There are many great players who have amazed us with their brilliant displays on the field but have bottled up when it came to winning trophies.
Champions League is European club football’s biggest prize and World Cup is the biggest prize of international football. Almost every player wants to win these two trophies at some point in their career.
There are some famous players who have almost got their hands on both the trophies but have failed to win both of them and notably in the same year. You can imagine what a heartbreak it is to be so close and then lose out on both the trophies in the same year! It definitely affects you mentally.
Let’s have a look at the 5 players who lost both the Champions League and World Cup finals in the same year:
Michael Ballack [2002]
Ballack was one of the great German midfielders. In 2002, Ballack helped Bayer Leverkusen to compete for both the domestic trophies – Bundesliga and German Cup. Unfortunately, they lost both and ended up with the runners-up medal.
Ballack got another chance to put behind the domestic failures and win the Champions League. This time they lost 2-1 to Real Madrid when Zidane scored that famous volley.
In the summer of 2002, Ballack produced some of the best performances of the World Cup for Germany to guide them to the final. Once again his team lost another final, this time to Brazil courtesy Ronaldo.
Thierry Henry [2006]
In 2006, Henry had emerged as one of the best strikers, leading Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal to many domestic heights. He helped Arsenal to reach their first-ever Champions League final but lost to Barcelona by a 2-0 margin.
Henry headed into the World Cup with France as one of the tournament favourites. They progressed to the final as expected. But what happened in the final was something extraordinary! Zidane headbutted Italy’s Materazzi in the final and got a straight red card and France went on to lose the World Cup on penalties.
Arjen Robben [2010]
Arjen Robben was on the verge of becoming one of the best wingers in 2010. His signature trait was to cut in from the right flank and bend the ball into the net with his left foot. He helped Bayern Munich to progress to the Champions League final but was outdone by Jose Mourinho’s Inter.
Robben played a crucial role as he guided the Netherlands to their first-ever World Cup final since 1978. Once again he lost the final to the golden generation of Spain. Spain was dominating the international tournaments having won the Euro two years ago. Iniesta scored the lone goal of the match to hand Robben a runners-up medal.
Mark van Bommel [2010]
Mark van Bommel was a talented Netherlands midfielder who played for Bayern Munich at club level. He was a teammate of Arjen Robben both on the club and international level in 2010.
So he faced the same fate as Robben in 2010. Bommel captained Louis Van Gaal’s Bayern Munich to the Champions League final but lost to Inter before eventually losing the World Cup final to Iniesta’s Spain.
Dejan Lovren [2018]
Dejan Lovren became the most recent member of this ‘losing both the Champions League and World Cup finals in the same year’ club. Lovren partnered Van Dijk in defence to inspire Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool to the Champions League final. They faced Real Madrid in the final, who were chasing their third successive Champions League trophy. Loris Karius made two mistakes in front of his own goal and both resulted in a goal as Liverpool lost 3-1.
Lovren then went to the World Cup in the summer with Croatia. His opponent in the Champions League final, Real Madrid’s Luka Modric was captaining the Croatian side and they reached to their first-ever World Cup finals. Unfortunately, they were beaten by a young and talented French side as Mbappe inspired France to lift the World Cup.
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