Collectors’ items | European Nights

UEFA Champions League

Collectors’ items

Nostalgia is a powerful pull for the football lover – and as these mementos from previous finals show, just a simple object can bring the past to life

Black and blue

It is the black and blue of Internazionale but not as younger fans know it in our era of light, figure-hugging shirts. This was the top worn by defender Aristide Guarneri in the 1967 European Champion Clubs' Cup final against Celtic – an era when Inter players had just two shirts a season, a woollen one for winter and a slightly lighter one for the warmer months.

The first final

It is rather less glossy than today’s equivalent, but this 1,000 franc ticket for the first European Cup final – or ‘Coupe des Champions Européens’ – between Real Madrid and Stade de Reims in Paris takes us right back to the competition’s origins. It features no trophy on the front – just the cockerel-and-ball motif of the French Football Federation.

The shoe of Zizou

At Glasgow’s Hampden Park in 2002, Zinédine Zidane struck the most spectacular, and arguably the greatest, UEFA Champions League final goal – a sensational volley to give Real Madrid victory against Bayer Leverkusen. And these were the adidas Predator Mania boots he did it in.

Forest on fire

This brightly coloured pennant recalls the red-letter days of Nottingham Forest, the club from England’s East Midlands that Brian Clough led to back-to-back European Cups.

New balls, please

It was in 2000/01 that adidas introduced the Finale ball, drawing inspiration from the competition’s Starball logo. This ball was used for the first time in that season’s semi-final between Bayern München and Real Madrid – and the first final in which it appeared was between Bayern and Valencia at San Siro in Milan.

Safe hands

These are the gloves that Bayern München goalkeeper Oliver Kahn wore on the night of 23 May 2001, when he saved penalties from Valencia’s Zlatko Zahovič, Amedeo Carboni and Mauricio Pellegrino to earn the Bundesliga giants their fourth European Cup.

Colour code?

It is a stylish design, though the red and white stripes across the front of the 1977 final match programme proved an omen for Liverpool on the night they recorded their first European Cup triumph by defeating Borussia Mönchengladbach in Rome.

Stars shine

Liverpool’s victorious players received the right medal in 1977, which features 11 stars on it – one for each of the players in the winning team. The modern design (left) carries the Starball logo, incorporating eight stars.

Hoop dreams come true

No club crest, or manufacturer’s motif, or sponsor’s logo – just the green and white hooped shirt in which Stevie Chalmers struck the goal that made Celtic the first British winners of the European Cup in 1967. Now on display in the club’s boardroom, it is a simpler jersey from a simpler time when 11 local lads from the west of Scotland stepped into sporting immortality as the Lisbon Lions.