They may be focusing their attentions on UEFA EURO 2008™ yet Manchester United FC quartet Edwin van der Sar, Patrice Evra, Nani and Cristiano Ronaldo can join an exclusive club this month – players who have won the European Champion Clubs' Cup and the UEFA European Championship in the same year.
EURO vision
Only five men have achieved the feat since the latter competition began in 1960, but with United's famous four having helped their team defeat Chelsea FC in Moscow to lift the European Cup, that illustrious company could gain at least one extra member when the final whistle blows at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion in Vienna on 29 June. "It's been a magnificent season for me so far," said Ronaldo after a campaign which brought him 42 goals for United. "It's a fantastic year with my club, and now I want to win the EURO as well."
Élite group
The United quartet may have had a season to remember but enlisting in the élite band of European Cup/European Championship double winners has proved beyond many. Luis Suárez attained those twin peaks with FC Internazionale Milano and Spain in 1964, while in 1988, PSV Eindhoven's Hans van Breukelen, Ronald Koeman, Berry van Aerle and Gerald Vanenburg were all in the triumphant Netherlands side. Wim Kieft and Nicolas Anelka both registered near misses, however. A European champion with PSV in 1988, Kieft was an unused substitute in the Netherlands' victory; Anelka was similarly thwarted with France in 2000, having featured in Real Madrid CF's UEFA Champions League final win. Anelka's Madrid team-mate from 2000, Christian Karembeu, holds the unique record of being an unused substitute in the European Cup and European Championship finals in the same year.
Final hurdle
At least Karembeu collected two winner's medals. Four summers ago Paulo Ferreira, Ricardo Carvalho, Nuno Valente, Costinha, Maniche and Deco helped FC Porto to UEFA Champions League success against AS Monaco FC, yet fell at the last when Portugal lost to Greece in the UEFA EURO 2004™ final. Four German players knew exactly how they felt. In 1976, Sepp Maier, Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck, Franz Beckenbauer and Uli Hoeness were in the FC Bayern München side that landed a third successive European Cup against AS Saint-Etienne, before their West Germany team reached the European Championship final – succumbing on penalties to Czechoslovakia.
European consolation
For six of the Chelsea players who were runners-up to United – Petr Čech, Claude Makelele, Carvalho, Michael Ballack, Florent Malouda and Anelka – there may still be the consolation of being crowned continental champions at national, rather than club, level. If so, they would be following the example of just four players in history – in 1964, Ignacio Zoro and Amancio Amaro were losers with Real Madrid yet victors with Spain, while Manny Kaltz and Hörst Hrubesch tasted defeat with Hamburger SV in 1980 before assisting West Germany to EURO glory.
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