Christian Pulisic made history this Saturday by becoming the first American to have minutes in the UEFA Champions League grand final, which he would eventually win alongside Chelsea who defeated Manchester City by the slightest difference, so that ‘Captain America’ will join Joven Kirovsky as the only Americans to lift ‘Orejona’, in addition to joining the select group of Concacaf players who have achieved the most important club-level title in European football.
The US national team will became the tenth player from the North, Central America and the Caribbean area, who is champion of the Champions League, a competition that has added more and more Concacaf champions, with the recent three-time championship of Keylor Navas, the title of Alphonso Davies last season and now Christian Pulisic joins this select list.
Edgar Davids was the first Concacaf player to win the UEFA Champions League, as although the midfielder always represented the Netherlands team internationally, He was born in Paramaribo, Suriname, a Concacaf-affiliated country, and set a precedent by raising the ‘Orejona’ together with Ajax in the 1994-95 season.
For its part, the Concacaf player with the most Champions League titles is Keylor Navas, who won the three-time championship during his time at Real Madrid, by winning the titles of the 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 campaigns with the white squad, in addition to staying very close to lifting a fourth Champions League last season with PSG.
Concacaf Players UCL Champions
– Edgar Davids (Suriname): Ajax, 1994-95
– Jovan Kirovsky (USA): Borussia Dortmund, 1996-97
– Dwight Yorke (Trinidad and Tobago): Manchester United, 1998-99
– Owen Hargreaves (Canada): Bayern Munich, 2000-01
– Rafael Márquez (Mexico): FC Barcelona, 2005-06 and 2008-09
– David Suazo (Honduras): Inter Milan, 2009-10
– Jonathan Dos Santos (Mexico): Barcelona, 2010-11
– Keylor Navas (Costa Rica): Real Madrid, 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18
– Alphonso Davies (Canada): Bayern Munich, 2019-20
– Christian Pulisic (USA): Chelsea, 2020-21