Morata can equal Desailly, Sousa and Eto'o

If Álvaro Morata aids Juventus to victory in the UEFA Champions League final on Saturday, the No9 will join a very select band of players to have won the competition in successive seasons with different teams.

A year ago in Lisbon, Morata came off the bench in the 79th minute with Real Madrid CF 1-0 down to Club Atlético de Madrid. Real were of course to equalise and then triumph 4-1 after extra time, but it proved to be Morata's last game for Madrid before a summer move to Italy. With Juventus he has subsequently claimed the Italian double and is now up against FC Barcelona in Berlin, having helped dethroned his former side in the last four.

Should the 22-year-old Spain forward be part of a Juve success in the German capital, he would follow in the footsteps of three other players to have successfully defended their personal status as European champion after switching clubs. Gerard Piqué would also be on that list, though he did not feature for Manchester United FC in the 2008 final in Moscow, 12 months before helping Barcelona past the Red Devils in Rome.

Desailly celebrates his 1994 final goal©Getty Images

Marcel Desailly (Olympique de Marseille 1993, AC Milan 1994)
It was not until the UEFA Champions League era that any player landed the European Cup two years running with different clubs. In fact, it happened in the second season of the revamped competition. In 1993, Desailly had been in the Marseille defence that kept a clean sheet in Munich in a 1-0 defeat of AC Milan – whom the French international promptly joined. The following May, Desailly was in Athens for Milan's memorable 4-0 thrashing of Barça, scoring the fourth goal himself from midfield.

Paulo Sousa (Juventus 1996, Borussia Dortmund 1997)
If Desailly beat his future team in one final before making amends in the next, Sousa won one decider then returned to dethrone his old club 12 months later. He played the first 57 minutes of the 1996 final, which Juventus edged 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw with AFC Ajax in Rome. Sousa then transferred to German champions Dortmund, who progressed to the Munich showpiece where they faced Juve and prevailed 3-1, this time the Portugal midfielder lasting the full 90 minutes despite an injury-plagued campaign.

Samuel Eto'o (FC Barcelona 2009, FC Internazionale Milano 2010)
Starting alongside Piqué in the 2009 decider was Eto'o and the Cameroon ace broke the deadlock in a 2-0 victory, having also struck in the 2006 final when Barcelona saw off Arsenal FC 2-1. Soon afterwards, though, Eto'o headed to Inter in a swap deal with Zlatan Ibrahimović. He was to meet Barça four times in the 2009/10 campaign, twice in the group stage and then in both legs of a memorable semi-final that sent Inter through to play FC Bayern München at another of Eto'o's former homes, Madrid's Santiago Bernabéu. A 2-0 success gave Inter the title, and Eto'o became the sole player to date to complete trebles of UEFA Champions League, domestic league and cup in successive seasons. Not even Morata can emulate that feat in Berlin.