Inter Milan and Sevilla are ready for the 2020 Europa League final, which will be played tonight in Cologne.
Before the final, we have picked our favourites, BabaGol's heroes from previous finals. Here we go!
Cha Bum-Kun (Bayer Leverkusen, 1988)
The Korean legend was one of the first Asian players to win a European title. In 1980 he won the UEFA Cup with Eintracht Frankfurt.
Eight years later, Cha Bum-Kun played in the UEFA Cup final with another German club, Bayer Leverkusen, against Espanyol. On the first leg in Barcelona, Espanyol thrashed the Germans 3-0. In the second leg, Bayer Leverkusen managed to make a sensational comeback. Cha Bum-Kun scored the third goal in the 81st minute, Bayer Leverkusen won 3-0, and later won 3-2 by penalty shootouts.
Diego Maradona and Careca (Napoli, 1989)
Napoli of the late '80s was one of the hottest places in these times. What could be better than a Brazilian-Argentinian combination in one team?
Napoli qualified for the final against Stuttgart, and the first leg was played in Stadio San Paolo. Diego Maradona scored a penalty in the 68th minute and another goal by Careca in the 87th minute gave a 2-1 lead to the Italian side. In the second leg, things were much closer with a 3-3, when another Brazilian, Alemão, also scored. In the end, a 5-4 win in the aggregate score, Napoli won their first and only European title ever.
Ronaldo (Inter, 1998)
In 1998, the UEFA Cup final was played as a single-leg match for the first time. It was also an all-Italian encounter between Inter and Lazio.
Two months before the World Cup final in the Stade de France, Ronaldo led Inter to a title in another stadium in Paris, Parc des Princes. He scored in that match alongside with Iván Zamorano and Javier Zanetti. Inter's lineup had more legend like Diego Simeone and Taribo West, who was sent off in that match. At the end of the game, Ronaldo was chosen to be the man of the match and celebrated the title, which will eventually be his last European title in the career.
Hernán Crespo (Parma, 1999)
In 1999, Parma became the last Italian to win the UEFA Cup. In the final in Moscow, they played against Olympique Marseille.
Hernán Crespo was part of an Argentine trio in Parma, alongside Roberto Sensini and Juan Sebastián Verón. Earlier in that season, Crespo had a decent clash against another French club. In the quarter-finals, he scored a late away goal against Bordeaux and a brace in the 6-0 win in the second leg. In the final, Crespo was the first scorer, and Parma won 3-0. Inter will try tonight to end a 21-year drought without a Europa League or UEFA Cup title to an Italian club.
Fatih Terim (Galatasaray, 2000)
The 2000 UEFA Cup final had a manager a the real hero, Fatih Terim.
The manager led Galatasaray to become the first-ever team from Turkey to reach a continental tournament final. In that match, they faced Arsenal, and after a 120 minute without a goal, the Turkish won 4-1 in a penalty shootout. The squad was made by some of the local golden players in these years, such as Hakan Şükür and Ümit Davala. They played alongside great foreigners such as Cláudio Taffarel and the Romanian duo Gheorghe Hagi and Gheorghe Popescu. All together with Fatih Terim made Galatasaray make history.
Luís Fabiano (Sevilla 2006-2007)
In the 2006 UEFA Cup final, Luís Fabiano scored the first goal in the 27th minute. He didn't know that it will be a goal that will begin a new tradition for the club from Andalusia.
A brace by Enzo Maresca and another goal by Frédéric Kanouté led Sevilla to a 4-0 win against Middlesbrough, and their first UEFA Cup title. A year later, Sevilla won the title for the second time in a row, with Luís Fabiano in the lineup again, alongside with Adriano and Dani Alves, who will later sign for Barcelona. The 2007 UEFA Cup final against Espanyol was dramatic with a 2-2 after extra time and a 3-1 win by penalties. Sevilla will win the title three more times, and with five cups overall, they are the record titleholders. Would they win another title tonight?
Radamel Falcao (Porto 2011, Atlético Madrid 2012)
It's not common to see a player that wins the Europa League twice in a row with two different teams. It's even more unusual when that player is breaking records of dominance.
In 2011, a Colombian player named Radamel Falco was the key player in Porto. He broke the tournament record with 17 goals, including a hat-trick against Spartak Moscow in the quarter-finals, four goals against Villarreal in the semifinal, and the winning goal in an all-Portuguese final against Braga. In 2012, Falcao signed for Atlético Madrid, and he was unstoppable once again. He scored two winning goals against Hannover 96 in both quarter-finals legs. He scored two more goals in the semi-finals against Valencia and a crucial brace in the 3-0 win against Athletic Bilbao in the final. The Colombian is the third-best all-time top scorers in the tournament's history with 31 goals, behind Henrik Larsson and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.
Photo via Europa League official Twitter.
