Francisco Gento with the 1956, 1957, 1958,
1959, 1960 and 1966 European Cups
June 13, 1956, 70 years ago: The Final of the 1st European Champion Clubs' Cup is held at the Parc des Princes in Paris, France.
On April 27, 1895, for the 1st time, the Champions of 2 different European soccer leagues met. It was an All-British affair, played at Tynecastle Park in Edinburgh, Scotland. The hosts, Scottish Champions Heart of Midlothian, a.k.a. "Hearts," took on the English Champions, Sunderland, from the North-East. Actually, it was an All-Scottish contest: Known as "The Team of All Talents," every one of Sunderland's players was Scottish. (The Wearside city is less than 60 miles from the England-Scotland "border.") Sunderland won, 5-3.
In 1897, the Challenge Cup was founded, competed for by teams from across the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which included not just the entirety of present-day Austria and Hungary, but all of present-day Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia, and parts of present-day Poland, Ukraine, Romania and Italy. Vienna Cricket and Football Club won the 1st one. The tournament ran until 1911.
The Mitropa Cup was founded in 1927. As the name suggests -- "Mitropa" is an abbreviation of "Mitteleuropa," or "Middle Europe" -- it was played for by teams in Central Europe only. Sparta Prague won the 1st one. This tournament continued despite the rise of the European Cup and other tournaments, until 1992, when the European Cup became the Champions League.
In 1930, the Coupe des Nations was founded, held in Geneva, Switzerland, and was won by Újpest of Budapest, Hungary. But the Great Depression doomed this early effort at a continent-wide soccer championship tournament.
In 1949, with the Depression and World War II behind them, France, Spain, Portugal and Italy came together and founded the Latin Cup. Barcelona won the 1st one. This tournament did not long survive the establishment of the European Cup, being dissolved in 1957.
But the real key came in 1948, with the South American Championship of Champions, won by Vasco da Gama of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Gabriel Hanot, editor of the French sports-themed newspaper L'Equipe, wanted such a tournament for Europe.
Once again, Hungary had a major role. After beating England badly, both home and away, and reaching the Final of the 1954 World Cup, Hungary's national team was established as a power. On December 13, 1954, a small measure of revenge was taken when England's titleholders, Wolverhampton Wanderers, beat Hungary's, Honvéd of Budapest, 3-2 in Wolverhampton, outside Birmingham. "Wolves" manager Stan Cullis called his team "Champions of the World."
Since the rest of Europe was sick of hearing England brag about their teams, both club and national, especially after their pathetic performances in the 1950 and '54 World Cups, the "football associations" of the various European countries finally listened to Hanot's request for a real European championship, to be played in the 1955-56 season, by each European country's 1954-55 Champions.
Wolves did not compete in the tournament -- because they didn't win England's Football League Division One in 1954-55. Chelsea, of West London, did. But they also chose not to compete. Of the 4 British "Home Nations," only Scotland sent their Champions. With some irony, it was Hibernian, a.k.a. Hibs, Edinburg rival of Hearts, who set everything in motion 60 years earlier.
Only 16 teams competed. So there were only 4 rounds, with home-and-away legs, of this single-elimination tournament. In the Round of 16, Partisan of Belgrade, Yugoslavia, beat Sporting Clv.ube de Portugal, of Lisbon; Vörös Lobogó of Budapest, now named MTK, beat Anderlecht of Belgium; Real Madrid of Spain beat Servette of Switzerland, hosts of the 1930 Coupe des Nations; Hibernian beat Rot-Weiss Essen of West Germany; Djurgården of Stockholm, Sweden beat Gwardia Warszawa of Warsaw, Poland; Stade de Reims of France beat Aarhus of Denmark; Rapid Wien of Vienna, Austria beat PSV Eindhoven of the Netherlands; and AC Milan of Italy beat Saarbrücken, of the Saar Protectorate, a section of Germany then governed by France, but soon returned to West Germany.
In the Quarterfinals, Hibs beat Djurgården; Reims beat Vörös Lobogó; Real Madrid beat Partizan; and Milan beat Rapid. In the Semifinals, Reims beat Hibs, and Real Madrid beat Milan.
The Final was set for June 13, at the Parc des Princes in Paris. The original stadium on the site opened in 1897. This was the 2nd, opening in 1932. A 3rd was built on the site, and opened in 1972. Today, it is the home of the leading "football club" in France, Paris Saint-Germain.
The 1932-1972 version of the Parc des Princes
Reims, wearing red shirts with white sleeves like North London team Arsenal, were managed by Albert Batteux, captained by Robert Jonquet, and featured the best player in France, a son of Polish immigrants, Raymond Kopa.
Raymond Kopa, in uniform for France
at the 1958 World Cup
Real Madrid, dressed in all white, and thus known as Los Blancos and Los Merengues, were even more loaded. Manager José Villalonga could call on Captain Miguel Muñoz, and the man who may have then been the best player in the world, the Argentine forward known as El Saeta Rubia (The Blond Arrow): Alfred Di Stéfano.
Arthur Ellis of England, the referee at the Final of the 1950 World Cup, was chosen to officiate at this match as well. With 38,239 paying customers looking on, he blew his whistle at 8:30 PM local time -- also 8:30 PM in Madrid, 7:30 PM in London, and 2:30 PM in New York -- and the match was on.
Reims, with a lineup of all Frenchmen, didn't waste any time showing Real Madrid that they belonged on the same pitch. Michel Leblond scored just 6 minutes into the match. Jean Templin made it 2-0 in the 10th minute. But the Spanish side, all Spaniards except for Di Stéfano, were unfazed: The Arrow himself tallied in the 14th minute. Héctor Rial equalized at the half-hour, and it remained 2-2 at halftime.
Michel Hidalgo, a Normandy native with a Spanish father, gave Reims the lead shortly after the hour. But Marcos Alonzo Imaz, a centreback known as Marquitos, made it 3-3 in the 67th minute. It began to look like a replay might be necessary, until the 79th minute, when Di Stéfano made it 4-3 in Real's favor.
And so it remained when Ellis blew the final whistle. Real Madrid were the 1st true Champions of Europe, and could make a case for being the best side in the world. It would take until 1960 for an Intercontinental Cup to be founded, to be contested by the winners of the European Cup and the South American continental championship, now named the Copa Libertadores.
In 1992, the Union of European Football Associations renamed their signature tournament the UEFA Champions League, although the trophy retains the name "European Cup" (and the nickname "Ol' Big Ears," because of its large handles). In 1998, UEFA began admitting teams that had finished high in their leagues, but had not won them.
Real Madrid won the 1st 5 European Cups, and have won it more than any other team, 15 times, most recently in 2024.
Francisco "Paco" Gento played on each of those 1st 5 winners, and also on their next in 1966. He was the 1st man to play on 6 European Cup winners. He was also the last survivor of both the 1956 and 1957 European Cup winners, living until January 18, 2022.
When Real Madrid won the 2024 Champions League title, it added 4 players to Gento's formerly unique status of playing on 6 European Cup winners: Team Captain Nacho Fernández, Luka Modrić, Dani Cavajal and Toni Kroos. Kroos had won 1 with Bayern Munich, 5 with Real Madrid. The others each won all of theirs with Real Madrid.
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