleep or, as some suggestions from the Merseysiders’ dressing room will have you believe, became complacent and thought the game was won.
It was also because Liverpool’s captain refused to be beaten and dragged his team back into the contest and then kept them going when Milan pushed them back deep in extra-time.
His efforts for the red half of Merseyside were simply heroic.
Roy Keane
If Gerrard was heroic, Roy Keane was Herculean. He is on this list even though he also only won the competition once.
In fact, he was suspended on the night United lifted the trophy in 1999 to clinch an unprecedented treble but that doesn’t matter.
His sheer will to win and impact on team mates and opponents alike make him the most influential captain I’ve ever seen in his pomp.
That leadership was evident in many a season, not least 1998-99 when he navigated United through a group stage comprising Barcelona and Bayern Munich, saw off Italian giants Inter Milan, and then produced a showing against Juventus in the semi-final which is now the stuff of folklore.
United’s famous victory against Bayern – the third time they had met that season – was yet to come but Keane’s status as legendary had already been cemented.
Others in the honorable mention
Hats off also to Carlos Puyol. While to my mind he was not quite as inspirational as those above, his influence and impact as a superb professional was clear.
In captaining Barcelona to three Champions Leagues in six years (2006-11), he led once of the greatest teams I’ve ever seen.
Likewise, Iker Casillas, one of the best goalkeepers in world football and a three-time winner of the tournament with Real Madrid (2000, 2002 & 2014).
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