Real Madrid were crowned kings of Europe last night as they beat Atletico Madrid in a tense penalty shootout to claim the Champions League title in Milan.
Following 120 minutes of football, spot kicks were required to separate the two Spanish clubs and Cristiano Ronaldo struck the winning penalty shortly before midnight to win Real their 11th European Cup/Champions League title.And although West Ham have never qualified for the competition in their history (thanks this season to some dreadful refereeing), United have produced more Champions League finalists than any other English club - bar Manchester United.
According to an article for Bwin, West Ham's three home-grown Champions League finalists - Frank Lampard (who represented Chelsea in 2011's all-English Final), Rio Ferdinand and Michael Carrick (Man Utd) - have only been beaten by the Red Devils with six (Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes, Wes Brown, David Beckham, Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs).
And even Arsenal, who appeared in the Final back in 2005/06 when they were comfortably beaten by Barcelona have only produced two players to feature in the big game (Ashley and Andy Cole) - the same number as clubs such as Dinamo Zagreb, Cesena and Montenegro's FK Buducnost Podgorica.
All in all, just 26 clubs have produced more than one player to feature in the Champions League final - with Barcelona topping the lot having prodcued nine players from their Academy (Valdes, Puyol, Pique, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Pedro and Garcia).
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