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Jude Bellingham will be up against Jadon Sancho and Jamie Bynoe-Gittens when Real Madrid take on Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final at Wembley on Saturday.
The England trio are set to join an exclusive group of British footballers to take on overseas teams in the final of Europe’s most prestigious competition.
Will the 20-year-old from Stourbridge follow it up with a Champions League winners’ medal before heading to Germany for Euro 2024 with England?
Despite Manchester City and Arsenal slipping into the quarter-finals, at least one Englishman will get his hands on the prestigious trophy.
But who are the other British players who have appeared in Champions League/European Cup finals for clubs abroad?
Gareth Bale: Five times winner
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Gareth Bale has won more Champions Leagues (5) than Manchester United (3) and Manchester City (1) combined.
The former Wales captain spent nine years at Real Madrid, the most successful club in the competition’s history.
Bale started four finals, scoring twice after coming on as a substitute in the 2018 showpiece against Liverpool.
His first in that final, an outrageous overhead kick, left former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard declaring: “You won’t see a better goal. It’s one in a million, I wouldn’t even try.”
Steve McManaman: Making history in Madrid
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Steve McManaman did what David Beckham couldn’t – win the Champions League with Real Madrid. Not once, but twice.
The winger became the highest paid British footballer of all time in 1999 when he moved from Liverpool to Spain on a free transfer. His five-year contract was reportedly between £53,000-£60,000-a-week.
McManaman’s finest hour came when he scored the second goal Real Madrid win 3-0 over Valencia in the 2000 Champions League final and became the first Englishman to win the competition for an overseas team.
Two years later, he came on as a substitute to help his side win it again with a 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen at Hampden Park.
Owen Hargreaves: European Under-20 Champion
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Owen Hargreaves was 20 years old when he got his hands on the famous trophy while playing for Bayern Munich.
The Canadian-born midfielder, who qualified for England through his father, played the full 120 minutes against Valencia at the San Siro in 2001.
The match ended 1-1 before Bayern won 5-4 on penalties. Three months later Hargreaves made his England debut under Sven-Goran Eriksson.
Hargreaves would go on to play in another Champions League final for Manchester United in 2008 against Chelsea.
Once again he went to penalty kick in Moscowwith Hargreaves scoring from the spot as United won 6-5 on penalties after the match ended 1-1 after extra time.
Paul Lambert: “Oh, not you again!”
Paul Lambert only spent one full season at Borussia Dortmund, but the Scottish midfielder packed a lot into his short spell in Germany.
Lambert was part of Dortmund’s biggest night in 1997 when they won 3-1 against holders Juventus, whose side featured Zinedine Zidane and Didier Deschamps, in Munich to win the Champions League for the first time.
The legendary Zidane has not forgotten it.
“He just put his head in his hands,” Lambert told Sky Sports of the Frenchman’s reaction when the Scot visited Real Madrid’s training ground years later.
“He said, ‘Oh no, not you again!’ That was good.”
Chris Waddle: French Love
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Chris Waddle became Britain’s most expensive footballer when he joined Marseille from Tottenham for £4.5m in 1989.
The stylish winger became an icon for three years at the Ligue 1 club, helping Marseille reach the European Cup final in 1991, before it was renamed the Champions League.
After Marseille and Red Star Belgrade ended goalless after 120 minutes, Red Star won 5-3 on penalties.
“In Marseille, it’s one team, one city” Waddle said. “They are fanatical. Everywhere you go, everyone is a Marseille fan. The fans are incredible and in the city everyone is talking only about Marseille.”
Steve Archibald: “I didn’t want to go to Barca”
Steve Archibald had already won the Uefa Cup, now the Europa League, with Tottenham when he moved to Barcelona in 1984.
“I never wanted to go to Barcelona, I wanted to stay at Spurs, but [former Tottenham chairman] Irving Scholar wanted the money,” Archibald he told the Guardian in 2021.
“I’ve never regretted it, though – a great experience, better than I could have imagined.”
Former Scotland striker Archibald was part of the Barca side under Terry Venables that reached the 1986 European Cup final in Seville.
It wasn’t to be Archibald or his side though, as Steaua Bucharest won 2-0 on penalties, with the match ending 0-0 after extra time.
Laurie Cunningham: From Leyton Orient to Real Madrid
Laurie Cunningham, who started his career at Leyton Orient, has been a trailblazer throughout his career.
When he joined Real Madrid from West Brom in 1979, he was the first Briton to join the Spanish giants in the modern era and one of the first black players to represent England.
Brought up in north London by Jamaican-born parents, Cunningham arrived at the Bernabeu in a £950,000 deal – a club record for both Albion and Real.
In 1981 he rushed back to play in the European Cup final against Liverpool after six months injured.
Cunningham, visibly unfit and distressed, later described the game as “horrible”. A well-taken 81st-minute goal from left-back Alan Kennedy was enough to settle the contest as Madrid narrowly missed out on victory.
Eight years later, Cunningham died tragically in a car accident.
Kevin Keegan: The highest paid player in Germany
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Born in Doncaster, Kevin Keegan made his professional debut for Scunthorpe in 1968, aged 17.
Nine years later, he moved to the Bundesliga to play for Hamburg after scoring 100 goals in 323 appearances for Liverpool.
Keegan became the highest paid player in Germany, won the Ballon d’Or in 1978 and 1979 and played in the 1980 European Cup final against Nottingham Forest.
In 1977, he had helped Liverpool beat Borussia Monchengladbach in the final – but in Madrid, against Brian Clough’s Forest, he was on the losing side as Hamburg suffered a 1-0 defeat.