AFTER a record-breaking six months, Manchester City’s Julian Alvarez has booked his place in history as the first player to win a treble of European Cup, league and domestic cup – and a World Cup – in the same season.
Nine players before the 23-year-old Argentine forward had won the European Cup or Champions League and the World Cup in the same season – but none had won the domestic double as well.
Alvarez finishes the season as City’s second top scorer with 17 goals, despite starting fewer than half their games, and was the third top scorer at the 2022 World Cup.
City won the Premier League title by five points from Arsenal, beat Manchester United in the FA Cup final and saw off Inter Milan in the Champions League final – after Argentina beat France in the World Cup final in December.
Alvarez did not get on the pitch in their 1-0 win over Inter in Istanbul but still got his hands on the trophy afterwards.
Alvarez becomes the 10th player to become European champion with his club and world champion with his country in the same campaign. Had Inter won, then their Argentine striker Lautaro Martinez would have been the 10th.
All the others won the World Cup after the club season, but this time it was mid-season because of the Qatar heat.
Of the other nine, six were Bayern Munich and Germany team-mates in 1973-74 – and the other three played for Real Madrid in different years in the Champions League era.
Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck, Gerd Muller, Ulrich Hoeness, Paul Breitner, Josef Maier, Franz Beckenbauer all went quite close to the achievement.
Bayern Munich won the European Cup and the Bundesliga in 1974, but lost to a last-minute penalty in the German Cup semi-finals.
Christian Karembeu, with France in 1998, Roberto Carlos, with Brazil in 2002, and Raphael Varane, with France in 2018, all won the World Cup in the same year as the Champions League with Real.
But Real – being the Champions League specialists they are – were crowned European champions without winning either La Liga (or even finishing second) or the Copa del Rey in those seasons.
Meanwhile, Alvarez becomes the 13th player to win the Champions League and its South American version, the Copa Libertadores.