Where the Champions League finalists come from
Friday, June 5, 2015
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Eleven nations are represented in the matchday squad lists for our two finalists, and UEFA.com discovers that each of them may have something unique to celebrate.
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The 48 players registered in the Juventus and FC Barcelona matchday squads for the UEFA Champions League final represent 11 different nations.
The Juventus 22-man squad features players from seven nations:
12: Italy
3: France*
2: Argentina, Spain
1: Brazil, Chile, Switzerland
The Barcelona 26-man squad is made up of representatives from nine countries:
14: Spain
4: Brazil
2: Argentina
1: Belgium, Chile, Croatia, Germany, France, Uruguay
Overall that means Spain has the better of Italy in terms of players in the two squad lists:
16: Spain
12: Italy
5: Brazil
4: Argentina, France
2: Chile
1: Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Switzerland, Uruguay
Five nations have representatives in both teams:
Spain: 2 Juventus, 14 Barcelona
Brazil: 1 Juventus, 4 Barcelona
France: 3 Juventus, 1 Barcelona
Argentina: 2 Juventus, 2 Barcelona
Chile: 1 Juventus, 1 Barcelona
UEFA.com drills down into the statistics to see how the 2015 final might be special for every nation involved.
Italy
• Massimiliano Allegri can become the eighth Italian coach to win the European Champion Clubs' Cup/UEFA Champions League, his predecessors being:
Nereo Rocco (AC Milan 1963 and 1969)
Giovanni Trapattoni (Juventus 1985)
Arrigo Sacchi (AC Milan 1989 and 1990)
Fabio Capello (AC Milan 1994)
Marcello Lippi (Juventus 1996)
Carlo Ancelotti (AC Milan 2003 and 2007, Real Madrid CF 2014)
Roberto Di Matteo (Chelsea FC 2012)
• The last Italian player to appear in a UEFA Champions League final was Marco Materazzi, who came on as a substitute in FC Internazionale Milano's 2-0 win against FC Bayern München in 2010.
Spain
• Barcelona's Luis Enrique can become the sixth Spanish coach to win the competition, his predecessors being:
José Villalonga (Real Madrid CF 1956 and 1957)
Miguel Muñoz (Real Madrid FC 1960 and 1966)
Vicente del Bosque (Real Madrid FC 2000 and 2002)
Rafael Benítez (Liverpool FC 2005)
Josep Guardiola (FC Barcelona 2009 and 2011)
• Not since FC Internazionale Milano's success in 2010 has a team won the UEFA Champions League final without a Spanish player.
Brazil
• Brazilian players have featured on the winning side in the last nine UEFA Champions League finals.
• Barcelona's Daniel Alves could become the first Brazilian to appear in four major UEFA club competition finals: he won two UEFA Cups with Sevilla FC and the 2011 UEFA Champions League with Barcelona.
• Alves has made 82 UEFA Champions League appearances, making him the fifth-highest Brazilian appearance maker in the competition. Roberto Carlos is top of the list with 128.
Argentina
• Argentinian players have been on the winning side in five of the last seven UEFA Champions League finals; unusually, no Argentinians appeared for either side in the 2012 or 2013 deciders.
• Lionel Messi's 98 appearances leave him second behind Javier Zanetti (with 105) in the list of the Argentinian players who have made the most appearances in Europe's top club competition. He is his nation's top UEFA goalscorer with 78 – second only to Cristiano Ronaldo, who has scored 80 UEFA club competition goals.
France
• Frenchmen have featured on the winning side in the last four UEFA Champions League finals; Éric Abidal (FC Barcelona, 2011), Florent Malouda (Chelsea FC, 2012), Franck Ribéry (FC Bayern München, 2013), Raphaël Varane and Karim Benzema (Real Madrid FC, 2014).
Uruguay
• Barcelona's Luis Suárez could be the first Uruguayan to win the European Cup since José Santamaría won it for a second time with Real Madrid CF in 1960. Since then, Santamaría (1962 and 1964), and countrymen Paolo Montero (Juventus 1997 and 1998), Marcelo Zalayeta (Juventus 2003) and Diego Godín (Club Atlético de Madrid) have all been losing finalists.
Chile
• FC Barcelona reserve goalkeeper Claudio Bravo and Juventus midfielder Arturo Vidal have the chance to be the first Chilean players to feature in a European Cup or UEFA Champions League final. The only previous Chilean to feature in a final was Fernando Riera, coach of the SL Benfica side that lost to AC Milan in the 1963 decider.
• The only Chilean to have won a major UEFA competition is Iván Zamorano – a UEFA Cup winner with FC Internazionale Milano in 1998. He was a losing finalist in the same competition the previous year, while compatriot Rodrigo Tello was a UEFA Cup runner-up with Sporting Clube de Portugal in 2005.
Croatia
• Barcelona's Ivan Rakitić could become the seventh Croatian to win Europe's top club competiton. The previous Croatian winners are:
Robert Prosinečki (FK Crvena zvezda, 1991)
Alen Bokšić (Olympique de Marseile, 1993)
Zvonimir Boban (AC Milan, 1994)
Davor Šuker (Real Madrid FC 1998)
Mario Mandžukić (FC Bayern München, 2013)
Luka Modrić (Real Madrid CF).
• Mandžukić remains the only Croatian to have scored in a UEFA Champions League final.
Belgium
• Thomas Vermaelen has yet to play in this season's UEFA Champions League, but should he feature in the final he could become only the third Belgian to win the competition after Erik Gerets (PSV Eindhoven, 1988) and Daniel Van Buyten (FC Bayern München, 2013).
• Two of Vermaelen's international team-mates were on the losing side in last season's final with Club Atlético de Madrid: Thibaut Courtois and Toby Alderweireld.
Germany
• Barcelona's Marc-André ter Stegen could become the third German goalkeeper to feature in a European Cup/UEFA Champions League final with a foreign club. Bodo Ilgner was a winner with Real Madrid CF in 1998, keeping a clean sheet against Juventus, but Jens Lehmann had less luck in the 2006 decider: he was sent off 18 minutes into Arsenal FC's 2-1 loss to Barcelona.
• Ironically, Lehmann's early dismissal maintained an unusual record; no German goalkeeper has conceded a goal in a European Cup/UEFA Champions League final for a foreign side.
• There was a German on the winning side in last season's final: Real Madrid CF's Sami Khedira.
Switzerland
• Juventus's Stephan Lichtsteiner could become only the second Swiss player to feature in a European Cup/UEFA Champions League final; Stéphane Chapuisat set the precedent, featuring in the Borussia Dortmund side that beat Juventus 3-1 in the 1997 final in Munich.